I just picked up my '71 Comet the other weekend from storage after about 8 years and I noticed my front passenger door is stuck. The outside handle's button is stuck pushed in and when trying to open the door from the inside, the handle doesn't appear to engage anything. I'm a newb to car maintenance, but being a grad student and an engineer, I lack the funds and am too stubborn to take it in. Any advice as to how I can take the door panel off with the door stuck?
That's going to be a toughy. You might just have to take out the seat. Or at least take out all the bolts and move it out of the way (it is tough to get a bench seat out of a 4-door without breaking it down). Maybe see if you can move the seat all the way back and get the panel off. Hope this helps.
Here is what I would try. You will need a helper. Make sure the lock button is pulled up. Sit in the drivers seat while pulling open the handle from the inside - helper on the outside pushing in the button - now start trying to pop the door open with your shoulder while the helper pushes in on the outside door handle. Not so hard that you damage the door or rip the outside handle off through the door skin. Get into a rocking motion of pushing the door closed from the outside and pushing it open from the inside, back and forth. If it is just a stuck mechanism this often pops it open. I've opened many a stuck door this way. Hope this helps.
Hot damn! I tried the rocking method and that bitch is stuck! Got a little overzealous with it and started to kick it from the inside and yeah, that was a mistake. Now the door panel is bent a little and the window doesn't roll up and down as smoothly. And now I'm afraid to roll the window up all the way as it starts to make a nasty sound when it's almost rolled up all the way. FML! Guess I have two things to fix now. That's the last time I use excessive force. Also, I was looking at the driver's door to see how you would take the panel off and I don't see how you would. The passenger door (the one that's stuck) has part of the material hanging off so I peeked inside. I see a wooden panel and metal tabs holding in. I was wondering if you just pull the material off (stripping the door of the material and thus potentially creating another problem) and pulling the tabs back, you can then gain access to the inside. Any thoughts on this? I suppose I should look in my shop manual to see if there's any info in there regarding removing the door panel.
Guess I should have highlighted this better in the first post .............. Since it didn't pop open, guess the only option left is to get that door panel off, which will not be easy with the seat in place. Pulling out the front seat will give you more room to work.
