Can anyone give me an idea on how to get in my trunk. I have a 1951 buick and the lock cylinder is gone and the trunk is closed. I would have to cut some braces out to get to it from the inside and even then I couldn’t fit. But my daughter could. But....I don’t know how to open it from the inside either. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
If there is an open hole where the lock cylinder was, shine a flashlight in there and see what you can see. You may be able to stick a long screwdriver in there and turn it to open it.
I’ve had luck reaching in through the back seat and unbolting the trunk latch. Use a bunch of extensions and tape them together so they don’t come apart. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If only the lock cylinder has been removed, and the rest of the lock is still on the outside, you may be able to turn what is left with a screwdriver also.
We had one come into our shop like that, and fiddled with it for about fifteen minutes with a standard screwdriver until it finally "popped" .... just be patient, and keep jiggling it.
When you say gone do you mean missing ? Or gone and in NFG? If it’s missing sometimes you can go through the hole with a screw driver or a pic and hit the lever and open the trunk that way If the Cylinder is still there you could try picking it Or google image your trunk latch You might be able to get to in by drilling a small hole in the trunk floor or just under the key cyl and tripping the mechanism
Give the little gal a 1/4'' ratchet & deep 3/8'' & 7/16'' sockets. Unbolt the "U" shaped latch catch from the floor. She's gonna need a flashlight ...
If the lock cylinder is missing It should be pretty easy to open it with a screwdriver and that is probably the cylinder is missing in the first place. I used to know a guy who liked to punch the lock cylinders in cars in wrecking yards to see what he could find in the trunks until a yard owner caught him in the act one day and bruised him up a bit. Back in the days when if you got your *** whipped for screwing up someone's stuff an costing him money you didn't go running to the cops over it. First thing I'd do is look in the lock cylinder hole and see if there is the little rectangular hole in the back or a hole that the end of the lock cylinder went into to turn the latch. Otherwise you can probably do the long extension thing. I've got a long SnapOn speed handle an a long extension that have been use to open more than one trunk that way.
Yep......that was often enough of a ‘lesson’ to change one’s behavior for the better...instead of today’s approach of giving the a$$hole ‘victim’ status....
So true...back in the 70's before pick and pulls...you used to be able to go through the yard, take your tools and find what you wanted. But them guys who ran the yard were no dummies...they knew when you went in...and when you should be out. After a bit...some other yard guy would come checking on you, most likely to make sure you weren't ripping out the dash of that pickup for a 3 dollar part. ****, I was so scared I'd show them the screws I was keeping...lol...never got charged for them, but always got a nod.
That particular yard owner was pretty pissed that over a year or so the guy had screwed up the holes around the truck locks on probably a hundred trunks in that yard alone. Not only got is **** kicked but was banned from the yard for life. I think I actually bought one of those trunks he had punched and had to fix the hole around the lock so it would hold a lock.
I have a screwdriver bit that I put on a long extension . Take the back seat out and take a look. You could always cut the trunk floor out and the rest is easy.
on my 53 buick after removing the back seat and getting the trunk card board out of the way i was able to reach in and use a long pry bar to slide the lock cylinder clip off. p.i.t.a.! then pulled the cylinder out from the out side and used a screw driver to open the latch.
if you look close, you can see the clip, slid back on the lock cylinder, i sitting on the trunk floor. the clip is key hole shaped. it needs to be slid so the lock can slip through the bigger hole.
Yes the lock cylinder is missing, when I look in to the hole I see a little rod/lever protruding I tried to grab it with some needle nose but couldn’t get hold of it. I see two bolts on the inside of the latch. So if I can take those bolts out will that release the trunk?
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