Av8ferg, Your 77 uses a different style lock. Looks like this:

After you have removed the hinge screws underneath, there should (might? probably?) be enough of a gap to get in there with a hand or a screwdriver and pull the latch tab down and get the door off the dash. Use a long hooked pick maybe? You want to pull the latching hook downwards to unlatch it. And yes... Even with the lock in the latched position, the hook will still pull down. It's spring loaded, but it pulls down easy.

You won't be able to get the lock off the door, but you can send me the whole door with the lock still on it and I'll open it for ya.

CO...thanks.  I can’t wait to try this techique out.  I appreciate the offer to open the lock...might take you up on it.  Having Thanksgiving at my Mom’s house where the car is, I might just sneak out for a bit and check it out.  

Good guess on Mt St. Helen's but it was actually 3 years earlier! The car sat in a back yard for 42 years. I'm in Nebraska. It still had Centennial plates on it from 1976! The floors eventually rusted out, the car sank and I believe woodchucks made it there lodge. It was a huge mess to clean out! Every lock was locked and rusted shut so I had to cut out all the locks to be able to pry open the doors and start to shovel out the dirt. After I removed the dash I cut out the backside of the glove box and found a set of bicentennial coins still in the package! so there is hope for ya av8ferg!   I got a fair amount of parts out of it like the Datsun 8 track and the whole dash is in great shape believe it or not!

Looks like it's about to turn to a huge pile of mulch! ?

What’s your plan with this car?


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I took it completely apart and saved the good parts and then had fun with it in my own demolition derby! Don't fret... there was nothing left to salvage on this. The exposed metal was paper thin and worthless so going to take it for scrap.

I tried for 30 minutes to pick that lock and now I have given up for good, not fun anymore and not going to pay a locksmith for something I am going to sell.