Here's a new one I bet.

I bought new lock cylinders for my '78 and while taking out the clip that holds the lock in, the clip flew out and literally just disappeared somewhere in the door.  I've been rooting around in there with a flashlight for the better part of an hour to no avail.

I've tried knocking all over the door to hear a rattle and nothing.  I've rolled the window a bunch of times up and down to see if it was caught somewhere but this thing has flat out disappeared.

Are there any places in the door that I should look that might not be evident to someone new to the inner world of the doors?

Try a magnet.

I forgot to mention i tried that on both sides of the door (put a piece of paper between the magnet and paint and dragged it around the door listening for a click but still nothing.  Are there any pockets in there where this could have fallen into?

Use the magnet on the inside.  One of those telescoping picker upper thingies.

Yep, I did with that but its tough to get everywhere since I haven't removed the window.

Get one of those cheap borescopes to be able to see inside. It could be sitting on top of the horizontal crash reinforcement bars midway up the door. Once you know where it is a magnet should do the trick.

Edited April 23, 20204 yr by CanTechZ

Just bought this endoscope off Amazon to inspect my frame rails. If it’s there you’ll see it. Works great the lead can be formed to any angle you need. It also has a magnet and hook attachment .

Just take off the interior door panel and you can reach in there to get it out.

The door card is off - thats how I popped it out to begin with.

I think since the clip is $6 I'll just grab another one from Nissan instead of hunting with new hardware.  Just so strange how it out right disappeared. 

 Sometime in the future it will show up as a rattle in the door.

1 hour ago, Mark Maras said:

 Sometime in the future it will show up as a rattle in the door.

Definitely true, I'm hoping at that point it will have rattled its way into somewhere accessible.

You will find it right after you order the replacement. At least that's how things work for me.