OMG - Shipper locked himself in my car.

[stantmann]

Oh gosh this is hilarious. I bought a 91 cutlass convertible recently in Ohio (I live in Florida), but the drivers door is stuck in lock and the passenger is intermittent but can always unlock with a key. I am having the car shipped from Ohio to Florida today. The driver was picking it up, but he was a 15 minutes early, but for some reason he got in the car anyway.

Previously I had told him only the passenger door opens consistently, so I told him to use that. I wasn't there at the time, but he called me in a panic.

Imagine this conversation in an Arabian accent. "I am locked in your fucking car man, I can't get out. I not know what to do!" I said my daughter will be there in a few minutes, she has the keys, and she can unlock from the passenger side.

Now I have to hope the passenger door didn't take a crap too. Savannah gets there, tries to unlock the door... nothing! OMG, the guy is beside himself, and this is verbatim, "I can't roll window down, I am not knowing what to do!" Savannah said why did you get in the car before I was here anyway? He said he was hoping to help and get the driver door open, he's seen this before. Savannah ended up pulling the window back a bit and slipped the ignition key to him. Form there, he just crawled out the drivers window.

This cost me an extra $50 bucks, but worth every penny for the lifetime of laughs I will get out of this. Unfortunately I have to pray for no rain, as the window will need to stay down for the entire trip now.

I can fix the doors, but obviously can't until it gets to me in Florida.

 

[94 olds vert]

It seems like the shipper should have paid you $50. 

[stantmann]

30 minutes ago, 94 olds vert said:

It seems like the shipper should have paid you $50. 

I'm not mad he got in the car, he had good intentions. I know if the driver needs help to get the car on the truck it costs $50 more. I'm not sure if this qualifies, but I am going to have the extra $50 ready just in case. It'll be here on Friday 5/12.

We W-Body people know if one door doesn't work, you better prop the other open if you get in the car without keys though. Obviously he's never owned one lol.

[94 olds vert]

2 hours ago, stantmann said:

I'm not mad he got in the car, he had good intentions. I know if the driver needs help to get the car on the truck it costs $50 more. I'm not sure if this qualifies, but I am going to have the extra $50 ready just in case. It'll be here on Friday 5/12.

We W-Body people know if one door doesn't work, you better prop the other open if you get in the car without keys though. Obviously he's never owned one lol.

I've been there with one broken door handle and the other door propped open just in case. 

[bluecalais79]

Hope you have some great years with the car!

[White93z34]

Thats funny.

I love these cars but the door latch mechanisms are just trash. I've been driving a w car since 2003 and I think there's been at least some sort of door issue most of those years.

From pulling the drivers seat and door panel off from inside the car to get at the mechanism, being locked out of my car far from home in the winter because of it. Memories.

[stantmann]

8 hours ago, White93z34 said:

Thats funny.

I love these cars but the door latch mechanisms are just trash. I've been driving a w car since 2003 and I think there's been at least some sort of door issue most of those years.

From pulling the drivers seat and door panel off from inside the car to get at the mechanism, being locked out of my car far from home in the winter because of it. Memories.

 

8 hours ago, White93z34 said:

Thats funny.

I love these cars but the door latch mechanisms are just trash. I've been driving a w car since 2003 and I think there's been at least some sort of door issue most of those years.

From pulling the drivers seat and door panel off from inside the car to get at the mechanism, being locked out of my car far from home in the winter because of it. Memories.

By the time the car arrived, the driver had rolled up the drivers side, and rolled down the passenger window to protect electronics. Since passenger was down, no need to slim jim it. I pulled the bezel off the inside door handle, and pushed and held the manual switch up as hard as I could (the bezel sometimes limits movement at the top), and then opened the passenger side door.

The drivers side was tougher, that didn't work, neither did a slim jim which normally you can hit the the middle of the door hinge where the two connecting rods are, but the connector was bent out of shape. I then tried peeling the top of the inside panel back and manually pulling the aforementioned rod, but didn't work.

I had to peel the driver outside door handle back (it only took a minute with a screwdriver), then I could push the rod down and open the door.

Now I need a new driver door handle and need to adjust both doors plunger/rods.

[Bake82]

This is hilarious!  Glad it worked out where he was able to get out!

 

Was this the convertible that was for sale by Jack out of Ohio for around $1500?   It looked like a great project if it's super clean underneath!  

[stantmann]

Yes Bake, it was. He lives in the same town as my kids, so I sent my daughter over to get it. I went up for a few days to get it ready for shipping. I adjusted the doors but obviously messed something up. After I left, my daughter set up the key fobs, and something messed up on the drivers side, then of course the passenger side went wonky with the driver.

It's a decent project, nothing too major though. Most things are fixed now. I still need to put AQ9 seats in, have to test the radiator fans, and put in hud and DIS. The ignition key doesn't lock in the cylinder, but the key is some cheap thin metal, so I ordered some blank OEM keys, hopefully it fixes that issue.