FORCING A BOOT ENTRY

[Makilby]

Hi, I have a 206cc! What a surprise!
Last week, loaded up the boot, closed the lid, drove to my destination, pressed boot barrel, didn't open!
Drove home, locked car, unlocked car, turned barrel counterclockwise to unlock, pressed in, nothing.
Read about raising the roof trick; naturally the blind was not in place inside, read up about the hole in the bulkhead on the nearside, removed seat and back of seat, found hole, created tool to put into blind's microswitch lug, engaged it, still roof won't lower.
Cannot, I don't think, reach alum key hole to release pressure of hydrolics, or get to catches to release them for manual opening of roof, so well and truly stuffed.
Been to dealership whom say solution is to cut off roof and fit new one, seems drastic, and economically a non-starter.
QUESTION: (At last!)
Can anyone tell me how to force open the boot?
Might involve cutting boot catch, or removing panels to reach boltheads, I have no idea.
I throw myself upon the mercy of The Forum, please help!

[Slo]

Surely it will be a lot easier to smash out the rear light near the blind switch instead of cutting the boot lid open, then you can just put your hand through the hole and drop a pen in the gap to enable the roof.

Where in the world are you?

[Luditus]

I thought about this myself, just in case it should happen to me one day. Looking at the photos in the Haynes manual, it is possible to identify where to drill a hole in the number plate recess, enabling one to insert a screw driver and trip the latch. Try this before committing to a new roof!

[gazza82]

Operating rod on back of boot lock has come off or bent ... but that's behind the boot lid lining too ...

Beyond that I'm wary of teling anyone how to break into a car on a public forum ... for obvious reasons ...

[Slo]

Beyond that I'm wary of teling anyone how to break into a car on a public forum ... for obvious reasons ...

Good point but it's an old car now and there are copious amounts of cc's in scrap yards to practise on breaking into, besides my method of quick entry is to get to the roof blind switch by sacrificing a rear light cluster (that will make some noise), still need the key to open the boot lock or switch the ignition on to activate the roof, without the key the alarm would be going off while all this smashing/drilling would be going off anyway.

[gazza82]

I think he said he's managed to trigger the blind switch.

That won't work if the lock and boot switch are not connected by that rod though! That's what happened to ours and it was only luck and jiggling the lock that eventually got it to pop open ... and I only needed the once.

[Lady Python]

I've just discovered the same problem. Dealer opened the boot before I bought the car. Not going to mess with it in the dark - will have a try of it tomorrow. Maybe need to jiggle the key and lock around a bit too. Not too fussed at the moment because unlikely I'll want to take the roof down - too cold and wet. I can hear the locking mechanism working so not that.

Ah. Long time since I used to do my own repairs. Returning to my young teenage driver years...

[Slo]

Only other way in that i know of is cutting a hole near the pump, well 3 sides then bend it open, big enough to get one hand through then you will have to get into the rubber pump housing and on top there are two relays, one to lower and one to raise, if you can get to those you can pop the tops of the relays off and operate them to at least open the boot lid.. If you get that far you will be able to get to the boot lock at the very least. And gazza i know the op said he had made a tool for the blind switch bit unless you have your hand on it do you know youve actually actuated it from a distance.

This is how I would approach it anyway

[Lady Python]

Boot opens fine - just the hydraulics are naff.

Read the thread on replacing them. Question is, whether to attempt it myself or get my friendly local garage to do the job for me (their charges are very reasonable and they give you a price before doing the job). Not really that important as unlikely to use the boot much anyway. Shopping goes inside the car. Really wanted in to see if the CD changer worked or not - it's dead so not going to bother replacing that as the radio has a single CD player anyway and I usually listen to Classic FM.