Golf Mk1 Door is locked closed.

Hi there guys. I recently replaced the handles on the car. Once I fitted the new handles, I locked the car to test everything and now the door won't open at all from the inside or outside. The only way to get close to the mechanism, with the door closed, is to half remove the cover on the inside. I can still barely reach the mechanism and I cannot see a thing. Is there anything or anyone that can help me with this please!

If the striker pawl on the new handle doesn't reach the latch then this can happen.  It got so bad that I usually had to remove the pawl on the old handle and swap it over to the new.



Depending on the year you may be able to insert a wire coat hanger in to the window channel between the scraper seal and the glass reach for and pull up on the lock mechanism from the outside.  Here is how the wire should look, as it allows you to Push on a latch or Pull on it when I worked on old adding machines we called it a push spring hook.





If you are on the inside can you open the door and unlock it?



You want to grab the upper finger on the left (inside) for the lock, and the one on the out side you push down to open.


 

Thanks so much for the assistance! I can get into the car as the doors unlock. The driver door wont open even with the door unlocked. when I am inside the car. I managed to get the door panel off to try and access the lock mechanism but very difficult to reach the finger things and I can't see anything so I have to go by feel. I am going to try again this afternoon. Thank you so much for the help!

One more thing I forgot to mention is that if your door is sagging as in not aligned, then the Striker pin may be binding the latch and not allowing it to freely open.

You can usually see this on the striker pin as the nylon ring is damaged or missing.





Tin tops you don't notice the sag as much as the window is in a frame, but the Cabriolets are more noticeable.

Sorry for hi jacking this post, but as Briano1234, mentions about the door saging on cabriolets whats the best way to realign them?

The best way is to have the door hinges realigned.  Some folks use a block of wood and a jack under the door.

You can re-align them with the use of a washer that is cut to go between the hinge.

Saggy Door Fix | Volkswagen Owners Club Forum

Now fixing a saggy door is but one step, the other is that you may have to re-align your window glass to the seals as the previous owner may have adjusted them… I have how do I do that's in the archive section.

To keep the doors from sagging, don't put your weight on them to get in and out of the car…..