Cannot open my trunk

During the last week or so I've encountered a lot of little aggravations
with my 1988 VW (Rabbit) Cabriolet Convertible. The latest is my trunk lid.
Apparently the latch release rod has become detached from the lock cylinder,
so using the key does not unlock it - even though the key works and the
cylinder turns.

Other than taking a sledge to the trunk lid, how can I get it open? Thanks.

I got it opened as follows: Crawling into the back seat, I very gently
popped up the shelf retaining clips on the left and right sides of the
package shelf with a flat screw driver. Then, using a couple of wide-blade
clean putty knives, and starting at the passenger (right) side of the shelf
at the forward edge, I very carefully (to prevent tearing the seat
upholstery) inserted one of the putty knives between the seat back and the
forward edge of the shelf and began prying the shelf upward. Once I could
see the shelf edge, I inserted the second putty knife into that gap and
pried upward again. I kept repeating this process until the entire forward
edge of the shelf was free. Then I simply pulled the shelf out. After that I
popped out the plastic retaining clips on the black fiberboard cover over
the locking mechanism on the trunk lid, saw that the latching rod had become
disconnected from the lock (just as I thought it was), yanked up the rod,
and voila! - the trunk lid opened.

To hopefully prevent this from happening again, I used a piece of 12 gauge
copper wire and wrapped it tightly around the rod and rod retainer. The
little black plastic rod retainer apparently does not hold the rod tight
enough to prevent it from coming loose.

"Papa" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> During the last week or so I've encountered a lot of little aggravations
> with my 1988 VW (Rabbit) Cabriolet Convertible. The latest is my trunk
> lid. Apparently the latch release rod has become detached from the lock
> cylinder, so using the key does not unlock it - even though the key works
> and the cylinder turns.
>
> Other than taking a sledge to the trunk lid, how can I get it open?
> Thanks.
>

"Papa" > wrote in message
nk.net...
>I got it opened as follows: Crawling into the back seat, I very gently
>popped up the shelf retaining clips on the left and right sides of the
>package shelf with a flat screw driver. Then, using a couple of wide-blade
>clean putty knives, and starting at the passenger (right) side of the shelf
>at the forward edge, I very carefully (to prevent tearing the seat
>upholstery) inserted one of the putty knives between the seat back and the
>forward edge of the shelf and began prying the shelf upward. Once I could
>see the shelf edge, I inserted the second putty knife into that gap and
>pried upward again. I kept repeating this process until the entire forward
>edge of the shelf was free. Then I simply pulled the shelf out. After that
>I popped out the plastic retaining clips on the black fiberboard cover over
>the locking mechanism on the trunk lid, saw that the latching rod had
>become disconnected from the lock (just as I thought it was), yanked up the
>rod, and voila! - the trunk lid opened.
>
> To hopefully prevent this from happening again, I used a piece of 12 gauge
> copper wire and wrapped it tightly around the rod and rod retainer. The
> little black plastic rod retainer apparently does not hold the rod tight
> enough to prevent it from coming loose.

Correction: I tossed the copper wire idea, threw away the rod and the little
plastic rod retainers on each end of the rod, and fabricated a new rod out
of heavy duty coat hanger wire that is bent 90 degrees at the ends with
enough excess sticking through (and then bent another 90 degrees to close it
up) so that it will never work loose again, and does not depend on any cheap
plastic retainers that get brittle with age.