[SolReaver]

John: there is a motor and there is a shaft that connects up to the mechanism. I did try pushing up and down. The linkage connecting the lever to the release or something is broken. I tried to slide a thin piece of metal up in to push back the white plastic wedge. It doesn't seem to be happening. There is solid metal in front of the wedge. I cannot get into it. I tried sliding up over the metal and sliding down under it. The project car came with 2 extra latches and I can see what you mean. With either of the latches there is some room above or below to slide something thin in there. The latch that is actually in there seems to have solid metal all the way to the top and well below where the latch goes down into the receiver. Rats. How many latches do they make for these things?

I am thinking of drilling a small hole just through the front metal that is blocking the white wedge and then pushing it back with a small drift or stiff wire. There seems to be about a quarter of an inch gap between the trunk lid and the body to work with. My other thought is to drill out the lock of the latch from outside. I don't like either of these "solutions" so I am going to research what else I can do. There is a lot of devastation to the area already and I would really like a more elegant solution that is not quite so destructive.

Sanding off the bad clearcoat on the hood and re spraying went reasonably well. I don't like what it looks like currently so I might sand it all down again after it dries. There was not a whole lot of paint to work with so there is a bit of variation as to color due to varying degrees of oxidation and thickness.