I’ve done all the dumb things

[GMC]

Welcome, strangers, to the show
I'm the one who should be lying low

Our VE commodore has suffered a few flat batteries of late but I couldn’t be sure if the battery was on its way out or if there is an electrical drainage of some sort.
Frustrated with not knowing when I would have to jump start it next I lashed out on a new battery to at least rule this out before I start paying out heaps to an auto elec.

I was in the middle of changing the battery last night, disconnected the leads and the holding bracket and I was just sorting out how to lift it out of its little tight squeeze cavity when the wife yells out that it was time to go pick up the pizza.

So I decide to finish it the next day and stupidly I shut the boot
( never do today what you can put off till tomorrow )

Thing is you see, the battery is in the boot,
and the only way to open the boot is with the electric solenoid,
which doesn’t work because I have disconnected the battery.
No big deal,
I will just connect the jumper leads to the terminals under the bonnet,
except both my sets of jumper leads are locked in the boot,
along with the new battery.

I’m now looking for the battery charger to try to get some power into the system so I can unlock the boot.

Doh

[Viper79]

You should be able to get to the boot lock if you remove the back seat.

[Tony T]

never do today what you can put off till tomorrow

Never put off till tomorrow what you can get out of doing altogether! 

Surely the back seat folds down on those? 

[FourstrokeForever]

Yep! sounds as though you will have to be negotiating your way through the back seat Goeff. Make sure you have yourself one of those "confined space tickets" or you will never be allowed in!

[John Orchard]

What pizza did you get?

[GMC]

You should be able to get to the boot lock if you remove the back seat.

Nuh uh, the car is on gas
We got in with the battery charger so all is good

Wasted 20 min's looking for a keyhole that doesn't exist.
Wonder how they go with some of the more modern cars that don't have keys at all.
No power would mean you can't unlock the doors to lift the bonnet to apply jumper leads??

[GMC]

What pizza did you get?

I only have to order a house special with no onion + garlic bread and the Pizza shop know it will be for me.
I can't be too far from having a pizza named after me now.

[bishboy]

I ahd a VE crewman and the battery went flat and the same problem, couldn't unlock the doors, even with the key as in an electronic solenoid.  Had to put my hand up behind the grill and pull on the cable to open the bonnet 

[Simo63]

Wasted 20 min's looking for a keyhole that doesn't exist.
Wonder how they go with some of the more modern cars that don't have keys at all.

Might have to resort to the old fashioned brick or hammer method 

What pizza did you get?

I only have to order a house special with no onion + garlic bread and the Pizza shop know it will be for me.
I can't be too far from having a pizza named after me now.

Should have paid the $8 and had it delivered ya tight arse  (yeah I know .. I've been to your place ... they probably don't deliver out there so it's a cheap shot  )

[firko]

We were at CD1 back in 2000, staying at the Kyneton Boy Scouts camp and about to leave for the pub when I had a problem with the battery terminals in my NC Fairlane. In one of my usual tizzies I popped the bonnet, jiggled the battery terminals and dropped the bonnet in one fluid movement before realising that 1: the car was locked, 2:I'd left my keys sitting on top of the engine rocker cover and 3: there is no external bonnet latch on the Fairlane. We had no joy at all breaking into the car using gizmos fashioned from coat hangers and strips of lino so with Magoo, Bazza and the rest of Klub Kevlar giving me no end of shit stirring grief I had to call the RAC who managed after a fair bit of effort, to break into the car, pop the bonnet and retrieve the keys. We got to the pub 90 minutes late where I became the whipping boy for Magoo's merciless shit stirring for the rest of the evening...........

[FourstrokeForever]

You should be able to get to the boot lock if you remove the back seat.

Nuh uh, the car is on gas
We got in with the battery charger so all is good

Wasted 20 min's looking for a keyhole that doesn't exist.
Wonder how they go with some of the more modern cars that don't have keys at all.
No power would mean you can't unlock the doors to lift the bonnet to apply jumper leads??

Itdoes make you wonder what they were thinking when they leave any manual way of entry out of the design brief. I wonder the same with some of the modern bikes as well. No kickstarter means a long walk out of a gully if the battery goes flat and there's no way to bump start the sucker.....

[Nathan S]

I always liked the old DT200 trick of hiding the toolkit behind the sidecover, so you had to remove the sidecover to get at the toolkit.
And of course, you need a screwdriver to remove the sidecover...

I can't be too far from having a pizza named after me now.

Next time I'm in your part of the world, I'm going to ring the pizza shop up and ask for a family size Procrastinator, and see how if they know what I'm talking about...

[Canam370]

I can't be too far from having a pizza named after me now.

Will that be the Billy Bunter special?

[frostype400]

My dad use to have an old truck he used to pick up fire wood and I left the light on in the back of it once.

I would have been only 5 or 6 and he thought it had just a flat battery so he got it going turned it off after it had ran for a while but it was flat the next day so he thought the battery must be stuffed got a new one and it went flat then he found the light I don't think he was to happy about it.

[DR500]

To get into boot on VE with flat battery, use key to unlock drivers door, fold down centre seat and look to left and a yellow  toggle tucked behind rhr sear back , pull toggle and boot will open.