'99 Door latch frozen, have to cut. Best way?

[Blue99]

My son's 1999 Supercab has the infamous stuck rear passenger door. The cable/handle/release works just fine,
it's the guts of the latch that are rusted and won't release. It's frozen. PB Blaster, etc., no-go.

We have a door from the boneyard in the right year and color, so we just want to remove this door.

I believe I need to cut the part the latch grabs, the "catch bar" that attaches to the body. Due to a rust hole that
my son is willing to expand a bit, we can get a hacksaw blade on it. I -think- that's the way to go, but slow.

For those of you that have cut your way out of this problem, how did you go about it? Is poking a hacksaw blade
in there a slow but workable idea?

I'm about ready to take a cutoff wheel and the remove the whole lower corner of the door!

Thank you for your time.

 

[sheep herder]

I'd cut the door apart. The part attached to the body is probably gonna be hard to cut. That said, I've never actually seen a supercab with rear doors so I might not know what I'm talking about.

 

[19Walt93]

I'd cut the door,too. Stuck rear doors are only "infamous" on poorly maintained trucks, usually serviced by Jiffy Lube or another place that doesn't lube hinges and latches. I worked at a dealer from 1975 until 2017, we never had to replace a latch on a truck we serviced. We used to see a lot of door ajar lights on that we'd cure by lubing door latches,too.

 

[Blue99]

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

 

[pjtoledo]

I have the same problem, drivers rear door won't open. the pass side catch bar is severely rusted, I'm sure the pass side is too.
that catch bar lists at about $120 last time I checked. (I passed on that one)
there is an inspection hole where you can see, with great difficulty, the latching mechanism.
I did manage to get a thin tool in there but it did no good, the rust had jammed the mechanism.

my plan is to get under the truck and drill up thru the 2 screws to release the catch bar.
that won't be easy either, need holes in the rocker for access, probably a good carbide bit and a tube secured to the screw to guide the bit.
my door is in good shape, cutting it is the last option.

 

[Blue99]

Thanks for the input guys. We got the door open, had to cut - but the way we cut might be only mildly destructive for you. We used a hacksaw frame to get through a rust hole (probably why we had the rusted latch in the first place!) and then it was easy to saw the latch.
We used this:

Like this, since we had the rust hole anyway and had another door from the boneyard as well:

But I think you could do this, too, or maybe get at it from the inside:

And this is the result. Door open!

And yes, it was rusted solid. In fact the piece we cut off is still in the latch!