Success!!!
SAGE - I owe you beers or virtual beers. Sage for the win.
It was you who enabled the success.
Guess what I discovered? I had to do a double take. Surely there was no hole in my trunk.
But I looked again at the bare license plate area, and saw... what I thought was a piece of electrical tape. Taped over the exact same spot you showed on your car.
I had an improvised 'tool' which was my Dad's grabber tool I drilled a joint rivet out on and had a thin metal shaft about 1" longer than a standard U.S. License plate (for a quick measurement on hand).
Hoped it would be enough. I poked it into the electrical tape and thru revealing a blackout dark pinkie sized hole.
I timed it - it took me twenty minutes to fish around, break the tool at the end with pliers turning it. I could not turn what I thought was the mechanism. The tool popped / exploded broken.
I removed the tool and saw the end snapped off. For the hell of it I tried to open the trunk - and it JUST OPENED UP. Like nothing weird had been going on for, oh months.
I can't believe it! I finally got into the trunk and the battery access. Pulled the battery. 1.5 year old tops battery reading only 4.2 V
That makes me sad. So far before the rain I got it up to 8.6VDC after charging for 6 hours at 6A setting.
Will try to charge more tomorrow. My cheapo charger doesn't like the battery voltage and the needle Is pulsing all over the place on the charger.
But I should be able to try to start it by tomorrow or Wednesday!
Will post pics I took of the whole area next.
[This message has been edited by Green Magic Man (edited 11-11-2024).]