Topic: 65 survivor- How to carefully loosen stike plate

[Bull_in_a_china_shop]

Guys,
I just got a 65 out of a Morton building, it has sat for 20 years, literally untouched-very solid overall with a bit of expected surface rust.  Anyway the driver side door closes smoothly but wont latch.  Basically it just bounces off the jamb. I assume the strike plate is pushed in a bit from daily use previously. 

Anyone got a sure fire way to get those loose?  I just added heat and rust spray , using a breaker bar it broke my Phillips bit when I torqued it.

HELP!

[66GTKFB]

Welcome to the forum. There are a couple of options you can use: a hand held impact tool (Harbor Freight - about $10) and a three pound sledge hammer (be careful about hitting your hand) is the first.  If the screw "slots" are damaged, drilling out the screw is the only other way. You can also remove the rear seat , rear quarter panel and quarter window to gain access to the rear of the screws to spray some penetrating fluid on the threads. I've found that an air powered impact tool does more damage to the screw head as the tool's torque is greater than your force holding it into position and you get a rounded out "slot".
Jim

[Soaring]

The striker plate is definitely the cuprit.  I just replaced mine a few months ago and she works like a charm now.   I scraped the paint away from the head of the screw and used a big assed phillips head screw driver with a pair of vice grips attached to the handle and muscled out the screw.   That worked for me, but you might want to try what Jim suggests.