I have a 1975 beetle and cant get the front hood open with the latch . what can I do?

if your talking about the latch INSIDE the car won't pop the hood, have a friend try to lift/push on the hood while you try to operate the latch. if this doesn't work, and you think the cable has broke on the release lever here is a way to open the hood without tearing up to much. take a hack saw, dremel, or grinder and cut the hood handle in half. now unscrew (righty tighty, lefty loosey) the bottom of the handle. once the handle is unscrewed the hood will just lift up. now it won't shut until you replace the handle, but they are cheap and easy to get at most vw parts stores. if the inside latch broke, you can sometimes cut the glovebox out and reach in and grab the cable that runs down to the hood latch/handle. pull the cable and it should release. if you dont mind tearing stuff up, you can take your grinder (with cutoff blade) and cut a hole in the bottom of the front apron. then reach up and operate the latch from the inside. this sucks because you basically ruin the apron, and won't work if you have anything in the sapre tire well (like a spare tire!).

sounds like the handle on front of car where it opens is broken or worn out,their is no inside cable pull latch on your VW,I would take it to a shop or dealer,they may be able to get it open,you will need to replace the handle.

Well every late model vw I've ever owned has had a release inside the car. Maybe after 25 years I've forgotten when they switched locations but it should be in the glove box

the front opens from the handle on the nose of the front,just like the back opens to gain acc to the engine,no pull cable or push button in dash on the older VWs.

Better look again, my 69 has a release in the glove box, my 68 has a release under the speaker grille on the driver side. My 71 is in the glove box, and my 67 is under the dash by my left knee. If yours doesn't have one, somebody removed it!

dito for my 1972

My "77" has a release handle in the glove box. Once activated, the hood would pop up slightly until the safety latch caught then the button on the handle had to be pushed to fully open the hood. If that should not work out, then the instructions that Chris wrote about cutting the handle in to works best.

So how do you open the hood if the hood release in the glove box is broken?? I need to get it open and I don't want to damage the hood.

Sorry I have the answer now

Thanks for all your help...1979 VW..

I took a 4” cut off wheel and cut the handle as close to the hood as possible where the bolts come through from the inside of the trunk. With the handle now removed, I ground away what was left sticking up of the bolts and a little bit of the handle. This separates the hood from the latch mechanism with minimal damage to the hood.