Sharp VL-Z1 cassette not loading

[hoosierdoc]

I recently spilled weed killer into the camcorder. Yuck. It took about an hour to get the tape out. I cut the tape with a scalpel and turned it off/on with some shaking to finally get it to eject the tape. This was after 12 hours in front of a fan with the case open.the camera will turn on, I can see the picture on the lcd screen, but it won't close at all. When I manually close the bay, there's a click as metal-on-metal, it closes all the way, but doesn't latch. I can see a little angled catch that is slipping over a guide, then I'm guessing that is supposed to latch and hold it closed. Anyway... any thoughts? I'd like to know if it'll still record or if I should sell for parts, but I can't get a tape to sit in there.