Door locks rekeyed?

[stude dude]

The pre-1963 door barrels with the little flipper door (Yale or Hurd) are fairly easy to pull apart, you could re-code them yourself if you had really good eyesight and lots of patience. When a customer asks us for a matched door/ignition set we start with a new ignition barrel (preferably N.O.S.), this gives you a nice pair of new keys to work from. Better to match old tumblers to new keys rather than old keys to new tumblers. This also avoids pulling apart a N.O.S. ignition barrel and I wouldn't even try pulling apart one of the reproduction ones.

Chris.

[2moredoors]

What year vehicle are we talking about here?
I do not know the exact year but I think Studebaker went to the new style door locks in 1963.
These locks are hard to rekey because you have to drill a hole to get the guts out.
The 1963 locks were Yale and in 1964 they switched to Briggs and Stratton locks.
Bean counters no doubt.
They used Briggs locks in 1964-66 but later in 1966 production switched back to Yale locks. Bean counters probably found a left over bunch of 1963 locks and decided to use those up.
Don't take this as fact because I may be wrong and thew this out for comments by experts.
Robert Kapteyn

Thanks for the information. I bought key blanks from SI for my '55, '64, '66. The blanks for the 55 and 64 worked fine but the '66 Blank did not match what I have. Mine is a late production '66. Now I know why and will pick up the proper blank in Warwick from SI. The trunk blank is different for the '55 but same for '64 and '66. My trunk blanks were fine.

Your theory appears to be fact.

[dpson]

There was no key for the trunk lock on my 51 Commander and when I went to car shows I'd ask owners of similar cars (Hurd lock) if I could try their key. I finally found one that worked and was able to remove the lock mechanism. I took it to a local locksmith and supposedly paid to have the lock done to match a key I had. When I upgraded to a better chrome trunk housing (fewer pits) I removed the lock mechanism to use in the new housing. In looking it over I discovered the professional locksmith's solution to matching the key to the lock was to remove all the pins. So you could open the lock with a nail file, however when you think about it if no one knew it was this way they would likely never try it and so it ended up being an elegant solution. Of course I could have done this myself and saved the locksmith fee.

[Mcwicki51]

I just installed the SI matching door locks and ignition core. They all work great and very smooth. Not stiff at all.

Thanks.

[JoeHall]

I just installed the SI matching door locks and ignition core. They all work great and very smooth. Not stiff at all.

Thanks.

I musta got Gen-I. Maybe should send them back and exchange for the new and improved ones. LOL

[Hallabutt]

In about 1961 or 62 after having driven my first car for about six months (1953 Studebaker) without being able to lock the doors, I decided that it might be nice to have door locks that I could really use. Not really a big deal in those days since I seldom locked the doors anyway, but the car just seemed less complete without working locks. About three miles from where I lived there was a very old locksmith who worked out of a tiny work space. I drove up to the LS with the intentions of having him do the job, but I certainly didn't expect the chore that I was given. After explaining my problem he went to the wall behind him where he had about twenty five, six inch metal key rings, and brought back one of the rings. There must have been a hundred or more keys on the ring, it must have weighed five pounds or more. He handed it to me along with a needle nosed pliers and some graphite spray. He told me how to use the spry in the lock and how to just start systematically checking each key until I found the one that would work the best. He told me that I would find more then one key that would work, but some would work better then the others. After about a half hours work I found one that worked like it was made for the lock. He then cut me a couple of keys to match and I was down the road for about twenty five cents. I should have asked where he got the keys and how long it had taken him to collect them, but of course didn't. I used his services several times after that, but one day he was just gone. I have often wondered what the story was behind the collection and what happened to it once he was gone.

[hobiejack11]

I am mystified at the nonchalant way everyone on this thread talks about buying new door locks. I have a 1950 2r6 that the dude I bought it from said that there never were keys for the doors. Funny how people will lie to you without ever meaning to. We all know that there were keys for the truck at one time but who knows what happened to them. Anyway, I have tried to get the cylinder rekeyed with no success and have looked for a new lock as well. Where can a poor boy find a new lock for less than an arm and a leg. i don't care if it matches the ignition as it has an after market switch anyway.

[karterfred88]

I am mystified at the nonchalant way everyone on this thread talks about buying new door locks. I have a 1950 2r6 that the dude I bought it from said that there never were keys for the doors. Funny how people will lie to you without ever meaning to. We all know that there were keys for the truck at one time but who knows what happened to them. Anyway, I have tried to get the cylinder rekeyed with no success and have looked for a new lock as well. Where can a poor boy find a new lock for less than an arm and a leg. i don't care if it matches the ignition as it has an after market switch anyway.

Tried these?? http://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb....Z5Z5Z50001003a