Rekey Lock Cylinders

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Carl Swirsding
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Rekey Lock Cylinders

#1 Post by Carl Swirsding »

Can door handle lock cylinders be changed to a specific key?

Any recommended Locksmiths who have experience with 356 lock cylinders?

Background:
I purchased new door lock cylinders as part of restoring my C Coupe. The key that came with them didn’t match my ignition switch. So I brought the cylinders to a local locksmith to change them. But much to my surprise the guy FILED down the pins rather than swapping out pins of the correct length. See photo. When I assembled the door handles the cylinders worked fine. But with a slight outward force, while rotating the cylinder, it will protude and get stuck. See photo. So filing the pins was a failure. I need to find an experienced Locksmith to do it right. BTW, I have the original cylinders with the correct pins. See photo.

Carl
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Cylinder - 1.jpeg
Cylinder - 2.jpeg
Cylinder - 3.jpeg
Carl Swirsding
Los Altos, CA
'64 C Coupe #215553

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Mike Wilson
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#2 Post by Mike Wilson »

Carl:

Email sent.

Mike
Mike Wilson
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'63 B coupe

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Martin Benade
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#3 Post by Martin Benade »

Filing them down is sloppy, a trick of my level of amateur locksmith skills. Even so, if you file them a little more I bet they will work just fine. He just didn’t finish the job.
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Carl Swirsding
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#4 Post by Carl Swirsding »

Martin, Oh the filing worked fine, but I agree is was amateur hour at the locksmith. The issue is now the cylinder pulls forward with the slightest nudge, and gets stuck. See my second photo. Carl
Carl Swirsding
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'64 C Coupe #215553

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Martin Benade
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#5 Post by Martin Benade »

The grub screw like what was drilled out on the old ones should prevent that. Is the screw in place?
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Carl Swirsding
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#6 Post by Carl Swirsding »

Yes, the grub screw is in place.
Carl Swirsding
Los Altos, CA
'64 C Coupe #215553

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Carl Swirsding
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#7 Post by Carl Swirsding »

Martin, the grub screw is in place, BUT the hole it goes into was drilled too deep, so when the grub screw is fully inserted it is too low and will slip into the lock receiver causing the lock cylinder to protrude like my second photo. If I unscrew the grub, so that it is almost flush with the with the lock receiver it works perfectly. So I took both lock assemblies apart and carefully compared them. One lock receiver has the correct depth grub screw hole and the grub screw height is correct. And both grub screws are the same length. The other lock receiver grub screw hole was drilled too deep. So the problem is that the lock receiver I bought from Stoddard is defective! If I can find a longer grub screw it will solve that problem.

Thank you for pointing that out and jarring me into figuring out the underlying issue.
Carl Swirsding
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'64 C Coupe #215553

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Mike Wilson
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#8 Post by Mike Wilson »

The grub screw I believe is referred to as a capstan screw. You could also find a metric hex drive screw of the right length.

Mike
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Martin Benade
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#9 Post by Martin Benade »

Or a drop of Loctite Red
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#10 Post by Martin Benade »

If you can’t find a longer screw and really want one get me the dimensions and thread pitch and I’ll make you one or two.
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#11 Post by Carl Swirsding »

Martin, that is a very kind offer. But a quick look on Amazon and I can buy a quantity of 10 3mx0.5 pitch hex drive set screws in stainless for $5.20. Before I do that I'll hit my local hardware store that has quite a large selection of metric parts where I have found everything I have needed so far. Fingers crossed they have it. Worst case I order them from Amazon. Thanks for your pointers and offer of help. Carl
Carl Swirsding
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Martin Benade
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#12 Post by Martin Benade »

That’s good. I was going to charge you$5.21, so this is a savings. 😀
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Rick Albro
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Re: Rekey Lock Cylinders

#13 Post by Rick Albro »

You are better off repairing your original cylinders. The pins can be replaced but unless you can find a lock smith with old stock pins on hand the new pins will have to be custom made. Most lock smiths will not want to do this because they can not make any money on the job. Your original cylinders appear to have the grub screws partially drilled. One way to repair the damage that you show is to over drill the hole and use a brass bolt for which you will need to solder in place before re-drilling a proper size hole and tapping to the little grub screw threads. (usually this is a M 3 X 0.5) The brass bolt can be filed or machined to the original surface so the repair is nearly invisible when done with care. Mike Wilson does a good job of commenting on the newer locks and has commented on several threads with repairs of this kind previously. When you drill this be sure the have the key at least partially inserted to give adequate support of the cylinder body. Be sure to know where the key is before drilling. If you take a needle file and run the file along the threads of the bolt used to insert into the over sized hole then when you solder the bolt in place the solder will flow into the threads. Make sure that you don't get solder into the key way. depending on the extent of the repair you may want to use wax to control the flow of solder. Low melting wax is available that can be removed with a dip in boiling water. The position of the final hole for the grub screw is important and will determine how well the lock functions, so only do one cylinder at a time in order to compare with the cylinder you are not working on. Your project is a "labor of love" many people have posted threads concerning various degrees of this same problem so a search may also give you some perspective from different people all solving the same problem. You will also probably need to make one or more decisions about what compromises you are willing to accept. You can make your cylinders look nearly perfect with a proportional amount of time spent. You may choose to send these to some one else which will probably be a choice between cost and function... be patient, ask lots of questions, keep the faith and you will prevail in the end...
PINS.jpg
PICT1144.JPG
Grub screw.jpg

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