Modifying a pair of luggage door locks to work with our key

[Anonymous]

I have a solution which may apply to any of you if you have problems with replacement locks/keys.
 
[I originally made this post under Storage Bin Doors (in the Group Buy section)]-
My daughter's car came without the luggage doors, so have managed to source some from a breaker's from a wreck, and now the rest of the car has been crushed.
Having no keys for the locks is difficult. Toyota say they cannot order keys for the locks since we don't know the key number or reg number of the donor car! And they don't seem to be able to order new locks for the jap key to our car. Worse, new locks are not paired so it would mean two new keys.
Mind you as the doors only cost me £50 incl post it would be stupid to pay £26 for each lock.
What's left? Would a locksmith be able to make a key for them? Whats started out as a simple job is now getting expensive....
 
Here's the solution then.
 
I sorted out the key/lock thing, for the luggage doors, which  I bought from a wreck in a breaker's yard.

On examining the lock, once removed from the luggage door (two screws), a little brass lever is depressed at the back and the whole barrel comes out of the lock forwards.
Next I inserted the key from our car, which of course was different to the original (well, you would expect it so!).
There are 4 little spring loaded levers in the lock, which are supposed to lie flush with the lock barrel body, if the right key has been used, in which case the barrel will turn in the housing.
One lever was sticking up, another down, only small amounts but anything at all projecting will prevent the barrel turning at all. The others were more or less right.
The two sticking out, were doing so because our key did not have the right shape, there should have been a depression in the key profile in each of the positions where the levers were. To make our key work in this lock (both of them), the two levers would have to be simply modified.
After taking out the key, the levers pull right out without any trouble (do one at a time and don't lose the tiny springs!) and having scribed them first with a sharp screwdriver tip, I used a tinsnips to remove the extra metal on each lever, gave it a quick file over and popped it back, and on reinserting the key they all looked flush. I needed to give the whole lot a quick file afterwards as the barrel wouldn't turn on first attempt. A few drops of oil all over everything to finish off.
Result? The locks now turn with our key and no extra barrels/keys were necessary. This has saved at least £52 for two locks and would have resulted in two extra keys being needed on the keyring as locks do not come "paired" when you buy them without specifying the key number (unavailable for a Jap-spec car). All in less than 30 minutes start to finish.
This procedure would apply to fitting different replacement door and ignition locks also.
Did this years ago on a Ford and forgot how easy it was!

[Slacey]

Useful tip!  s:) s:)

[SimonC_Here]

Couldn't you just take the barrel out like you say and then, with the key in, file the raised levers flush?

Are they matched at the bottom as well? It could be a problem if your key goes down when the donor lock key used to go up.

Nice tip though, wonder if the same sort of thing would work on the glove box?

Simon

[Anonymous]

The same thing will definetely work on the glovebox lock which will be attached the same way, no doubt..
My reason not to file the things down in situ was to stop the barrel filling up with the swarf - the levers are brass which will make a lot of it. The whole assembly is full of a light grease and I thought it would gum it up.

[SimonC_Here]

Ah fair enough, I've not taken one appart to have a look.

Simon

[Anonymous]

Any good locksmith should be able to re-key the door locks to your ignition key

Rex

[Anonymous]

Well I suppose so, but why would you/I want to employ a locksmith when it's this easy?