Door locks, trunk locks, ignition lock cylinders....

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The chrome on the repro's will probably pit and tannish in about 3-5 years, even if garage kept.
At that pint they will look worse than the OEM units that have been on the car for 50 plus years, even stored outdoors.

With that amount of spare parts, you should be able to easily get a couple of sets of door locks matched to keys from working ignition locks.

BTW- as mentioned above, the trunk locks and glove box locks take the same key and it is WAY easier to rekey the trunk to a working glove box lock, as the trunk is the same pins as the doors but the glove box is hard to get and hard to work on wafers.
 
with a collection of trunk locks you can build a few that fit the collection of keys you have.
its a 1 sided key so the job decsribed below in 2) is easier

and they fit so much better in the hole cut in the panel
the space for the gasket is better and the slide in spring clip to mount it fits better
also check the little door for the key isn't stuck or missing
The chrome seems to last better if you live in a salt/rust/snow type place.

for ignition and doors

1) you can do the poor mans hack, get your chosen ignition lock and key. get a selection of door look barrels. fit the key in each to identify the pair with the least number of pins or sliders sticking out with the key inserted. hopefully just one or 2 out of the full complement of 5 or 6...
File down flat with the barrel any that stick out and check that the barrel with the key inserted turns in the lock body, and won't turn in the lock body when the key is removed...

Its a hack job, and many a locksmith will be spinning in their grave...BUT it works

2) dismantle all of your door locks and use the huge array of pins/sliders you now have to rebuild 2 or 4 lock barrels to fit the ignition keys you have. its wasteful, its time consuming. you may have to hammer/beat the cover that holds the springs in, back into shape to get the lock to stay together, but it works. You are taking advantage of the fact that they built all locks from a pick -n- mix of a finite number of pins/sliders therefore if you have a lot of them you should be able to match any original key to a lock by choosing the correct pin/sliders.

until the late 70s for some manufacturers if you have 12 -24 different keys for a specific model you could open just about every car with that lock

My own locks use flat sliders and a double sided key
rectangular shims of metal with a rectangular window in them that the key passes through
double sided key pushes these sliders up or down so they all align with the side of the lock barrel with the key in, and springs push them to the extreme of their travel sticking out the sides of the barrel when the key is out.

Thus my rebuild not only involved getting the sliders in the correct order, i needed the window to be in the correct place and that might mean getting the slider to be the correct way up as they can fit both ways

for this type i inserted my key.
sprayed a mist of red paint down the holes were the sliders went
you could probably use a thin scribe instead to mark the key
pulled out key
cleaned paint off lock barrel
mounted key horizontally, in my soldering vice, and slid on sliders to each red paint marker
the set that hung at the same height was nearly right
bit of fiddling with 2 similar sliders from my pile, in the mix, got me a lock that worked

second one, after much messing around and no luck, had one that stuck out just a bit so i did Hack no.1) on it

ignition and doors now all open with the same key.
 
If you have several donor tumblers, you should not need to be filing anything.

Tip # (what are we on now?)-

Decide what lubricant you will use...and stay with it.

WD-40 or similar is easy and everyone has it but...

"Real" locksmiths use graphite.

Graphite lasts much longer although it used to be somewhat difficult to find and expensive.
It's much easier to find now, but still a bit pricey.

What ever you do, DO NOT mix WD-40 or similar with graphite.
It makes a sticky paste that will gum up the lock which will eventually stop working.
 
Last edited:
Kern Dog said:
The 4 door is a 1969 model and I understand that the ignition switch and lock cylinder are a one year only setup?
Click to expand...
The ignition switch is one year only- but the rekeying/recoding procedure is the same.
While it may not apply to your particular situation, for others who may be reading this there are some differences over the years.
Early door locks ('65 and earlier?) were a different diameter than later door locks. While this doesn't affect rekeying, it means an early lock will not work in a later door- the hole is too big. Likewise, a late door lock will not fit in an early door unless you cut the hole larger. An electrician's Greenlee hole cutter works well for this, although hand filing or a Dremel will also work. All repros that I've seen have been the later large diameter locks; so if you're dealing with an early door lock, then rekeying/recoding is your only option.
Pairing of the keys also vary according to the years- '66 (maybe'67? or thereabouts) and earlier had door keys that matched the trunk style key. After that the door keys matched the ignition.
IIRC, there was a slight difference in years for the changeover in trucks vs cars, but they did follow suit (yes, I know trucks didn't have "trunk locks", but they had that style key which also fit the glove box lock if so equipped).
Just a little more info to pass along.

Dave999 said:
you can do the poor mans hack, get your chosen ignition lock and key. get a selection of door look barrels. fit the key in each to identify the pair with the least number of pins or sliders sticking out with the key inserted. hopefully just one or 2 out of the full complement of 5 or 6...
File down flat with the barrel any that stick out and check that the barrel with the key inserted turns in the lock body, and won't turn in the lock body when the key is removed...
Click to expand...
With all due respect, that isn't how the cylinders work- at least the ones supplied for use in the U.S.
The pins NEVER protrude from the cylinder barrel so there is nothing to gauge how much to file off. The springs may stick out if they haven't been distorted, but the paired pins seat against each other deep in the barrel with the spring on top, retained by the press-on cap.
 
Yes- if you file the top pin down-

A- you have ruined that pin.

B- the bottom pin will still be sticking up past the shear area where the tumbler rotates, causing it to NOT rotate.
 
Last edited:
Professor Fate said:
The ignition switch is one year only- but the rekeying/recoding procedure is the same.
While it may not apply to your particular situation, for others who may be reading this there are some differences over the years.
Early door locks ('65 and earlier?) were a different diameter than later door locks. While this doesn't affect rekeying, it means an early lock will not work in a later door- the hole is too big. Likewise, a late door lock will not fit in an early door unless you cut the hole larger. An electrician's Greenlee hole cutter works well for this, although hand filing or a Dremel will also work. All repros that I've seen have been the later large diameter locks; so if you're dealing with an early door lock, then rekeying/recoding is your only option.
Pairing of the keys also vary according to the years- '66 (maybe'67? or thereabouts) and earlier had door keys that matched the trunk style key. After that the door keys matched the ignition.
IIRC, there was a slight difference in years for the changeover in trucks vs cars, but they did follow suit (yes, I know trucks didn't have "trunk locks", but they had that style key which also fit the glove box lock if so equipped).
Just a little more info to pass along.


With all due respect, that isn't how the cylinders work- at least the ones supplied for use in the U.S.
The pins NEVER protrude from the cylinder barrel so there is nothing to gauge how much to file off. The springs may stick out if they haven't been distorted, but the paired pins seat against each other deep in the barrel with the spring on top, retained by the press-on cap.
Click to expand...
Yep i thought mine might be different

mine in all respects Australian, except for the boot lock

but the gist of it is similar all of the bits that stop the barrel rotating when the key is out need to be out of the way when the key is in

their length and position when the key is in allows this rotation.
and there are a limited, number of ways you can fit them. if you can be bothered spending the time to work it out you can re key the lock.
 
Kern Dog said:
I haven't priced these in awhile.

View attachment 1716335740

$69 for a full set? That is cheap!


View attachment 1716335741

$55 for the door and ignition? Holeee cow that is a good deal as long as they work.

I thought the 1969 stuff was hard to find. Is this ad correct? I don't know enough of what makes the 1969 different from the 1968 and earlier stuff.

View attachment 1716335744
Click to expand...
You gotta be careful with PYLC stuff from Classic Industries though. PYLC is great company but has a Chinese line and a much higher made in the USA quality line. CI sells the Chinese line. The higher quality line will have proper OEM keys in the sets. What's pictured is the Chinese line. PLYC mostly deals with GM and they're Pontiac experts. GM people seem to be okay with chineseium.
It sounds like you have everything you need to DIY. The 69 will be tricky if the cylinder is still in the switch. The switch and cylinder are 69 year only.
Oh and be careful of the trunks! They'll all fit and work in the same hole, but a true 65-66 key won't fit in anything but a 65-66, same with 67 and early 68. Because Chrysler didn't make it confusing enough, in an effort to use one P/N for the 65-72 deck lid cylinder, they had a TSB out there to change the early cylinders out to the new P/N. It was a warranty repair and an easy $5 for a tech in the day. I've found a mish-mash of cylinders out there. I always carry all three key blanks when I buy cores to figure out what I'm buying.
 
I found that it was '65-6 that was the major change in trunk locks. They went from a flat sided key in '65 to a groove key in '66. The lock cylinder changed in other ways too from an enclosed pin chamber that required you to remove the outer bezel to re-key, to one where it was a simple cover to re-pin starting in '66. IIRC '67-'68 was the change in how the tail shaft attached to the back, from a fork style to an eye style shaft.
 
Mopar locks back then all had the key code stamped on the locks. Sometimes it's hard to find but look for an ES or EP followed by 4 digits. EP was the primary key for the the ignition and doors and ES was the secondary key for trunks and glove boxes. Once you know the key code, you can know the pins inside the locks and which locks are worth disassembling. The 5 pins have 6 possible depths. There were 3000 possible key codes. An example EP2912 translates to 22164. I made an Excel spreadsheet for all the possible codes. I used to have all the possible pins, springs, etc but sold it all about a year ago. I don't remember who the member was. The spread sheet is on my google drive:
 
alpinegreenneon said:
Mopar locks back then all had the key code stamped on the locks. Sometimes it's hard to find but look for an ES or EP followed by 4 digits. EP was the primary key for the the ignition and doors and ES was the secondary key for trunks and glove boxes. Once you know the key code, you can know the pins inside the locks and which locks are worth disassembling. The 5 pins have 6 possible depths. There were 3000 possible key codes. An example EP2912 translates to 22164. I made an Excel spreadsheet for all the possible codes. I used to have all the possible pins, springs, etc but sold it all about a year ago. I don't remember who the member was. The spread sheet is on my google drive:
Click to expand...

That's a pretty handy spreadsheet.

Does anyone know where one could buy a small assortment of pins for these mopar locks (without having to buy a huge tray of them?
 
I brought in 5 Ziplock bags with door docks from 5 different cars. The man made keys for all of them for only $68 !
 
I don’t know how comfortable you are doing this… but I lost the key to my 67 at one point. I took ign cyl apart and removed the tumblers… sure now ANY ol key will work, but nobody KNOWS that. Haha. I ended up buying the keyed set of 3 cyls with keys ign and both doors from rock auto
 
I had a car years ago with door locks that operated like that...where any ignition key would turn them!
 
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