Delocking - How to Delock a car

"Locking yourself out."

Delocking a car improves the appearance of a car and becomes a theft deterrant, no lock to pick means that often the criminal will move on to another vehicle. It will now be possible to be locked out of your car - no remote and no lock to pick means the only way into the car is through a window and in cars which have a deadlock mechanism you will physically have to climb in through the window as well.

Overview of work required,
Remove barrel
Take of the door card to allow a view inside at the door mechanism, often it is simply a detach from lock mechanism, twist and pull out the barrell. If you are planning also to remove the door handles you will need to fit a heavy duty solenoid that can withstand bad weather, otherwise if it fails the only way into the car will be through the window. When you fit a new solenoid do so about a month before you do the finishing work and test them thoroughly to make sure they are working properly.

Weld in a backing plate
This is an important step and it is worth keying the surface before welding in place to ensure that the filler adheres correctly. The backing plate should be an inch wider than the original keyhole.

Filler then smooth
Build the filler up in layers, allow to dry fully between each application, leaving the filler slightly proud of the paint work. With a smoothish grit of paper and sanding block sand away the excess filler. Take your time here - cutting corners will leave a tell tale dent in the door where the lock used to be.

Re-spray
Apply a mask to the car and be prepared to spray almost the whole door to allow a good blend. Paint should be applied in layers and built up over time gradually and then finished with a very fine grit of wet wet and dry paper and a good cutting paste. See our stone chip repair article and plastic painting article for details on getting a good paint finish.

If the lock is in the plastic door handle which is often the case of many cars the method is similar although there is a very attractive shortcut. Rear doors or even passenger door handles do not have keyholes so getting a standard handle without the key hole will make the job a lot easier for you and leaves the lock mechanism largely untouched.