Key Making for cars

[Romstar]

I am in charge of all lock and key work at the dealership I work at. If anything in the last few years, I've taken business from the local locksmiths. Around here they are overpriced, underqualfied and generally screw the public any chance they get. Before I cam here 9 years ago all locks were sent to the local locksmith to be coded, repaired, but I quickly changed that. They were charging sometimes $20.00 to code a simple 8 wafer lock. It costs me about $2.00 in parts to do it myself. Not only that but several of the local garages and dealerships of other makes than mine now send me all of their locks too.

You my dear fellow are a freaking rarity. Some of the hack jobs I have seen come out of dealships are amazing. If you want to talk about unqualified, you should see some of the GM techs that claim to know their systems, the BMW guy was a joke, and I thought the guy with the Porche had justification for suing his dealer.

I am not making this up. Auto technicians in most cases have no interest in locks and security systems, and if your system is anything like ours, you go by the job book. So if it says that changing a head gasket takes 3 hours, and instead you take 4 hours, you still only get paid for 3 hours.

I haven't seen a dealership yet that uses a different system unless you are talking about their apprentices.

In any case, yes there are poor locksmiths, and those guys really shouldn't be doing the job, but all in all I would say that if you invest the time and money as a locksmith into this field, you are far better qualified than most dealer service departments.

Not to mention that I can still do most keys at 50% of dealer list pricing.

Romstar

[raimundo]

bud wiser stated in his post that he has never been locked out. it is my observation that when you state a quiet fact like this, you are disturbing the jinx, and within 24 hours or perhaps a small bit more, you will have the problem, it could be psychological, subliminal, freudian, or whatever, but never mention your good luck, don't try to tweak the performance of something that is going well.

[maxxed]

Perhaps someone should do a poll on how many lockies have been locked out.

[Bud Wiser]

bud wiser stated in his post that he has never been locked out. it is my observation that when you state a quiet fact like this, you are disturbing the jinx, and within 24 hours or perhaps a small bit more, you will have the problem, it could be psychological, subliminal, freudian, or whatever, but never mention your good luck, don't try to tweak the performance of something that is going well.

well truth be told I'm always misplacing my keys, but that happens before I leave the house, so it can take a while to find them. After I find them, they get clipped to my belt. I've left my wallet in the car, but not the keys yet. I'll let you know if I get locked out. Might be happening sooner then ever now

[HeadHunterCEO]

Fitting Keys to cars in the rain , while up to your ankles in mud.

You can keep your Auto work

[Romstar]

Fitting Keys to cars in the rain , while up to your ankles in mud.

You can keep your Auto work

$150.00 for 20 minutes work, and 30 minutes driving. Unless its a transponder than its even better.

$45.00 - $85.00 just to open them. I think I will keep it thank you.

Romstar

[ufd538]

Yes I would say it is a rarity to see a guy at the dealership, that knows much about locks. We see alot of ignitions come in that the dealership guy keyed up, put the lock together keyed wrong, and now he can't get it apart. Usually 10 cut GM's.

anyway's since there are some car guys here, I will throw this one out there...Your least favorite car to make keys for. We got a sidewinder machine about 9 months ago, and now mercedes are at the top of my list. Just nothing easy about them, Pain to get a door lock out, pain to get apart, and then progressing cuts to work ign, gb, trunk, and then it all has to be put back together.

BTW...what does it take to get into the automotive section?

Headhunter, you can keep the monotony of residential, and commercial locks, I prefer cars and motorcycles. Last friday I installed 14 deadbolts...what a frickin blast. The install weren't so bad it was the other stuff, like the knob strikes not being lined up right, and that needs to be taken care of before installing the DB.

The landlord called me back today, one of the door frames was split all to crap...he thought it might of happened because of a new DB....you wouldn't think it would be that hard to explain to someone, that it was from blatant abuse.

I should of told him that it was the new deadbolt, you see the new deadbolt was locked, and someone wanted in. all the DB's fault, if it wasn't locked, I bet the frame wouldn't of been messed up as much as it was.

[HeadHunterCEO]

I'm gonna bump this thread in the dead of winter

to each their own .Done my fair share of auto work and it just never was enjoyable for me. The money is good though and i will not disspute that

[Romstar]

I'm gonna bump this thread in the dead of winter

to each their own .Done my fair share of auto work and it just never was enjoyable for me. The money is good though and i will not disspute that

Well thats just unfair.

Of course I am going to complain about the bitter cold, the snow down my neck, and the general nightmare that is opening a frozen vehicle in a Walmart parking lot when you have a mother and two kids watching you.

Oh, its loads and loads of fun.

Romstar