Open 1951 trunk without a key?

[Aarongriffey]

So I have the ignition switch out of the ‘51 convertible and now I find out they don’t have any keys for the car. They were all stolen
As I recall (my Dad had a 51 7 years) the door key also fit the trunk. Am I correct? And the ignition key was by itself.
It looks like the trunk lid has to be open to get the lock out.
So can anyone help?
Would it be easier to get a key made for a door, if it is the same as the trunk key?

[leon bee]

For a 50, I think.....not sure, ignition and door same. Glovebox and trunk same. Send someone small through the back seat?

[Aarongriffey]

Thanks Leon. I’ll give that a try in the morning.

[flatheadmurre]

Number on doorlock cylinder to cut the igniton key and number on glovebox lock to cut trunk key is what i usually use.
If he remembers there was a bunch of keys on the original setup locks may have been changed during the years and then it´s more of a challenge...

[flatford8]

Ya,...#2.....take the back seat out and go in and open the latch....Mark

[32phil]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

As long as the locks are original to the car.....
Typically door and ignition same key
Trunk and glove box same key
Gimmie the codes............ I'll cut Ya the key.
Have a Great Memorial Day..
BUT
Remember Our Heroes Too

[chap52]

In about 1962 I needed a key for the back hatch on my 1954 Ford 2 dr station wagon. The locksmith took a key blank and put it in the lock, used a rat tail file to turn the key snug, tapped on it with a small ball peen hammer. This left impressions on the key, he looked at it through his magnifying glass, saw the indentations and filed it into shape. He did this a few times and, BINGO it worked.
Think he charged me a buck for the old school demonstration.
Since then I tried this method once. Then I got the codes and had a key cut... Chap

[Ardun]

Go to Youtube and learn how to pick a lock

[rotorwrench]

The way a lot of lock cylinders work, a person would have a hard time getting a key blank to "mark" by rapping on it. A good lock smith will take the cylinder out to fit a key to it. The zink die cast lock mechanisms are too soft to take much abuse.

32Phil can cut to the number on the cylinder so that would be the safest way to go. I was fortunate to be able to find NOS matching glove box and trunk cylinders for one of my 51 Mercs. My hand me down Merc still has its original well worn keys.

[flatheadmurre]

Not much of an issue to "reload" the cylinders to get them matching.
But the trunklock needs to be open to get the cylinder out...not a to fun task to pick them.
When on "fieldservice" i bring the book and the keyclipper togetter with a file...what i usually bring to little of is patience...

[rotorwrench]

I've picked a few but it can take a long time on some. I've had to walk away on some and come back when I have a better attitude so I know of where you speak about patience. If the glove box lock has been changed before then the number won't help much if they didn't change them as a set. I've run into that more than once. I had to body work the dash and the glove box lid on one car due to someone prying the lid open. What a pain that was. I had to take the whole dash out to work it.

[my4dv8]

On our 54 the trunk mysteriously locked its self. The bad news was we were on our way to a swapmeet and the trunk had 4 tyres and a 700r4 trans in it. Removed the back seat and unfortunately had to cut the “X” brace to get access took the tyres out and wriggled in to get to the lock . Still dont know what happened and it never did it again.

[slowforty]

I used a magic marker on the key bank

[32phil]

Just a bit of general info:
I have never been able to "pick" a Ford/Hurd lock.
They are very well made and obviously (for me) tough to pick.
They are not very forgiving either.....I have cut keys and they look identical to the original and they will not work. Using a micrometer I have found only a slight difference in the keys. Filing to exact size usually works but frustrating none the less.
Cutting a key by code is the easiest but not necessarily a guarantee.
We must remember some of these locks are almost 80 years old and can be worn, packed with grease and dirt and crud or damaged. The tiny springs are prone to corrosion or loss of tension. Even with the correct key they will not work.
All it takes is one pin out of 10 to stick in place and you are wasting your time.
Cleaning will help but not always.
I can't count the number of locks I have received over the years that have been "picked to death" I can't do anything once they have been damaged.
It's gotten to the point now I just blow them apart, replace all the springs and replace any worn pins and then adjust the lock pins to the keys cut to the proper code.
A lot more work for me but they work going out the door.

[flatheadmurre]

32phil how do you get the trunklock out of say a -46 without picking it ?
Trunklocks aren´t high on the prefered job list...

[32phil]

There were so many variations of the Ford handles/locks/column drops it's difficult to say how each one comes apart. I would have to have it here in my shop.
Usually disassembling the handle part way will expose some of the pins. Once I remove even 2 or 3 sets of pins I can use try out keys to open the cylinder.

[Mart]

Before I would try disassembling, I would round up all the other keys I could find and try any that would actually go in. Sometimes, with a lot of wiggling, you might get lucky and it will open. This isn't specifically on your model, but generally on other automotive locks.

[rotorwrench]

Picks can be fabricated for specific lock designs from thin spring steel. I don't know how many I've made over the years but it's a lot of them with various key pin patterns. I used to use old bristles from a street sweeper brush when I first started picking locks. Sometimes its better to try and get the shear line as close as possible and then move the pick just a little bit tilting it up & down while applying light pressure on the shear line. The more pins there are, the more difficult it gets. If springs are bad and the driver pins are stuck then it can be near impossible to get the shear line to align with all the driver pins. Apply lots of the best penetrating oil you can find and use gravity if nothing else to allow the pins to move with bad springs. It takes more patients than most folks have but it is a first rate challenge. I've only had a few kick my ass. Sometimes it's just easier to drill them out and find a good one to replace it with but even that has its perils if a person doesn't have the right tooling.

Hurd did make some very unique designs that made normal picking methods very difficult. It also made for a very compact cylinder mechanism.

[32phil]

Yesterday I spent 4 hours disassembling a Ford Rumble Handle.
It looked fine.
Upon closer examination I could see it was a little swollen. Years of sitting outside probably caused it to fill with water and freeze.
Usually when they spend time outdoors like that they are very rusty inside. The stainless looks great but slightly swollen as I described.
What typically happens is everything inside is extremely rusty and corroded. That makes it almost impossible to take apart. In addition the lock cylinder itself is corroded as well.
Wanna try to ''pick'' that bad boy ? I seriously doubt it. When I finally got it out the two front set of pins were missing the caps and springs and the pins were stuck in place. Most of the internal parts in the handle were junk and the lock cylinder is questionable in terms of rebuilding it.
I guess the moral of the story is be careful of Ford Trunk/Rumble handles.....even if they look pretty outside they may be pretty bad inside.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by leon bee

For a 50, I think.....not sure, ignition and door same. Glovebox and trunk same. Send someone small through the back seat?

Originally Posted by Aarongriffey

Thanks Leon. I’ll give that a try in the morning.

That was the last we heard from him.

I know this sounds desperate, but could't he drill the cylinder out and get a new one?