GM 6 Cut Key Make

Originating vehicle's keys is something most locksmith technicians should know. It is a very common service in which customers would usually prefer to call a locksmith technician than the dealership since the cost most likely will be lower and they won't have to get their vehicle towed anywhere. There are many ways and tricks for making vehicles keys, but most of the time it will be depend on the make and model. Some vehicles will have one key that will operate all the locks in the vehicle including the ignition, but some vehicles will have 2 keys, one for the ignition and one for the door/trunk/glove box lock.

A few years ago when I just learned automotive ignition and key origination services, I got a call from a customer to make a door key for his 95 Camaro Z28. The customer mentioned that he lost the key a while back, but was not worried about it until now that is FOB stopped working. These types of older GM vehicles use 2 keys, one that is used for the ignition and one for the other locks in the vehicles. Since I knew it wasn't a big deal to make a door key for this make and model since it didn't required touching the steering wheel and the ignition, I decided to take the job.

I started heading to the customer's home, but not before confirming I had the right key blank in stock. Once I got to the customer's address, I went through the guides I had for information about the vehicle and what I would need to do to make the key for the door and saw that I needed to take apart the door panel and other hardware to get to the lock and read the stamped code that was on it. Although my other option was progressioning, I was not confident enough I would be able to properly progress all 6 cuts of the key, so I decided to go with the usual route of getting to the door key.

As I started to remove the door panel, I ran across some stubborn screws that were holding the arm rest in place and since without removing it I couldn't get the door panel off, I had to keep trying and working on the screws. Unfortunately, someone before me who attempted to remove the door panel (possibly to replace the power motor) has stripped the arm rest bolts which prevented me from removing them.

Since I couldn't think of another way to originate a door key for the customer's vehicle, I decided to call a Portland locksmith co-worker of mine to see if he could come and help. Unfortunately, he was caught up doing a different job, but he did have a helpful advice for me. Something that I didn't thought about was going with the glove box lock which was very simple to remove. Although the glove box only used 4 out of the 6 cuts, all I needed to do was to progress the remaining 2 cuts which I didn't have any problem doing .