Merkur Key Make

There were many times as a locksmith technician that I got called to service a vehicle which was not very common in the market. This was mostly true for older vehicles which were mostly distributed in Europe with some of them being available here in the U.S. When it came to unlocking some of theses uncommon vehicles, the job was no different than unlocking most of other vehicle models from the same year. However, making a key or doing an ignition service was a different story.

I remember a while back I got a call from a customer who owned an 89 Merkur  XR4Ti. The customer claimed he has lost all the keys to the vehicle and could not find any other company that would be able to make a key for it. Being a locksmith technician with great experience in making vehicle's keys, I decided to take the job. Before heading to the customer, I had to review the manuals making sure I have a blank key for it and for a way to get the code for making the key.

After reviewing the manual, I determined that my only options for getting the code in order to make the key was either through the driver's side door lock, or through the trunk which would have been tricky to get to without a key. Once I got to the customer's location, I first had to unlock the car which didn't take much effort. I then started dissembling the door panel which took a while, but when I finally was able to access the lock, I noticed that there was no code stamped on it.  

Since I didn't want to take the chance of risking more time dissembling the passenger side door to access the lock for the code, I decided to call Portland locksmith a co-worker of mine who had a little more experience than I did making keys for older vehicles. As I was starting telling him the story about that vehicle I was servicing, he stopped me and said that I could have saved a lot of effort if I just went for the glove box lock to get the code.

Even though the manual did not mention anything about getting a code for the glove box lock, it seemed to be an option as well. Not only it didn't take much effort removing the lock which was only held by a clip, unlike the door lock, this one did have the code stamped on it. After getting the code, I was finally able to make the key which tested successfully.