Club 80-90 Forums

this is one of those jobs that I have been putting off in the hope that I could find someone else to do it!
For some reason none of the exterior lock barrels turn on my van, rusted, forced or glued I dont know..
Also theres a lot of different keys came with the van so it could be confusion and forcing the locks happened.
I have owned it for quite some time now and read up about taking the locks out and tumbling them etc.
Now looking online for tumblers etc came up with Brickwerks new barrels instead as couldnt find tumblers.
Brickwerks offer to set the lock barrels to a key you send them, brilliant!
So I keep the ignition, steering lock key and buy new barrels for all the rest..
Am I missing something here, a problem I havent thought of?
Is there somewhere to get the tumblers and will it save me anything in the end?
Any other ideas or know someone who specialises in these?

Thanks

The ignition - keep as is and change all the wafers in the other door locks to match. Petrol cap and glove box have their own key. No new barrels required just change wafers to match ignition key.

You might need some needle files to trim the pins appropriately, either my removing material from the outside edges, or the inner void.

Patience required but quite satisfying

just spoken to VW and they say the tumbler kit is still available, that's a bag each of all 4 different wafers and a bag of springs, enough to retumble a dozen locks or so depending on the code as some codes have 5 of the same wafer in others have only 2 of each at most (there are 7 wafers in a lock)

So if you have the patience to take your old locks apart and clean the insides and remove the crud and rubbish and spend time working out the necessary mix to suit your ignition h key you can do it yourself, brickie only do it to new lock barrels because on old ones it can be a real a*** of a job, firstly getting the barrels out of each lock (and the old aftermarket handles if they have been fitted can't be stripped and retumbled) so you might want to check that yours are original

but around £70 a set for the tumblers and springs so depends on time and self satisfaction quotient but realistically allow an hour each to do them plus stripping them off and refitting to the vehicle, plus cleaning and painting if you want them to look nice, plus maybe some of the seals

£70 ain’t bad compared to getting a new key for a modern vehicle - I was quoted £100 for a spare key for my 99 Sharan (since departed) Opted to just be careful with our single key.

I was quoted £168 for a key for our bini.

I have re-tumbled all my locks to match the ignition key, its a service I was going to offer when time allows. If you have new barrels drop me a PM. If you remove its a good time to get the handles refurbed too

Oh joy!
Locks all done by helpful genius.
While he was at it he slipped a new engine in and fixed/renewed anything else needed.
But everytime I put a key in a lock it feels great!
Well done Russel.