I'm doing a T-Top conversion to my car soon and I was going to take apart the locks and redo them for my keys, but how do I pop the top black key hole cover off the lock cylinder? I don't just want to pry them off and bend them all to heck, I know there is a right way to do it so as not to bend them up and make it so they don't snap back on. Anyone know how?

 

After you get the cap off, how are you gonna rekey the lock??? If your hell bent on being able to lock the t-tops, have a lock smith rekey the locks to your key. He will have to replace the cap once it's removed.

I've actually never locked mine. You can't get into the car even if they are unlocked. And if I was worried about someone stealing my t-tops (and I'm not) I just wouldn't leave the windows down.

 

If it's the factory cylinder, forget it... greater mechanics than either of us have tried and failed. You WILL bend it to crap before it comes off. If it's a replacement cylinder, then the cap is only held on by four "bendy" tabs and is easy to remove.

The good news is that any GM dealership has replacement caps, key doors, tumblers and springs to re-key the lock. And you can choose chrome or black, too.

You could also consider just buying new cylinders. They come un-keyed and the dealership would key them to your existing keys when you pick them up.

 

I'm not really worried about someone stealing them, no. But I have been inside peoples cars that have had them (and always had them unlocked) and the handle has worked free from the vibrations of the exhaust, motor, road, ect and had one fly off while driving. I'd like to be able to lock them and keep them in place. As for rekeying them yourself, I have done it before to an extra lock that came on a door my friend had. Took the cover off with some pliers and just rearranged the little keys inside until my key would work. The only problem was, the cover was all bent up and I couldn't reinstall it.

wogert - I guess I'll just get new ones then and have them done at the stealership. Don't want to give them anymore money than I have too, but if it's got to be done.... Thanks everyone for the replies!

 

I ran into the same problem. I went to a locksmith and he told me that b/c they are sealed they cannot be rekeyed. Planning to do my T-Tops in 2 weeks

Let us (me) know how much they are at the dealership.

 

www.gmpartsdirect.com

The part # is 12506783, $9.99 a piece. I'm just going to get two from there and have the dealership rekey, shouldn't be too bad. Heck, I could just buy the replacement cap piece for it; 20496886 which are $2.53 a piece and just do it myself.

 

When i got my car one of the t-top locks was missing.
I just went to the dealer and bought all the parts for the lock and took them to the local lock smith. He built the lock to accept my key. I suggest always keeping the tops locked. A lot of people love to sit there and keep there hand on that t-top latch handle if one of them would pull it down while you were driving boom that top would be gone.

 

I had one with 4 tabs that bent over, I bent them out and pried it open.

On both of them, I was to take it apart and mess with it.

On mine I only had to take on pin out, then swap to pins, and my door keys worked. I did all of it, it worked, then I just bent the tabs down the super glued over them. I hit mine with some spray paint just cuz they were scratched up from key use anyways.


Works fine, other f-body owners never noticed a difference, some even said worked better(I cleaned them up with WD40 too)


They are still fine I use them all the time. I don't really lock mine often but I like having the option.

I have heard of locksmiths doing it for others, typical rekey is $12 for a locksmith on a lock cylinder. I have some experience with rekeying slightly just never really done it much since the biggest part of rekeying is having tons of pins for different manufacturers.

They are very simple machines once you look at them.

It's jsut a cam lock, worth trying if you mess it up, apparently new ones are only $10. So worth it imo.

 

Just got a key made from the cylinders that I took out of the t-tops at AAA auto. It was $10 a key.