Locksmithing Blog

On older cars, especially those with deep cuts towards the rear of the key, it is fairly common for the key to get snapped. I’ve done a few call-outs along these lines, in Garstang, Kirkham, Layland and so on. The chap today googled “auto locksmiths Preston” and eventually found me, since I didn’t have the keyword “auto” on any of the locksmith pages. I should probably add automotive, too, just in case.

I thought you might like to see what I mean by deep cuts. Both these are keys from which new working keys were cut, and in one of them, they are side by side. The cuts don’t need to be very deep, because car keys get a lot of abuse, opening and closing sometimes very stiff locks many times a day, and being battered by mortice key, cylinder keys, coins, and all the other miscellany found in the average pocket. (One very high security lock comes with a key cap to prevent pocket lint from collecting in the end, which would upset the opening of these precision door locks.)

I’ve also seen ones where the key has been mangled beyond recognition. One Ford Transit had the petrol cap key, which was a normal flat key, inserted into the rear door, a Tibbe type keyhole, and turned until the bits were well and truely jammed in there! I ended up taking the door apart to get that out, then fixed the lock, and then I cut a new key for the petrol cap, which took a while, since I was working from something you would have to be told was once a key!

In case you are wondering, the green blobs are so that, should anyone somehow work out who the customers were, they couldn’t be clever and copy the key from the pictures. It can be done!

With these older steel car keys, I can attend and open your car, and remove the bits of key, then produce you a new one, for around £50. And I can normally do this the same day, often within 30 minutes.

Newer car keys are more difficult, as they are often either special orders from the manufacturer, or they require a huge overhead of programmers and laser track cutting machines. They also tend to cost a lot more than £50. In fact, some of the fobs (before cutting and coding) cost over £30 + VAT!

If you have snapped a key in your lock (whether car, truck, home, work, or “automotive” , please call us, and we will be delighted to try to help.

I’m obviously far too nice. Christmas eve, 3am. Yes, the phone goes, yes, I go let them in. And charged them £60. I must be mad!

I’m obviously far too nice. I got there, and the couple had come back from a party in a taxi. No jackets, so when I got there 30 minutes after the call came in, she was nearly crying with the cold, poor lass. I gave her my jacket. He at least had long sleeves, but he was also frozen.

Fortunately, the hundreds of hours I spend fiddling with locks pays off in a lot of situations like this, and I got them in by hand picking in under 3 minutes. They were very thankful, and offered me a drink, which I declined, since it was now ten past 3, and I had been asleep in a nice warm bed. The rate for this job? Good question. Late night calls are always more expensive, and it was the morning of Christmas Eve, a Sunday to boot. But the job only took 3 minutes of my time. I was planning to charge £80, but because it was a nice quick one, I didn’t feel I could. Is that weird?

Has anyone else got any stories of Christmas/holiday charging?