Practically Classics Forum

My 1953 Kaiser is parked on the street here in London, England. The drivers door doesn't lock properly, and anyway, any would-be car thief knows how to hook open the door locks.



A week or two back, I heard the sound of my "musical" car horn for a split second, late at night. So I get out of bed, go downstairs and look through the window. Sure enough, some youth is sitting in the drivers seat fiddling about with wires. He must have momentarily pressed the horn button by mistake. Taking hold of a conveniently positioned axe, I step outside, pull open the car door, and yell "out, ****". The kid gets out and I say "leave". He runs away, and just for show I ran after him a few yards waving the axe over my head and shouting "if I see you near my car again I'll cut your f***ing arms off". He hasn't been back!

This incident made me think of fitting a simple deadlock into the door and door post. You used to be able to buy these things everywhere, but I cannot seem to find them for sale online. See picture. Does anyone know if these are on sale anywhere? I found this pic on some web site about cars and security, and I remember around 20+ years ago when me and my schoolfriends first had cars, a couple of guys buying locks like these, and helping them to fit them. But now I cannot seem to find them on sale anywhere!

Security locks used to be retro fitted to cars in 1970's & 80's. If you have a chance have a look a look at a car that was used to carry TV kit or a DER Escort estate - but admittedly a fat chance of finding those to examine now!
I had security locks fitted to my MkI Escort back in 1980's - the drivers side was a Yale lock fitted lower down the door panel and the passenger side was a rack bolt fitted inside and part hidden by the seat belt. A pal of mine fitted (Yale I think) locks to both doors of his MkII RS2000. I would suggest a visit or talk to a couple of locksmiths as to what is available - I recall something about "long throw" locks being needed.
Good luck and ... nice car
Ed

can i say you were very calm.. i would have cut at least one hand off although i will buy tickets to see an axe wielding madman in his pyjamas chasing some lowlife up the road.... can you film it next time

http://www.canleyclassics.com/body-fitt ... net-locks/...you could easily adapt a pair of Triumph bonnet locks, they work on the same principle. You'd maybe need to make custom arms for them,

This sounds very complicated. In Texas we'd just shoot them
On a serious note, these locks look somewhat unsightly. If the car is a driver,maybe an alarm is better or fixing the drivers door lock. Most of these type of crimes are crimes of opportunity. If the door is locked, they probably won't go through the effort of picking it. If they really wanted to get in and you have a dead lock, then they'll bust out a window.

For some reason,I like that. I don't normally have an interest in 50's vehicles,but the Kaiser seems nicely shaped. Maybe because I'm aging,I'm liking it
Have you not explored why the lock doesn't lock correctly? I've put a toad Ai606 on the Cortina,I don't know if that will interest you?