When I bought my 89 iroc z It came with new doors they where nicer and indecided to put them on. What I failed to realize is that the guy who did the body work on it put bondo or some sort of filler over the hole for the door locks. I have all new door locks and I need to know what's the best way to cut the hole back out. If I look from inside the door it clearly shoes where they where supposed to go but from the outside you can't even see it. What's the best way for me to reopen this hole?

 

Chip away at the bondo

 

Find a hole bore drill bit with a right angle drill. Or seemed tool to get part of it out from the inside first. Eventually you will have to hand sand the tapered area

 

Id look from the inside first... more than likley they welded the holes up

 

make a paper template off your old doors. that way you will know where the hole is supposed to be

 

Even if you managed to drill out the holes for the locks, you would be left with a too thick flange from the bondo or lead thickness to mount the door locks. The door lock holes are inset into the skin with a small depression ridge around the lock hole. The lock goes into this depressed hole to sit more flush with the surrounding skin and is secured by a metal spring clip on the inside.

Between the exterior door skin and the door lock cylinder, there is small depressed ridge stamped into the door that circles around each door lock. So, if you’re trying to save the paint, thinking the door lock will cover the edge of the hole after you drill it out, you won’t be able too. The best solution here is either living with the lockless doors or getting new skins or doors and repainting them.

 

good news no paint but this leaves an issue. How do I live without locks?

 

it prolly has a custom remote key lock system.

 

If it has no paint yet, I’d probably just get new skins or doors with the lock holes in them. Unless you’re doing a full custom job, it doesn’t really make sense to have doors with no lock cylinders in them. You can always paint them body color to reduce their visual impact.

It’s like cars that look relatively stock with shaved doors. Not having the door handles doesn’t really make the car look better. It just points out to people like me that there’s something missing on the door. It kind of funny when you actually think about it. People will go through all the trouble and expense to shave their doors, but then buy these super tacky aluminum or chrome gas cap covers that you can see from a mile away. A big giant chrome, aluminum or black gas cap on the side of the quarter panel. If they’re too cheap for that, they will paint the stock gas gap cover lid black so it looks like a huge black dot on the side of the car. Yet, small black door handles and a tiny little black door lock cylinder has to be removed.

The only mod that would look better for me are recessed door handles like on the 4th gens. That would look great on a 3rd gen and would remind me of the GTZ Camaro show car back in the ‘80’s. Otherwise, I say leave them alone or paint them body color if need be.

Just my $.03.

 

I'll be honest the look wasn't my choice the locks are the only shaved part and I didn't realize until I put them on and halfway through wiring them. Getting the whole thing undone would be a pain and as the other guy said that it probably has a key fob entry I can almost guarantee it likely doesn't have it as it didn't come with the car nor was I informed, wiring it in at this point would be just another thing on the list and delay it more. If need be I'd just leave it unlocked, the only thing i plan on keeping in it of value is the car itself.

 

Yeah, I’m wondering why they did that? Sure, it’s a slightly cleaner look, but then you can’t lock the doors.

I don't think it would be that hard to wire in a plunger switch to the rod that goes to the door latch. It’s been awhile since I’ve been inside one of these these doors, but I think it would very similar to the pic below. The only thing you have to do is make sure you never lose the remote key lock fob or your SOL. lol!