The Nokeyssan
Merry Christmas rustlovers! Yule love all the Christmas puns in today’s post!… Sorry.
Today on the Free Model T we start fresh with a new project. With the Shiftless Pontiac sold and my big overhaul of Big Black wrapping up I’m ready to start 2016 with something fresh, something new, a Nissan with no key. A “Nokeyssan”!
A friend had been having cooling problems with his ’01 Nissan Altima and then the hood had blown into the windshield on the freeway… then the key had snapped off in the trunk lock. Thanks Murphy!
The car was parked a few blocks from my house so I drove over, slimmed its jim, and popped the trunk. The lock cylinder was simply clipped in so I unhooked the wire and linkage, pulled the clip and took the cylinder home.
Once home, I carefully uncrimped the stainless faceplate and used some big tweezers to extract the key bit then put it all back together.
Now how would I make a key? It was Christmas Day and no locksmith would be open. Luckily I had thought ahead and bought a couple of key blanks.
First I tried to clamp the old key pieces to a blank and file it into shape. Too slow.
Next I tried the same thing with a Dremel. Not precise enough. I also tried a couple of times to lay it on a piece of paper and spray paint over it to get a nice stencil of the shape. This only resulted in a terrifying key face on a piece of paper.
Bleh. That thing gives me the jibblies.
I decided to build a jig and silver solder the pieces together.
Jig #1 was too flimsy:
Jig #2 was perfect:
I heated the area with MAPP gas and applied the flux and 56% silver solder. I do not recommend MAPP for silver soldering except on very intricate bits, so you should stick with oxygen/actylene to avoid under heating woes.
Now I took the key with a blob of joining media in the middle and carefully Dremmeled it at a low speed to remove the excess solder and silver and restore the long grooves.
Finished product: 
I did have to cut the head off of the key first to avoid melting it and whatever chip might be in it and to make it fit easily in the jig.
I took my new key nub and walked to the car. Holding the key with some pliers I gently opened the door. Perfect. Of corse it was perfect, I had already tested it in the trunk lock cylinder at home. The real test was the ignition switch.
The key went in. The key turned. The engine started.
Victory.
Merry Christmas Rustlovers!
Promotional Consideration provided by Raphael U.
