Door locks & epoxy

OK, I'll preface this and say I'm a doofus.
The passenger side lock cylinder popped out of the door when I shut it. I mean, it fell to the outside and was hanging by the linkage. Oh - nice.

I opened the door panel and used epoxy putty, inside and out, to get the thing solidly back in place. I was careful not to get any on the linkage.

Now the cylinder is stuck in place with epoxy, inside and out, and the key won't turn in the lock. the power lock does work, though.

Any thoughts? I want to get this thing back to looking clean & working properly. I don't know what the hell I was thinking aside from "This will be cheap!". Any solvents that will strip epoxy? Any idea why the power locks work but not the keys?

Replacement doors are ... not cheap

It's held in by a $.02 piece of metal. Go to the junk yard and get one. Find out what desolves epoxy ( if anything) and pull it out, and clean it up and use that 2 cent clip. It's likely messed up cause it got inside the cylinder. The lock cyl and the power door locks both activate the latch lock seperately. that's why it works still.

You might have to knock it out and start over with a new cyl. If you do, do it right so you dont have to use two keys like I do. I had to replace one and I only got one cyl replaced. 3 keys for me, lock, lock and ingnition.

Stallacrew said:

It's held in by a $.02 piece of metal. Go to the junk yard and get one.

Click to expand...

Better yet, Look in the bottom of the door and retreive the original one.

When someone breaking into my90 XJ popped the lock on my passenger side door, bending the sheetmetal in the process I just decided to do away with the lock all together. Some bodywork and 'poof' you never even realize it was ever there. It's not like you ever unlock that side from the outside anyway if you are like most people. Mines white though and painting the doors are nice and easy. Epoxy once it's cured I don't think you're going to get anything to soften it again.

aircraft remover (methylene chloride) will eat that epoxy
haha and everything else that isn't iron

its one of the few chemicals that will destroy epoxy resins
if you can pry the lock cylinder out, a soaking in aircraft remover will free it.
-but if theres any plastic in the lock cylinder, its going to get destroyed too

You might also try MEK(methyl ethyl keytone)
What ever you use, use it on the inside. If it will harm the epoxy, you can bet it will take the paint right off the outside.

You might be able to use a Dremel to cut the face off the lock, then punch and drill the cylinder

Here's a pic of the metal clip that hold the cylinder in place