Aluminum Key Blanks

use the aluminum FOR SHOW.. but brass for every day.. --Shiva--

dont think they are alumininum tho the third from left wasnt made in it, AFAIK.. its too small

--Shiva--

Well, this question has been festering for 46 years, so I'll ask: aluminum seems to the dumbest material to make keys ..... were they so much cheaper to the maker, or was there some other reason to use them?

I can well remember the day I went with Mom to trade her '55 Prez hardtop in on a new '62 Hawk........the GT was just so beautiful (so was the '55, but we were tired of having the rust repaired). HaHa.....gorgeous as the GT was, something seemed sort of chintzy: the carpet, the vinyl seats were stiff and the rear trunk overlay was a cheap imitation of the real "grill" on the back of Lincolns. And the '55 had "real" keys instead of those cheap aluminum jobs that we hated on Dad's Chryslers.

We'd often leave the car unlocked rather than risk having to unlock it with the key......'specially in winter when the locks were even stiffer. They'd get bent and eventually break. For the life of me, I don't know why we didn't just have good copies made at a key shop.

I thought for a while that maybe the aluminum keys were easier on the ignition......but over the years have had plenty of worn-out ignitions to replace, so that wasn't it. Almost as mystifying as second-gear start!

If you do not have the key number you can get a birth certificate ( factory order) from the Studebaker Museum and that will have the original key numbers on it. I have a large selection of keys and locks going back to the late

In the locksmith area we got 'reverse software'.. let me measure the key and get the depths.. say they were 13244.. plug that into our software and we can reverse lookup the code number.. tis not a problem.

--Shiva--

cheaper, the 'new fad' as well, and stayed shiny instead of the brass that got 'dirty'..

--Shiva--