Key question

Glad this was posted. I enjoy seeing something I did not know. Glad the 810 cars were still thought of. I still have not checked my glove box door locks for being the same key. I will do that tomorrow for sure.


Gary Parsons 

On 7/9/36 the Auburn Co. put out a number of Accessories Bulletins. One of those was titled " Glove Compartment Lock. Quote " We can furnish locks for the glove compartment doors for all 810 Models of the Cord automobile. The list price for two locks installed was $7.00.

The 36 810 never came with locking glove box doors. As for the 812 best I know is they had locking glove box doors and the passenger outside door lock was the same as the ignition. Nobody has posted nor do I know if the trunk and gas door are the same. Ordo the locking glove box doors match keys. After 80 plus years who knows what locking cylinders are on any car. One fact I do know of is during the building of these cars all an owner had to do is contact the factory with a car serial number and tell them what key you needed. Then you received a free key in the mail.


Gary Parsons

5 keys sounds like an awful mess to deal with. Do any of the locks use the same tumblers?

Also, did only 37s have locking glove box doors?

As a sidenote:

I previously owned the 851 Auburn Sedan now owned by former ACD Club President Craig Birkhold. I do not recall the sequence of how the keys worked (the locking door handle was in bad shape mechanically and the trunk handles not much better - all were replaced), but will tell you the car came with two original key chains and that the keys for the ignition was an Auburn script key and then I believe there was a Yale Junior key on each key chain too.

Maybe wrong here, but I was told a Cord would have an Auburn script key for the ignition ?

And, it kills me to see a few of the best of show winning Cords at ACD Festival to have easy spotted modern key blanks.

Here's what I learned about keys. The door and the ignition are the same. The trunk is by its own key as is the locking gas cap key. If it was a 37 Cord the glove box has two different keys.  All the keys are the Yahle Jr key in the brass material. I have purchased the door key lock cylinder on ebay which comes with a metal key cut for that particular lock. They are very easy to remove and install by pressing a small drill into the hole on the bottom of the handle.


Gary Parsons

The key for my 36 project Cord was missing when I bought the car, and I’m going to get an auto locksmith to make me a new one.
That got me thinking, I am assuming that there was only 1 key for these cars, which would mean the key work work in the ignition, passenger door handle lock, and locking gas door. Is that correct, or did these cars come with more than 1 key?