When I bought my '52 150 it had a keyed push button on the passenger's door and no key on the driver's door, just as originally delivered from GMC. I had no key for the door. The ignition switch was one of those $12 universal switches you buy in a blister pack at your FLAPS, which I did have a key for. I rebuilt both doors and installed the bearclaw latch kits at the same time. I decided to put a locking push button (call it repop A) in the driver's side door. Ordered one from our host. I took the repop A key to the new locking push button and the old passenger's side push button and glove box lock to my local locksmith and had him re-pin the passenger's side lock to fit the repop A key. Worked OK, but seemed to be a bit sloppy. I didn't think a lot about it. Recently, I decided to replace the universal ignition switch with a repop switch from our host so all locks on my truck would operate with the same key. Again, I took the new switch to my locksmith for re-pinning to use repop A key and also asked him to make two extra keys for the truck. The re-pinning went well using the repop A key, but the two new keys he cut from genuine GM (Briggs & Stratton B10) blanks wouldn't go into the new ignition switch or the driver's side (repop) lock. They fit the passenger's side lock (original GMC part) well. I brought the keys home and measured the thickness of the original GM keys (0.081") and the repop keys (0.065"). So the repop keys will work original locks (and are sloppy), but the original keys won't even go into the repop locks. I put a sanding wheel into a Dremel tool and knocked about 0.007" off each side of the genuine GM keys a little at a time until the would slide into the new locks without too much effort. Fixed for now, but just wanted to let you guys know about this possible problem.
Truckshop/carshop has known this for many ears and still it seems they keep selling those repop china clipper parts to the other dealers in Truck parts. Mine is the same way when it comes to the ignition keys. and getting extra keys, i had to buy a bunch of blanks from truckshop.
Bummer this but at least you're making do and moving forward... Don't forget to puff some graphite powder into each and every key lock at least once a year . -Nate
