While in the middle of my drive last weekend, I discovered that my passenger door lock had annoyingly committed suicide out of the blue. I was able to lock it with my key just fine, however, when I went to go unlock it half an hour later, the key oddly wouldn’t insert anymore. The key hole’s plastic cover had shattered into pieces and lodged itself into the tumblers. An easy option would have been to remove the lock cylinder and try to pick out all of the plastic pieces on a bench, but I liked the function of the plastic cover protecting the internals from the environment, so the only resort was to buy a complete replacement.
I wanted to get the fix done quickly, as in by this weekend. With only 5 business days to work with, I promptly started the process and made arrangements with my usual go-tos. I contacted Ray Crowe and ordered a new Mazda lock cylinder with expedited shipping. This would get me the part by Friday. I was then able to pick up the package after work and made a trip over to the same locksmith that helped me rekey the Silvia trunk. Like before, he was able to reconfigure the tumblers to fit my existing keys.
Old on left, New on right.
Thankfully, replacing the lock cylinder is an easy affair and can be done with minimal disassembly. Soon enough, the install was complete and the fix checked off the list.
I like to stay as productive as possible because I value time preciously. I find that I can be uneasy or feel downright miserable when I am not doing something worthwhile. In the limited free time that I have, I prefer spending it on activities that are engaging. This is why I constantly seek to learn and increase my skills. Learning how to weld has been on my to-do list for ages, and I finally made it happen this weekend. I reached out to a local fabricator who had a Mig setup and brought Albert along for the party.
This was the first time I played with a Mig welder, but it is incredibly straightforward and I can see how its peak can be reached relatively quickly with practice. It is literally something you can pick up and run with.
We spent a few hours mostly cutting up a steel pipe and welding it back, repeatedly.
Mig welding was good to try out and start with, but what I really want to learn is Tig, which has a far higher learning curve. Will need to add that onto the ever expanding agenda.