How to: Shave Keyholes

When a thief wants to break into your car, often they jam a screwdriver into the locking mechanism and pop the lock. The locks themselves aren't exactly indestructible so it's a good idea to disable them and rely on keyless central locking on your alarm to enter the car. You can just disconnect them so turning them will do nothing but it doesn't look as clean.

I bought a pair of 4 door Integra rear door handles from a wrecked DA8, obviously these don't have locks and I found a pair which match my paint so they were Ideal. It is not a direct swap so you have to modify your new handles slightly.

Here is a comparison of the front and rear door handles

 

 

Removing the window

This is tricky. You have to be careful not to break the brackets that run up and down the rails. Mine were already broken when I got the car so I got some more from a wrecker but they broke within a week. This causes the window not to close properly but I managed to fix it for the moment by bashing the rail closed at the top. (not recommended)

First remove the door panel. There are phillips head screws at the front, in the two plastic handles, behind the plug in the vinyl handle, and in the end of the door. Pop the bottom of the panel off and it will swing out from the bottom. Now pull straight up to make it come off at the top. Don't take the panel off yet, unplug the power window switch first because if you break it it will be really hard to fix.

You might want to take the power window switch off and reconnect it so you don't have to bring the whole panel in every time you want to wind the window. Wind it down so you can remove the two stoppers at the top of the window by undoing the 12mm bolts.

Lower it to near the bottom so you can reach the 10mm bolt nearest the front that holds the window to the rail that slides up and down. You can reach it through the hole. Remove the rearmost one through the big gap with a 10mm socket and extension.

Remove the black plastic bit that runs on the inside of the window at the top, it has metal clips so pry them off with a flat blade screwdriver. The window should now be loose so do your best to wiggle it out by moving it back and forward and tilting it sideways.

Swapping handles

Undo the two 10mm bolts holding the handle on with a socket and extension. To remove the rod from the locking mechanism use a screwdriver to pop the circlip off. Take the white plastic bit off and pull the rod out from the door by moving it down and sliding it out.

Pop the rod out which operates the door handle mechanism by pulling it with pliers, now you can remove the front handle.

Modifying the Rear Handles

The front handles push down while the rear handles pull up, so you need to modify the rear handles so they push the rod down. This just means drilling a hole in the right place, you can see in the pic where I drilled mine and it works fine so you may want to drill there. You need to drill a hole so the white plastic bit fits snugly, this part came from the top of the mechanism of the rear handle. The hole I drilled was around 7-8mm.

Now replace the rear handle back into the door and do up the bolts, turn the rod around so it fits back into the new hole with plastic part. Tighten the end of the rod as best you can so it won't pull out.

Bend the rear handle mechanism slightly so it doesn't rub on the door, but not so far that it rubs on the window. Now adjust the rod by tightening/loosening the nut until you are satisfied the door handle will actually open the door. If you get it too far out of adjustment it will affect your central locking so make sure it all works before you put the panel back on.

Once you are sure it all works perfectly, replace the window by putting the runners back in the rails and wiggling it down. Wind the window down and replace the two 10mm bolts holding the window in, make sure the window is still in the rails and that the rubber seal at the front isn't stuck behind the top of the window. Refitting the window is pretty fiddly and you have a chance of breaking the runners if you haven't already so be careful.

 

 

This website has been gradually growing since I started it in early 2002. Originally I was simply documenting modifications and repairs to my car but I decided to publish it when I began to discover others were interested in the information. If you need help or have a how-to relating to Honda B series VTEC engines, or DA or DC2R Integras you can
email me.

While all care is taken to provide correct information, mistakes are occasionally made and I cannot be responsible for any damage that occurs to readers vehicles.