I'm fairly surprised no one has done this yet... first i'll explain what exactly this is for those of you that do not know.

The past two cars i have had were 4 doors, in a 4 door your doors are shorter obviously and if you roll with the windows down a lot like i do, then something tends to stab you in the arm when you rest your arm on the door ledge. THE LOCKS... , i now own a 2 door 08 cobalt ls... and the locks don't come near my arm, but they are HUGE... they just seem way taller than they should be, i can't tell the difference if the doors are locked or unlocked... so i decided to lower the locks. its very simple to do in our cars, and unless your going way lower you don't even have to remove the door panel.

Tools Needed:
Channel locks
Drimmel tool with a cutting blade
a old towel


Directions:
1. Take a towel and wrap it around your door lock so that you don't scratch it up, lock your channel locks down on the lock and twist lightly, this should loosen the door lock, you can now remove your channel locks and the towel and it should be loose enough for you to unscrew it with your hand.

2. poke a whole through the towel with your door lock it should look like the following.


3. I lowered mine 1/2 inch. So pull out your tape measure and mark the lock post 1/2 inch from the top.

3. Lock your channel locks at the top of your lock so you'll have something to hold onto cause that metal is going to get hot and you don't want it dropping into your car.

4. Cut at your mark with the drimmel tool.

5. Screw the door lock back onto the post, and your done.

6. Repeat on the other side. Note you may have to do some find adjustments to get them both at the correct height. just remember to use the towel and channel locks if you need to adjust more than finger tight.

In lock position BEFORE:


In lock position AFTER:


us LS guys don't have keyless entry or electric door locks... on my xb i had this, and i lowered mine so that when they were locked the lock was completely not visible, and barely visible when unlocked. up to you on the length you want, i just needed enough to still be able to grab and unlock. So keep that in mind if you don't have electric locks.

please note: I or cobaltss.net are not responsible for any damage you do to your vehicle.

 

i like it

 

thanks man like i said surprised no one has done this yet... but well there ya have it and hope everyone enjoys...

 

I may have to do this on a day when no ones around and I'm bored. Nice job!

 

ty ty... ya took me and my friend all of 10 mins. i held the channel locks while he cut the post with the drimmel. i've done this to the past two cars i owned... 03 mazdaspeed protege, 06 scion xb. and hey looks great, its definitely something that the parents/wife/gf will never notice unless you point it out. my dad is pretty against mods, but he liked it so much he wants me to do it to his HHR. he has keyless entry, so he wants them all the way down.... DAMN keyless entry haha.

 

Nice idea. I'll have to give it a try. :

 

good idea, i like mine the way they are though, lol...but i might do this later on

 

been using it like this for the past week no issues and the length is perfect at 1/2 inch off but to each their own.

 

love it, i was plannign on doing this but have a different plan of attack, i'm swapping door panels and i'm just going to kink the long pipe of the lock

nice how to

 

very nice

 

kink as in bend it to make it lower? thats a good idea... but not sure how it'll work out please let u know... i've just always cut mine...

 

That's great! Excellent security feature. Cause all a crook has to do is look and he will know instantly it's unlocked if you accidentally leave it unlocked.

 

actually at unlock position it looks locked by the old length so really if they were not smart enough to grab the handle and just look then well... FTL! haha...

or if u have electronic locks you could just get rid of it altogether.

 

sweet no more dimple in the underside of the pass arm from having it out the window

awesome no cost how-to

 

thanks man hope everyone would like it.

 

I did this today, MUCH BETTER!!!! A hack saw works and use a washcloth to protect the door.

 

pics or ban.... j/k throw us up some pics man...

 

Here's some crappy cell phone pics

unlocked


locked

 

nice tyvm

 

when i do this, im going to do it so when its locked, its all the way hidden

 

Thank you for taking the time to do this How-To.

 

Very cool how-to! Never would have thought of this.

So you just remove it, cut it, then screw it back on?

 

Cut the piece it screws onto.

 

yep, when you unscrew it u'll see just cut 1/2" off if you want it to look like mine then screw them back on... very simple.

 

very nice, go to do that this week