Decided to get a little "new school" in some areas with the 66 Chevelle SS.

One area is power door locks and power windows.

This is the work for the power door locks. Since we'll power door locks there will be NO Need for the exterior key lock - we're taking them out...

Passenger side
Passenger side exterior door lock was mangled, so we cut out a nice square and my son welded in a new piece.

With a little filler, we can start blending it in with the panel.

Were not done yet -- Sand that with some 80 grit and a longer board and we see some low spots

Another coat of filler and we're getting there, almost done. As you can see, I had to add a little around where the door handle will attach - I'll shape that when the filler is flat and matches the rest of the door.

Driver side
Driver side exterior door lock was OK, so I had to cut a piece to fit inside the key blank. I first traced this out using a piece of skinny pattern board then transferred that to a scrap piece of sheetmetal about the same thickness. With tin snips and a dremel worked it so that the new piece fit inside the key blank hole.

It's held in by a magnet inside the door cavity.

I'm not that great of a welder so I'll wait until my son comes home from school this weekend to see if he can weld this piece in for me. He'll tack in a few places, then add more and more tack welds until the entire piece is welded in... Then I'll finish up with filler like the passenger side.

Inside door locks
Since we'll be locking and unlocking the car automatically, they'll be no need for the lock pulls inside the car either. I'll cut these out and make flat sheetmetal replacement and get them ready for welding also (similar to filling in the exterior door locks). When we're done, it'll be one long smooth piece, no bump and no hole...

This is the passenger side, marked for cutting...

cut out and new piece tacked in at bottom

since the piece may warp, start bending the piece and tack "up" the piece until you can cut the top flush to fit

the tack the top in place - then the whole thing in completely. Grind it down to see how you did - I'm missing some at the right, so I'll need to weld in those holes.

Welded those holes in on the right side and a regrind to see if I'm ready for filler yet

and the first coat of filler goes on