My car is 12 years old and paid for. It gets good gas mileage, as good as some brand new eco-friendly cars.
Unfortunately, it’s a Corvette convertible.
I don’t have any enemies, that I know of, neither does my husband. We are friendly to everyone we meet. We help people out whenever we can. I don’t know why anyone would do this to us.
My husband drives it to the gym, when the weather is nice. I drive to the pool and the grocery store. Sometimes, we just go out for a criuse. We don’t drive recklessly. We don’t show off.
Yesterday we noticed something on the driver’s door, below the lock, super glue. He put the key in and it met an obstruction, superglue.
How do we get it out? I know acetone desolves it, but it’s hard to find. Nail polish remover isn’t a substitute. I’m so afraid we’ll have to spend a ton of money to have the lock replaced.
You should be able to find acetone at Lowe’s or Home Depot. It’s freely available. Look in the paint department first. The most popular brand comes in a blue can. How are you going to get it in the lock, though?
I’d use a GLASS eyedropper to get it into the lock. Maybe a plastic eyedropper will work, or maybe it will melt.
Some fingernail polish removers are 100% acetone, some aren’t. Acetone is cheaper, per ounce, in the hardware stores, but if you only want a bit of it, it might be cheaper to just buy some acetone fingernail polish remover.
Glue debonder, they sell it at hobby shops for a few bucks. It comes in a bottle with a thin applicator you can cut to the size you need, it will fit in the lock easy.
Of course it did, but C-5s are notorious for sucking the battery dry. I don’t drive much in the winter. If the battery dies and the car is locked I have a problem.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look at Home Depot for acetone, but I believe it’s illegal to sell it in Washington. It’s a carcinogen.
I would seriously have the lock removed, cleaned, and reinstalled. Just sayin, you don’t want to mess around with paint finishes etc. Have it done, it really should not be overly expensive.
I came on to post this. I have a long history with superglue accidents and solvents. Trying to inject acetone into the door lock mechanism has a 99% probability of getting it on the door paint or the interior both of which will cause worse and significantly more expensive problems than you have now. Beyond this if there are plastic materials in the door interior (likelihood 100%) they could be melted or damaged by the acetone. As a final note a few drops of acetone may not be nearly enough to free the glued mechanism. For dried superglue to dissolve it practically has to be soaked in acetone.
You need to have the lock mechanism removed and cleaned or replaced.
Yup. Lock is screwed. Acetone is just going to soften the superglue and it will reset. Locks are such delicate mechanisms that it will never work properly again.
The only way acetone would work would be if you used so much of it you totally washed all superglue out of the lock, and that is only going to be possible (if at all, frankly) if you take the lock out and bathe it in acetone and even then I doubt it.
I went to Home Depot’s web site, and set my store to a Washington store. Searched for Acetone. I found an item that was an in-store exclusive. I assume that means it is legal there.
-D/a
