As I mentioned in a earlier post, Someone broke into my 01 Silverado. They popped the key hole, and it opened right away. The only thing they took was my stereo... Does anyone know a better way to prevent this? I thought about Shaving the door handles, then I thought about ordering a set of crew cab rear handles(no key hole) and putting them on the front of mine since I have keyless entry. Has anyone ever tried this? Also would anyone recommend a Viper alarm, and just an estimate on how much it would be to buy and install.....any help would be appreciated

 

That wouldn't be bad but if you lose power with your doors locked you won't be able to get in, unless you put a auxillary pooper for such an occation, but most people who have been around a car with shaved handles knows all they have to do is find the secondary opener, for power outages.

 

Ok, I never heard of shaved door handles. Anyone mind enlightening me? thanks!

 

you remove the hanndle, patch the hole, and install a "popper", its a remote conntroled mechanism to unlatch and slightly open the door at a push of a button. It also has a manual lever of sorts installed under the rocker in case of dead battery.

here its done to a thunderchicken,

http://www.baggedbirds.com/shaved%20doors.htm

 

if you shave they can still break you window

 

True on the breaking window part, but that's if they're really desperate. Is there any other way they can get in and out with what they want in less than 5 minutes, even with shaved or handles with no key holes and an alarm? And assuming they can't find the aux. popper. The alarm I want to put on is a 2 way pager - Viper 791XV.

 

The alarm would be a problem, but someone that is good with a slim jim can get in in a minute or two. I wouldn't put shaved handles on anything I drive on a regular basis because of the aux poppers. But that's just me.

 

Actually the poppers simply just apply pressure to the door to make it come out some. The things that control the latch are called solenoids. It's probly one of the biggest misunderstandings when it comes to shaved doors.

As far as it being security proof then no. If a theif wants something bad enough they will find a way in. What you need to do is have the doors and install some lexan glass or plexiglass that the sound competition guys run that's like 1' thick. Should keep them busy for a little while.

Also on it being reliable then I too wouldn't run solenoids daily for opening the doors. I have heard many stories of them actually catching on fire and stuff. Autoloc stuff is pretty bad for it. SPAL seems to be better for daily use though. But if it were me I would run the new AVS shaved door kits. They use actuators instead of solenoids so they are more dependable.

Also all the new corvette have no real door handles but just a button you press to open the door. Their is a way to get into though if the car looses power. Their is a lock cylinder hidden where the license plate is that opens the trunk latch. Then on the driver's side trunk area is a cable that opens the driver's door.

 

How about putting rear handles of a crew cab onto the front doors of mine. Since they have no key holes would that stall the thief a little longer?

 

I guess it would somewhat. But like I said if they want in bad enough their going to get in. All they would have to do then is put a screwdriver in between the metal the door handle and pry on it. The door handle it's self is only held on with 3 10mm bolts and it's attached to sheet metal so it's definatly not bulletproof.

I've replaced silverado door handles with one that were from a denali because they were color matched and didn't have the key holes. Wasn't hard. You do need to remove the key hole rod though so it won't rattle around.