I discovered an unusual and interesting to me anomaly on my '64 during restoration.
When I bought my car, a non-correct ignition switch had replaced the original but by all accounts all other locksets including the console lock were original and matched to the original set of keys that came with the car (Ign/Door and Compartment keys).
A 3rd key also came with the car that operated the replacement ignition switch.
About 30 years before the resto began, knowing that I'd eventually want a correct Ignition Switch, I picked up a '64 Ignition Switch from White's Pontiac Salvage in Rolla, MO out of a '64 Tempest in his yard.
During the final stages of resto, I brought my correct ignition switch to Dedge's Lock in Jacksonville. Before doing so, I decoded the pins needed from my original key (the pin decoding info is in the Shop Manual).
So I gave them the pin combination and I also gave them the Ignition key Code from the PHS manifest record.
For about $25 they rekeyed my Switch. To my dismay, they rekeyed it to the Code but told me the Code did NOT match the pin decode I supplied!
I didn't know what to think, how could that have gone wrong?
I then checked the Code stamped on the original lockset in the door (in '64, the door lock and Ignition Switch used the same key).
Lo and behold, it was stamped with the Code that was on the PHS record.
Now one could assume that BOTH original door lock cylinders had previously been rekeyed for some inexplicable reason. But when I bought the car it was pretty rough, by no means a previously restored car.
The explanation that made the most sense to me, when Briggs & Stratton originally produced the locksets, that were eventually installed in my GTO at Final Assembly, they must have miscoded the set and shipped it to PMD.
All the Fremont Plant knew when they installed the lockset was the Code that identified it. That Code was printed on the Manifest and nobody had any clue that it was misidentified until more than 50 years later when I attempted to have a replacement cylinder rekeyed to the Code.
At that point, I had two choices, rekey the door locksets and the Ign Switch to the Code on the PHS and stamped on the door locksets.
Or, leave the door locksets alone and rekey the Ign Switch to match how I believe B & S had originally keyed my locksets. This is what I chose to do.
Dedge's rekeyed the switch once again at no additional charge, they were great to work with. Dedge's was also able to identify the Code that my locksets should have been identified by according to the decode of the original key.
So I have kept a record for the Code that the locksets are actually keyed to along with the Code that is stamped on the door locksets which matches the PHS.
So believe what you will but my belief is that by an apparent error my original locksets were keyed by B & S to one code but stamped with another.
wooftfd, I think it is very unlikely that your original locksets will be incorrectly keyed like mine were.
But one thing you can do before having keys cut to your Code is to check the door lock cylinders to confirm that they are stamped with the same Code that is on the PHS.
If the door panels are off, you should be able to see the Code stamping without having to remove the lockset, at least that was true of mine.
In my case, if I didn't have keys, I would have had some trouble determining what key I needed since the Code on the PHS didn't match the lockset keying. But pretty sure I could have brought Dedge my door lock cylinder and they would have been able to determine the pin combination with picks and used that to cut a correct key.
OPH mentioned wire wheeling the cut keys. Dedge's explained to me that new keys might "hang up" a bit until they "wear in". I'm guessing wire wheeling helps the keys to operate smoothly right out of the box. But with use, they will also wear in to the pins. After very high use, keys might not operate as well as when new.
BVZ, on the side topic, I was surprised to learn '69 GTO invoice records don't always include key codes. My '69 records are probably about 95% Firebirds and I don't recall ever noticing missing key codes on any Firebird record. I do have a few '69 GTO records and don't recall seeing missing key codes on them either, so that is interesting to learn about.
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