Funny thing, I was thinking just yesterday that I needed to come up with new
keys for my 61 Lark - they are about worn out, I see a day when jiggling
them in the ignition doesn't do a damn thing anymore.

Dan Kay
61 Lark VIII 4D Regal
62 Lark VI Daytona convertible

There is currently a set of four keys listed on Ebay at the following
link:   http://tinyurl.com/5r2oys

Ed

Well, this question has been festering for 46 years, so I'll ask:
aluminum seems to the dumbest material to make keys ..... were they so
much cheaper to the maker, or was there some other reason to use them?

I can well remember the day I went with Mom to trade her '55 Prez
hardtop in on a new '62 Hawk........the GT was just so beautiful  (so
was the '55, but we were tired of having the rust repaired).
HaHa.....gorgeous as the GT was, something seemed sort of chintzy:  the
carpet, the vinyl seats were stiff and the rear trunk overlay was a
cheap imitation of the real "grill" on the back of Lincolns.  And the
'55 had "real" keys instead of those cheap aluminum jobs that we hated
on Dad's Chryslers.

We'd often leave the car unlocked rather than risk having to unlock it
with the key......'specially in winter when the locks were even stiffer.
They'd get bent and eventually break.  For the life of me, I don't know
why we didn't just have good copies made at a key shop.

I thought for a while that maybe the aluminum keys were easier on the
ignition......but over the years have had plenty of worn-out ignitions
to replace, so that wasn't it.  Almost as mystifying as second-gear
start!

If you do not have the key number you can get a birth certificate
( factory order) from the Studebaker
Museum and that will have the original key numbers on it.
I have a large selection of keys and locks going back to the late
30's.
R.Kapteyn
studebaker@mac.com