IM LEANING AWAY FROM LAMBO DOOR KITS. IT LOOKS LIKE ALL REQUIRE CUTTING FACTORY HINGES. NOT EASILY REVERSIBLE. ANYONE DONE IT ON HERE LET ME KNOW WHERE/WHAT CUTTING WAS REQUIRED. IM KEEPING REGULAR DOORS UNTIL I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IM GETTING INTO. CHANGING BUSHINGS ON AN 88 IROC-Z REQUIRES DOORS TO COME OFF. I FIGURED PERFECT TIME TO GET DOOR KIT ...

 

Like I said in your other post, go to the junkyard and get a set of hinges for almost nothing.

 

Don't do it it's a Camaro not a honda civic, but it is up to you.

 

I have done it. What do you want to know? If all you are concerned about is if you have to cut your hinges the answer is YES. If you do it, it takes A LOT of work to un-do. Ask me why I know?!

Stupid mod in my eyes. I thought it was cool when I was 17-18, by the time my car was done, I was 24 and didn't want it so I had it reversed back to stock. I had to get used doors since half the hinge is welded to each door.

Don't do it and you will be happier. If you don't believe me, find out for yourself. If you go to my cardomain site there is a page someplace that eplains the install.

 

Lambo-Doors-So-Played-Out.jpg&t=1

 

lambos do have them. just not the gallardo.

 

the doors are a big part of the structural integrity of these cars, i wouldnt do it......

 

Oh, just like the doors in your house keep it standing ?

 

the doors have a tubular structure inside them to aid in the structural integrity of the body

 

It's called a crash bar. Why would anyone do that to a car? if you do it, make sure you put some neon lights and a fartcan on there too...

 

to each his own, I wouldn't do but I also wouldn't own a honda so it's your car do whatever makes you happy.

 

every time you get out of the car, prepare to be negatively noticed.
this is american muscle, not flame decal, plastic rimmed, 5in muffler civic ghetto.
think about it. ok, now you see that it a bad idea.

this is a beyond horrible idea, and a huge waste of time.
save a camaro, hack a honda.

 

Uh yeah... when the door is closed. Not opened. It doesn't matter how they open.

Mathius

 

no kidding

 

Ever look at a thirdgen cut in half accross where a door would be?

It is scary how little metal is holding the front of the car to the back. There is a reason our doors are so heavy. Making the door a 2 point attachment as opposed to 3 makes a huge difference. Don't do it.

 

I'm sorry, but part of the problem with your reasoning is these people who think that changing to suicide doors or lambo doors is going to be a bolt on affair. There's a reason these are called "custom" mods.

GM didn't design the car to have doors raising above your head. They didn't design them for the b-pillar to hold the weight of the door.

If you're going to take on fabrication like this, you need to take it upon yourself to re-enforce the chassis properly to support the weight distribution change when the door is opened. If you're not smart enough or experienced enough to do this, then you have no business cutting up a car. You're just going to hurt yourself or someone else.

That means if you're going to have a 75 lb door raised over your head from the a-pillar, you need to re-enforce the a-pillar and probably the front doghouse and a cage wouldn't hurt either. You need to add support struts and/or heavy bearings in the hinges to help support the weight of the door.

If you're going to suicide the doors, you need to re-enforce the b-pillar to handle the extra weight, add subframe connectors, and re-enforce the chassis accordingly.

I've seen your car domain page and I know you've done quite a bit of fabrication and my comments aren't necessarily directed at you personally, but just a blanket statement based on your comment. There are right and wrong ways to do things and anything is possible if you put enough thought into it and do it right.

There's a reason nobody makes bolt on kits for f-bodies.

Mathius

 

I think your weight is a bit off and, even if.... if the A-pillar (actually hinge pillar) can hold the door weight swinging out, up (sheer) would bee pretty easy.

If the car doesn't need subframes to hold your heavier than the door -ss plopping in the seat, why would it need them just for changing the door swing. It's the same weight, already there, just moving a different direction.

My point was (unrelated to Mathius' comment), a cars rigidity isn't designed around the door being shut (or, door at all). If that were true, the car would sag just by opening the door as you just removed the 'structure' from its anchor point (the door striker).

 

Probably, I guessed. I got rid of my camaro back in '02 or '03.

Agreed, but as the other poster said, you now have less contact points depending on how the lambo hinges are designed, and changing the direction of the force changes WHERE the force is applied.

Although honestly, I don't personally see much impact in this direction though concerning lambo hinges because most of the stress is still going to be on the a-pillar and possibly the fender (I'm talking about overextending the door) so you're still talking about the same parts of the car being damaged in a poor installation. Which for all practical purposes means I agree with you, but the principles involved should still be noted.

Which wasn't exactly what I was saying and maybe I didn't express myself well. My point was as long as the door still closes, the vehicle is going to have the same structural integrity with the door closed as it would with the stock hinges. You're not changing that. The only real place you need be concerned is if the new placement of the hinges is putting enough stress on the chassis to distort the door opening.

I can't really see a change in door hinges causing the entire chassis to twist unless someone's trying something like a gullwing conversion or something.

Of course all of these things are going to vary depending on whether we're talking t-tops, convertables, or a hard top as well.

And I am by no means an engineer and do not advocate that anyone takes my advice as the word of God set in stone, but I stand by my original statement that when people see "lambo conversion" or "suicide doors" novices (which makes up 90% of this board I think when it comes to real fabrication experience) tend to think that these mods only involve working with the hinges, and don't take into account the true forces at play and the impact it can have on the vehicle.

Mathius

 

Mathius: I agree with everything you are saying. Esspecially the novice people on the board thing.

Just so people know where my opinion is coming from. I am a mechanical engineer by trade. I currently work as a product design engineer for a medical supply company. I used to work for an automotive components company as well. This might not have anything to do with doors or hinges, but I am an engineer so I sorta know something or two about forces, moments, torque and all that.

The door IS 100% a part of the structure of the car. This is something that can not be overlooked. If you want to say "why doesn't my car sag when I open the door?" Try doing that while taking an off ramp that slopes up. Your door is definetly helping keep the car's shape consistent. Take your doors off and take that ramp, I bet you can see the opening distorting.

From my engineering opinion, this modification unless done almost 100% custom will be done wrong. The kits that are out there that you weld on, are not enough and basically think that you are making a show car and that your car will not really be affected by loosing some structural integrity.

Feww... done.

 

Structural or not, it would look dumb. As someone said earlier its an American Muscle car, not a ghetto civic.

 

Dinnis about 4 years ago you gave me the inspiration to do lambo doors on my 92z. I am about to install mine but yet I also have done a ground up restoration and put about 25 grand into my car and its still a body shell. Yet I have put 30" wheel tubs and a 16 point cage, seam welded the whole chassis and notched out the upper frame rail for the hinges. I put all new quarter panels and floor pans in it and widened out the rear 2" to tuck my p345/25zr20 nitto envo tires. Besides cutting out the frame rail and modifieing my hinges its going to work fine.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...10-11-23_21-15 here are some pictures that you can see where I had to box in the upper frame rail by the door jam. One thing to keep in mind is keeping the whole mounting service level so you can bolt and weld your hinge on. Now I will have to cut the flange on the inside of the fenders and nip the top corner going up the a- pillar on the fender but im making one off carbon fiber fenders anyways so ill just intigrate that into my design.

 

This thread makes my head hurt.

 

You might change your opinion when this fellow can open and step out of his car in a tight parking spot without fear of banging another car door. Besides whether one likes it or not, it's called customization. So many people on here say you can't do that because it's "American" muscle not a Honda. Well so is putting anything larger than a 16 inch wheel on these cars. Owners of Honda's do it and so do a vast amount of members on this board. So give the guy more constructive criticism and less "I don't like it so don't do it" mentality.

I will also support the argument that when the door is CLOSED, it provides structure to the car. The car even with the kit, is still tied to it's original mounting points, just with different hinge setup. So unless one plans to drive around with the doors open the structure integrity is still the same.

 

[ ] I am younger than 20 years old and I think lambo doors on 3rd gen cars is cool

[x] I am older than 20 years old and I don't care for lambo doors on a 3rd gen.

 

do what you want if you like the look then do it its your car there are guys on here that have done it before and there has been a bunch of threads on the topic

now as a matter of your question... yes if you do this it is going to take a lot of work to get it back to stock if you don't like it

my opinion is if you are having doubts about it then i wouldn't do it but all in all it's totally up to you

 

IM KEEPING MY DOORS STOCK.