A little more help to all the more experienced out there please??? I want to convert my car to the lamborghini type scissor type doors, does anyone know of any ways or seen any cars that have done this??

 

I have a way for you.....and one word as well.........MONEY!

 

actually its all about hinges, if u can get those hinges it wont be too hard. I believe your speeking of the same one in those evoluzione kit car, maybe yuo can get those hinges because the kits for thirdgens. Plus your going to need to somehow lighten your doors. Maybe with fiberglass ones. You got ttops or hard top.

 

How about half a door.

 

You can't do it with a whole door. The reason that sh*tbox above only does a half-door, and the reason the lamborghini has the angled door shape that it does, is because for a door to swing up, it's got to have a free range of motion. If you try to do that with a thirdgen, the bottom of the door is going to smack the door post.

Just think... for the money it would cost you to butcher your car, you could buy a nice corvette instead.

 

I have the T Tops. I talked to Alan over at Euroworks (the USA retailer of the Evoluzione kits) and he said that he can't sell just the hinges. And even if he could, the F body doors are WAY too heavy. I can get the Testarossa door panels made for a Firebird if I have to, but I definitely want the pop up doors! Any suggestions?

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

My suggestion- Spend the money on something else. Or if you've got all that money lying around to waste on that, send some over here

 

may i ask...WHY?????

 

To everyone wondering why... Simple answer... because I want to! I never liked leaving anything "stock", I like to put my own signature on things... I have a crap load planned and can afford whatever, its just a matter of finding the right tools and experience! With a board like this, there is a plethora of experienced people out there, just wanted to ask them!

 

what ever you do dont get fiberglass doors. The weight of the door comes from all the braces inside, not just the outside pannel. To get the weight down you would have to take all the insides crash braces. Then if you get in a accident your screwed.

 

I have a mustang and fast ford magazine (don't even start on me, I was drunk and high on crack ) that has a mustang that had been converted to the guilatine doors. Their system worked by having the door push out a few inches, then upwards. I'll try and remember to look it up tomorrow and give you the details. If I forget, e-mail me and remind me.

Rob

 

It'd be a tough project, but the easiest way seems to be the above pull-out-then-up method, which is kinda cheap IMO... If you have t-tops, you can make your car a gullwing pretty easily. That'd still be unique. This isn't a daily driver, is it? Good luck, man!

 

you can say whatever but im gonna say its not gonna happen...money or no money...you dont have the support on top of the doors.....you would need a really light (but yet safe) lower portion of the door and an extreamly strong or stiff brace part of the door (above and around the top of the window) this part of the door is non-existant on third-gens.....sorry bub...go for the suicide doors...the look bad as hell...if you wanna chop something....

 

oooooooooooooooookay! The gaunlet has been thrown!!!! Now I gotta try it!

 

They're called "Butterfly" doors and they're not just on lamborghinis... Have you ever thought of why they are on exotic sports cars? Well, I'm gonna tell you. Engineers were looking at a car that was 7+ feet wide and probably had fitted conventional doors to it... they realize that nobody is going to be able to get out of the car when they park it in a parking place (you know how hard it is to get out in our 6 foot wide cars). So what did they do? They decided to make them flip up vertically. You will find these doors on several other Grand Touring style cars such as the Jaguar X220 (84 inches wide).

Anyhow, you're gonna need a lot of hydraulic power to keep the doors up and I would heed the advice that you shouldn't comprimise the structural integrity of the doors; and you're gonna need to butcher the doors to get more than half of them to lift up...

 

i think it's feasible, considering a minivan hatch probably weighs more than our doors. the trick would be to have a very strong pivot point so when the door's up it wont bend or break at the pivot. two struts on each door could be used, the door would have to pop out first and the door jamb and door would have to be reinforced.

 

How about if you install a 6-point rollbar (with a side impact brace) that'll relieve most of the structural stress that usually falls on the doors. Then you can lighten the door as much as you want w/o safety or structural consequences. Then redesign the door so its triangular (following the natural line of the side impact brace of the rollbar setup which would've impeded entry/exit anyway). This way you don't have the square shape that would've made this geometrically impossible anyway!

 

it can be done and has been done......

lamborghini or "scissor" doors are heavy as well, not so much as a thirdgen....but when i first was getting use to getting in an out it took some force to open and close.

it can be done, i'm not sure exactly how and i don't have the car anymore to look at one directly, but i have seen it done on many types of cars and if you have the money it's possible.

i don't know if you can do a search on it but there was once a person who looked into it and a shop in cali quoted them a little over 5,000. again, if money is no option i say go for it; something different is always cool.

be wary, not many on this board are into as much custom work as one would think.

 

Hmmm, to do what you propose with your doors your gonna need to invest some serious time and money into learning what type of hydraulics will be able to hoist a door of that weight. First thing I'd do is take the door completely off and weigh it, or get a weight estimate from someone who knows the weight of your door. Then, start shopping around for a hydraulic system that will be able to hoist your door to the proposed angle. I suppose it can be done, and as far as making the door be able to lift from its current position, that can be done as well. All you'd have to do is is modify your fender area and install a hydraulic system that will pull the door back and into that area as you open it, there in giving the door the proper room to swing upwards. If indeed money is not an object as you say, it can be done, BUT, you also need to think about how much and how big the hydraulic pump needs to be in order to move somthing like that, cause I don't think that you can used and single (Or multiple) Hydraulic support to let it swing upwards, theres just to much weight at to obscure an angle. However, I could be wrong. I know that my hood is heavier than a freaking Mall, and just recently I replaced the hood support hydraulics, and it moves like it weighs NOTHING now.

Anything can be achieved with an infinite ammount of money, however ludacris it may seem.

Adam

 

i say GO FOR IT, i want to see what it looks like in the end, and hopefully it will be a happy outcome.:lala:

 

sorry double post

 

I saw an aftermarket company at last years LA Auto show that was doing it to cars including a Mustang. The door pushes straight out first, then raised scissor style. It ran something like $7K per door and they claimed to have a 18 month backlog.

 

Thank you all for the encouragement. I'm going for it!!!!!!!!

 

I thought about having a metal piece made to replace my t-tops and mount the door to that and have them flip up like a delorian.
but have to figure out how to get a frame around the window to mount it.

 

If you get this to work you should work for GM. Big project good luck.

 

I'd say what you need to do is cut the door about a foot and a half from the back bottom to the top right, so that it will actually swing up. After that you're going to have to make a new latch and weld the open parts shut as well as the triangle piece to the side of the car, and you'd need a new seal to keep water out. After this the window probably wouldn't fit in the door, so you'd have to create a different shaped window. If you've got the money and the time, have fun.

 

Hey if anyone knows of the custom people who've done this, lemme know. I'm gonna need all the help I can get!

 

check out www.euroworksltd.com , i think you might like it.

 

Wow.. those guys did a beautiful job on those kits!!!

Now I am thinking about getting a kit diablo or countach again.. damn you

 

What I can't see is how the door will seal correctly most of the time without wind noise. Lambos and those other exotics have the side window entirely contained in the door whereas our "top part" of the door is the actual glass. It seals to the weatherstripping.

 

Hey im trying to do the same thing with my doors, check out this site I just found it like 2 seconds ago, im going to check it out more but I think you guys need to see this http://www.iserv.net/~strdream/

ok I know this is not a 3rd gen f body here but bare with me http://www.iserv.net/~strdream/fiero.html
read this too it talks about cusomizing the hinges for other cars.http://www.iserv.net/~strdream/custhinge.html

 

I emailed them and they replied with this

Yes I get about two inquireies a day for that sort of thing.

Yes that can be done.

One of the door hinges is in the first picture on the web page Style #2 is also a door hinge. The other hinges are for hoods and deck lids. These hinges where designed for the Lambo kit car in the second picture

I have plans for three different methods of hinging on regular cars.

The use of special hinges requiring body modifications is how the systems work.

Yes you can buy just the hinges from us. $415.00 pr. For Type 1A. $425.00 pr. For Type 1B. $375.00 pr. For Type 2A

Cost?

Do you want us to do some or all of the work, or do you want to just purchase the parts? It is not possible to give you a price up front because of the custom nature of each project. IE. Do you want the door handles shaved, what about the paint work? Does it lift under power or manually? and so on. Plan on spending 5 to 15 thousand.

We are in Middleville Michigan. Just south of Grand Rapids and about 45 min west of Lansing.


Thank you

Ross

!! I am very pleased with this news. But I would never pay 5 to 10 grand I will do the work my self.

 

Has anyone ever done suicide doors on a third gen? Maybe shave the door handles too. That would throw car thieves for a loop huh?
I think suicide door would look pretty damn sweet, prolly be cheaper than the butterfly doors.

 

Do a search on this site, there is another forum on here that has a camaro with suicide doors.

 

theres a picture of a camaro with Lambo doors and a picture of one with suicide doors at http://www.chevyworld.net/thirdgen/cbody1.htm sorry I dont know how to do links.You may have to go to chevyworld and find the camaro section.

 

whoops!It links automatically!Me big dumb dumb!

 

The DeLorean used a pretty advanced torsion bar that sprung the door. There were struts but apparently they only did a small part of the effort:

http://www.dmcnews.com/faq/t_tech1.htm

Yes the early ones were a bit poor (a-la BTTF!) but it was fixed quickly and they worked very well frrm then on.

Gareth

 

You wouldn't necessarily have to use hydraulics (too bulky, too many hoses to leak etc)...I'd use an electric screw drive instead. Hotronics offers them in 75, 250, and 1000 lb ratings, starting at $198 each.
http://www.hottronicsproducts.com

I saw a 3000GT convertible with doors that flipped up at a show recently...its laid out about like a 3rd gen, and I would think the doors weigh about the same. He had it done in West Virginia, but the place only does a few imports. It wouldn't be an easy mod, but if you have the fabricating skills go for it. Otherwise, be prepared to spend some serious $$$$.

 

i think the real site is http://www.hotronicsproducts.com/

 

If done right it could look very cool. However in my opinion it's a better bet to put that cash into performance parts. I'm a big advocate of having it where it counts. However if you have the money to do both then I'd say go for it.