North American Turbocoupe Organization

Hopefully this got everyone's attention. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of a company who designed a kit to convert the factory doors into gullwings? For those who aren't sure what these are, basically the doors open from the bottom and swing up, iow, the hinges are at the top instead of at the front of the doors. Think gullwinged circa 1950's Mercedes Benz, or GT40's.
This may sound crazy but they seriously kick ass,trust me. Not only do they look cool but they also require less room on the side to open the doors.
I remember the first year I had my TC, 1997, I ordered a back issue of Turbo Magazine, that said it had an article about turbo coupes. Well, in this magazine was an article about a comapny in CA who had designed this kit. I remember I was stoked when I saw the pictures, so I called them for a price. Well they told me the project never took off, and they ended up scraping the idea. I asked what it would take to buy the prototype kit, and the guy gave me the run around.
Just wondering if anyone has or has seen this issue or has any interest in the idea. If the company doesn't want to try and get the project going, I would be interested in making them myself, as I work at a precision machine shop that specializes in making prototypes. I can't imagine it could be more then some hydraulics and some custom hinges.
I would think now that we have a decently sized club, we should have the ability to get parts specific to our cars made. Similar to ChuckW making motor mounts, which I salute him for doing.
Anyways I thought I would throw the idea out for everyone to consider, let me know your thoughts.
Spooling up once again,
Darrell Horton

I glad I am not the only one interested. many of the guys here might think its to "ricey". Check out my reseach so far...

Here is a guy who sells a disk on how to get all the needed items and do it yourself for less than $300... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2486496664&categ ory=6755

Here is a place that sells the specific kit for our birds. Kind of pricey... http://www.supie.com/prod.html

Here is a place that does entire install...
Company Vertical Doors, Inc.
Address 1440 S. Carlos Ave
Ontario CA 91761
US
Phone 909-923-9332

If you go on ebay type in vertical doors or lambo doors. There was another guy who made some sturdy aluminum door higes, but he is not up there now. It was a nice universal kit, but costs $700 though.

Let me know what you come up with, because I would realy like to do this.




[This message has been edited by RDOG (edited 08-06-2004).]

Hrmmm..
Well, one thing to consider..those doors are HEAVY. Also, the upper portion is not strong enough to support raising the rest of the bulk of the door without some reinforcement. I could see you trying to raise the doors (better make sure the lift shocks are pretty stout). I'd also see the window shattering under the twisting stress as the full weight of the door is trying to be supported by the window frame.

I'm sure you could probably make it work if you really wanted to though.

------------------
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental..
83 TC Clone, 87 Ranger (soon to be 2.3T), 84 XR7, 80 XR7, 86 XR4
NATO Member

i would really like to try something like the gull wing doors but i think the other style would probably work out better (lambo) because of the weight of our doors keep me informed

the only problem with the lambo door kits are most of them do not actually go high enough and you end up hitting your head on the bottom of the door or ducking way down. Plus, I have seen waaaaaay too many civics with them and I could never bring myself to liking them again unless it was on a actual lambo.

As far as gull wing doors, you would actually need quite a bit of room on the side to make these work, cause if you notice on the SL and the GT40, the hinges were close to the center of the roof, whereas ours would be at the side of the roof, meaning they would swing farther out.
one thing that could work with a little custom fabrication is a hinge similar to the 80s saab 900 hood hinges. if they were used for the door, the door would first go up and then out, the only problem is that you would see this large contraption in the window.....

I guess I am happy with my doors for now except I can't find the pin and bushing kits for the hinges, 214k and they are really starting to wear....

Actually I live in California and have seen 88 Mustang 5.0's with the lambo kit and they look pretty good. The weght of the TC and the Stang are about the same since they are both fox body and many of the parts are the same.

I remember seeing a magazine piece back in the 80s that showed a Bird done this way. Looked cool but I don't recall the magazine, sorry

I think this kit on ebay looks pretty solid. It is item# 7913628191 . it is made of aluminum and has a very strong shock assembly. What do yo think?

[This message has been edited by RDOG (edited 08-09-2004).]

I actually have a copy of that Turbo magazine with the gull wing doors. The company actually cut the doors so that about 3/4 of it was only being lifted. The bottm 1/4 was welded to the car (you have to step into the car). This was to save weight and to prevent any problems opening the door in a parking lot. Good luck with this project. I would be very interested in seeing it completed. I have been thinking about this for years.

Hey any way you could scan that article for us? I'd like to see that again!