Gull-Winged Doors
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The answer is no, saddly.
It has been discussed before here:
http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/vie ... light=door
The thread (ah ha, not tread) has bad links since things have moved there but you can still use the main page at:
http://lambostyledoors.de/
It has been discussed before here:
http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/vie ... light=door
The thread (ah ha, not tread) has bad links since things have moved there but you can still use the main page at:
http://lambostyledoors.de/
Then you need to find something about it. Do a web search and put the results here.
In the link above, notice that the videos shows that their special hinges will bring the doors out before they turn up.
It shows how complexe the task is.
Good luck.
In the link above, notice that the videos shows that their special hinges will bring the doors out before they turn up.
It shows how complexe the task is.
Good luck.
Hrmm. I re-read that thread about lambo doors but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be possible. Only that that company did not make a hinge for the Insight.
Gullwing doors might be a little more complex, depending on how discreet you want the hinge to be. There will probrably be some parts that will have to go into the passenger compartment.
With either lambo or gullwing doors I'm sure it's possible. The question of course, comes down to $$$. I'd skip the websites and even body shops, and find yourself a machine shop to see what they can come up with.
Note also that gullwing doors are somewhat impractical, as they prohibit you from parking in most normal parking spaces. Unless, of course, your plan is to open the door a crack, and slink out the bottom.
Gullwing doors might be a little more complex, depending on how discreet you want the hinge to be. There will probrably be some parts that will have to go into the passenger compartment.
With either lambo or gullwing doors I'm sure it's possible. The question of course, comes down to $$$. I'd skip the websites and even body shops, and find yourself a machine shop to see what they can come up with.
Note also that gullwing doors are somewhat impractical, as they prohibit you from parking in most normal parking spaces. Unless, of course, your plan is to open the door a crack, and slink out the bottom.
Foxpaw wrote:
It would not be impractical, because the door would only open or swing out exactly 14", just like a DeLorean( try opening your car door 14"). Also if it was inpractical then I guess you could not drive a DeLorean around and park it then, because you would hit someone when you opened the door, and that is not the case. Trust me I have sat in a DeLorean with another car beside me and I open and closed the door just fine.
How to strenghen the window area of the door and still look OK. The hinge of a gullW is on top where the Insight door structure is not. The window area is just to slide "in", the glass. It can not hold the door.
The easiest way is the lambo door. Everything is already made to be held by the lower door stucture. But even that is hardly an easy task.
Would someone completly redo the door.
The easiest way is the lambo door. Everything is already made to be held by the lower door stucture. But even that is hardly an easy task.
Would someone completly redo the door.
Yeah the glass could hold because you would make cuts in the glass so they would look like the one on a DeLorean. See the black plastic thing on the window, that is how far the window opens and closes. See the picture of the interior of this DeLorean that I took in my area:
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EDIT: You also said that by using a hinge for a Gull-Winged door would not hold the weight of the door, well look in this pic that I got off of the net how the door struts hold the door open and support the weight.
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So basically if you wanted to put Gull-Winged Doors on your Isight you would have to first modify them, and second modify the roof of the car, so it would look like a DeLorean's does. This would also require alot of money and time to do.
EDIT: You also said that by using a hinge for a Gull-Winged door would not hold the weight of the door, well look in this pic that I got off of the net how the door struts hold the door open and support the weight.
So basically if you wanted to put Gull-Winged Doors on your Isight you would have to first modify them, and second modify the roof of the car, so it would look like a DeLorean's does. This would also require alot of money and time to do.
Well I don't think that you would necessary have to redo or rebuild the entire car. I think you would just have to rebuild the doors, and the roof. Although I do agree with you that the Lambroghini Doors would be the easiest way to go, but even that would be hard to do.
The delorean has the hinges near the center of the car. It's door design is very amiable to gullwing doors. The hinges on the insight are very near the outer edge of the car - so the distance required for the door to open is effectively the height of the door, several feet at least. You would have to integrate the doors into the roof and heavily modify the roof to have the doors come out only slightly like the delorean. If you were going to perform that level of modification to the doors and roof it would probrably be more practical (and cool!) to have the doors slide directly up, kind of like a van's side door only vertical.Chris said:
Local custom shops should be able to make some hinges for the vertically opening doors. I had talked to some of the guys from a shop that does that kind of custom work that were out at a car show and they were displaying a corvette and a mustang.
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They said they can do just about any car. I believe it too, it really isn't that hard to do. As far as the wiring into the door goes... no problem at all. The mustang on display had a half-a$$ job done on it, they just cut all the wires into the door and spliced extra length into it and used zip ties to hold it out of the way of the swinging door so they dont get pinched, and just wrapped with electrical tape. There's a way around everything, and anything can be done, the only thing that is questionable is the cost. There is a dollar amount for anything, besides that, it can be done. I was actually looking at my insight a few weeks ago and thought it would look interesting with "lambo" doors, I guess I can swing by the shop and get an estimate, and ask them if they could possibly make a group purchase kit that can easily be installed by owners. I'll let you know what I find out.
They said they can do just about any car. I believe it too, it really isn't that hard to do. As far as the wiring into the door goes... no problem at all. The mustang on display had a half-a$$ job done on it, they just cut all the wires into the door and spliced extra length into it and used zip ties to hold it out of the way of the swinging door so they dont get pinched, and just wrapped with electrical tape. There's a way around everything, and anything can be done, the only thing that is questionable is the cost. There is a dollar amount for anything, besides that, it can be done. I was actually looking at my insight a few weeks ago and thought it would look interesting with "lambo" doors, I guess I can swing by the shop and get an estimate, and ask them if they could possibly make a group purchase kit that can easily be installed by owners. I'll let you know what I find out.
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1,516 Posts
Chris, the Insight IMA power cable runs underneath the chassis, not through a door.
That is correct, if you get a chance at your dealer when they change the oil or something when your insight is on the lift, walk under your car and get familiar with its under-side.. you will see a large orange wire loom which contains the IMA cable... all I can think of that would actually go into the door would be the power door lock wires... and also the drivers window vent is on the door but they should line up just fine as the door closes and should not be a problem... I seriously think this would be an easy job, especially with how light and small the doors are, the hinges should be quite simple... but now that I have seriously been thinking about it, I really think the McLaren type doors would be even cooler, although they would open a bit wider than "lambo" style doors and they would also be more complex....
http://www.seriouswheels.com/mno/Merced ... 0x1200.htm
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http://www.seriouswheels.com/mno/Merced ... 0x1200.htm
No doubting the cool factor of gull wing or Lambo style doors but when I looked at the short video clip for lambo doors I was turned off by howthey wobbled as though they were really unstable. Nobody is going to be impressed by a wobbly door especially if they get coco bonked on the head. :wink:
Well the idea of a gull-winged Insight isn't bad, but when you think of the work to make it feasable...... :roll:
In my younger days I used to build and modify models. There was this one of a 1952 "Henry J" which I remember.
It had conventional doors but I converted it to gull-winged.
How did I do it?
Well I started by cutting two segments out of the roof and sticking them to the top of the door-frame. The doors looked too big and clumsy so I then cut them in half as you would do to "channel" them and stuck the bottom half to the body and the upper half would go up as it would be the door.
Doing this to the Insight would be imo too expensive and complicated due to it's aluminum body-work :wink:
In my younger days I used to build and modify models. There was this one of a 1952 "Henry J" which I remember.
It had conventional doors but I converted it to gull-winged.
How did I do it?
Well I started by cutting two segments out of the roof and sticking them to the top of the door-frame. The doors looked too big and clumsy so I then cut them in half as you would do to "channel" them and stuck the bottom half to the body and the upper half would go up as it would be the door.
Doing this to the Insight would be imo too expensive and complicated due to it's aluminum body-work :wink:
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766 Posts
Assuming you went ahead and did this crazy thing, what would it do to the crashworthiness of the Insight?
(P.S. bumped to modifications forum)
(P.S. bumped to modifications forum)
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