The Dr Bonz Lambo Door Experience
09-18-2004, 08:26 PM
#1
The Dr Bonz Lambo Door Experience
Well, I finally took the plunge and got my Lambo Doors installed. I purchased the kit in a group buy I had organized through a company called Aspec Motorsports. This is the Vertical Doors kit (www.verticaldoors.com).
Our GB price was a decent $1050 shipped. This kit runs anywhere from $1200-$1800 from what I have seen. I took some time getting them installed since my car was in MD at AAM getting the new fuel system installed.
Anyway, I was having trouble getting any body shop to install them. They were all reluctant to do it. While discussing this in my office one day, one of my medical assistants mentioned that her fiance works in a body shop that does custom work and he also had a shop set up in his garage.
The rest is history! He took the hinges to work and painted them Brickyard for me. Our Brick AX8 is called Red Carbernet in the Sherwin Williams paint system by the way
So, I drop the car off on Monday and print up all of the tips I had seen posted in various thread on what to do and not to do. The tips by Andy (McDuck) were invaluable. It is a VERY labor intensive install and shouldn't be done if you don't have a lot of experience doing this kind of thing.
It is important that you ROUND OFF the shoulder bolt on this kit! If you don't the sharp edges of the bolt head will ding the inside of your fender and you'll see it on the outside! Also, you'll need spacers (washers) inside the hinges so that the doors will align properly with the front and rear renders (i.e. so they don't appear sunken in or stick out). Also, you'll need to adjust them front to back so that the gap between the front of the door and the front fender is the same as the gap between the back of the door and the back fender.
One person (JCN) who had these installed said he DID NOT have to extend the wires that go out to the door (there are 32 of them and to cut and splice all of them really adds to the labor time). Andy said he DID extend his. I am here to break the tie! I DID NOT have to extend them. My installer got inside and released some of the clips on the wire bundle and therefore gained me some extra length. Mine work great like this and all electrical functions of the door work perfectly and there is no undo tension on the wires at all. As is DEFINITELY required, he cut and rolled the inside of my fender to accommodate the air shock.
It is also important to note, that when you remove the stock hinges and install the new ones, there will be a small area that will need to be painted since new hinges don't cover the old area up completely. It isn't really visible unless the door is all the way up and you are really looking in there, but I had it painted to be thorough.
Total labor time was approximately 20 hours. (just a bit more than the 3-4 hours per door that Aspec Motorsports kept telling us).
Now, for my impressions. All I can say is that they look AWESOME! Andy warned me that all those looks I got when the car (especially The Brick) was new will come back TEN FOLD! He was right. I cannot get out of this car without attracting a crowd. In fact, there have been times that I intentionally open the doors outward (the normal way) without lifting them so as to NOT attract attention.
Opening and closing them is going to take A LOT of getting used to. You MUST be very careful doing this EVERY time or you will jack up the inside door panel. In other words, if you open the door and the shock starts to lift it up before it is out far enough to clear the panel, DING! You have to hold the door down as you pull it closed too otherwise the latch doesn't line up and you hear a clunk every time. I am starting to get good at it though. The thing is, you'll have to teach EVERYONE who ever gets in or out of your car how to do this. Better yet, just do it for them!
Now, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ivan blow through here yesterday and the car is really dirty. I washed and Zainoed tonight and the car is in the garage with a layer of Z-5 on it as I type. I'll get better pics in the morning Sunday. But I did take some today and without further ado:
Our GB price was a decent $1050 shipped. This kit runs anywhere from $1200-$1800 from what I have seen. I took some time getting them installed since my car was in MD at AAM getting the new fuel system installed.
Anyway, I was having trouble getting any body shop to install them. They were all reluctant to do it. While discussing this in my office one day, one of my medical assistants mentioned that her fiance works in a body shop that does custom work and he also had a shop set up in his garage.
The rest is history! He took the hinges to work and painted them Brickyard for me. Our Brick AX8 is called Red Carbernet in the Sherwin Williams paint system by the way
So, I drop the car off on Monday and print up all of the tips I had seen posted in various thread on what to do and not to do. The tips by Andy (McDuck) were invaluable. It is a VERY labor intensive install and shouldn't be done if you don't have a lot of experience doing this kind of thing.
It is important that you ROUND OFF the shoulder bolt on this kit! If you don't the sharp edges of the bolt head will ding the inside of your fender and you'll see it on the outside! Also, you'll need spacers (washers) inside the hinges so that the doors will align properly with the front and rear renders (i.e. so they don't appear sunken in or stick out). Also, you'll need to adjust them front to back so that the gap between the front of the door and the front fender is the same as the gap between the back of the door and the back fender.
One person (JCN) who had these installed said he DID NOT have to extend the wires that go out to the door (there are 32 of them and to cut and splice all of them really adds to the labor time). Andy said he DID extend his. I am here to break the tie! I DID NOT have to extend them. My installer got inside and released some of the clips on the wire bundle and therefore gained me some extra length. Mine work great like this and all electrical functions of the door work perfectly and there is no undo tension on the wires at all. As is DEFINITELY required, he cut and rolled the inside of my fender to accommodate the air shock.
It is also important to note, that when you remove the stock hinges and install the new ones, there will be a small area that will need to be painted since new hinges don't cover the old area up completely. It isn't really visible unless the door is all the way up and you are really looking in there, but I had it painted to be thorough.
Total labor time was approximately 20 hours. (just a bit more than the 3-4 hours per door that Aspec Motorsports kept telling us).
Now, for my impressions. All I can say is that they look AWESOME! Andy warned me that all those looks I got when the car (especially The Brick) was new will come back TEN FOLD! He was right. I cannot get out of this car without attracting a crowd. In fact, there have been times that I intentionally open the doors outward (the normal way) without lifting them so as to NOT attract attention.
Opening and closing them is going to take A LOT of getting used to. You MUST be very careful doing this EVERY time or you will jack up the inside door panel. In other words, if you open the door and the shock starts to lift it up before it is out far enough to clear the panel, DING! You have to hold the door down as you pull it closed too otherwise the latch doesn't line up and you hear a clunk every time. I am starting to get good at it though. The thing is, you'll have to teach EVERYONE who ever gets in or out of your car how to do this. Better yet, just do it for them!
Now, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ivan blow through here yesterday and the car is really dirty. I washed and Zainoed tonight and the car is in the garage with a layer of Z-5 on it as I type. I'll get better pics in the morning Sunday. But I did take some today and without further ado:
Last edited by Dr Bonz; 09-18-2004 at 08:34 PM.
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09-18-2004, 08:47 PM
#13
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Originally posted by manofsteele2003
Nice installation, never been a fan of the lambo door conversion though.
Nice installation, never been a fan of the lambo door conversion though.
09-18-2004, 09:25 PM
#15
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i had lambo doors on my 98 accord coupe and lemme tell u ... i will never do another conversion on any of my cars... the shock blew out...some how the kit started to rust.. thoughts of the door falling was a issue...and then readjusting is a b*itch.. and the kit was made by decah
09-18-2004, 09:26 PM
#16
$1000. This included the painting of the hinges and the spot on the inside that the Lambo Door hinges didn't cover. It included the guy driving me home (18 miles) when I left the car with him and doing it again when we played "musical cars" when I picked it up four days later.
It still was more than I expected but he did a really nice job and I guess it will be worth it.
It still was more than I expected but he did a really nice job and I guess it will be worth it.
09-18-2004, 09:43 PM
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Good review! Ive been toying with the idea of these doors and just cant make up my mind. I know I have the skills to do the install but Im just not too sure about long term. Can you go back to stock if you want?
