Ive seen some kits in magazines that allow lambo doors to go up completely on a motor. Can this be done to a car after it already has a decah hinge installed? Anybody know? I know the installation has something to do with linear actuators, but I dont know the specifics...

 

so I guess that nobody knows about this? Yeah, thats what I was afraid of...

 

I haven't seen anyone make one yet. Personally I think it would get annoying, it could hit something when opening or if you are in a hurry it would get annoying, it just seems like it wouldn't be easy to stop once it starts opening, so that would get annoying.

 

I've seen the kit made already at www.autoloc.com, Its just that the kit comes with its own hinge. I dont wanna buy the entire new hinge set because I already have the decah hinge, thats why I wanted to see if I could just buy some linear actuators and do the setup myself, but I was gonna see if anyone knew the specifics about it.

Also, I think the switch can either be pressed once to go all the way up, or pressed and held and then stopped whenver you want, kind of like power windows, so hitting things wouldnt be a problem.

 

did you install your vertical doors yourself or have someone do it for you? did you have to do any modifications or was it bolt on?

 

Well, first off the lambo doors weren't for my Z, they are on my 96 BMW M3, I was just posting in here because I know that the decah uses a universal hinge and figured that maybe someone would know in here.

Second, nah I got them done. I do 95% of my stuff myself, usually pretty extensive stuff too. Right now Im building new sunvisors from scratch out of fiberglass resin to fit 7" TVs in them (also for the M3). The lambo's tho required a ton of attention to go on correctly, and I got the handles shaved with them too so that was just added work. My car was gone in the shop for over 3 months when it was done. BTW, when they say that the decah hinge is just a simple bolt on, YEAH OKAY. They had to rebuild a brand new post on my car to fit the damned thing on. The plus to them is that they are the strongest hinges on the market with a huge hydraulic press in them and will never fail on you, though.

As far as the motorized lambo's goes tho, still no luck on the conversion. I see the kit from autoloc, and i dunno if when I do lambo's on the Z i wanna go w/ that kit or teh one from verticaldoors. The only difference really is that they use linear actuators to operate the door on a motor.

 

Already checked on this... for the Vertical Doors, Inc. or Decah kit, you would need 4 actuators... each door would require one that pushes the door out, then a second that pushes the door up.

Further, you would have to engineer a relay that would not allow the second actuator to run until the first actuator was fully extended.

Definitely more than a simple bolt on addition. Also, the actuators run about $150-$200 each. So, between $600 and $800 just for the actuators.

Another option would be to just actuate the vertical lift of the doors. This would avoid opening the door into something if you did not have enough room to open it all the way. also still lets you open only horizontally if you like. Probably would "lock" the door in position for easy closing, too. Drawback is you would have to open the door fully before automatically lifting them... kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me.

If you figure out a good solution. Let us know. I'm interested in this, but figured it was too pricey for what is already an expensive "for show" only mod.

 

Yeah. That's something I am going to look into a bit more like I said. I figured the whole setup goes something like:
door popper (on the remote)
actuator I (on the remote)
-extends all the way out
actuator II
-extends all the way out

and like you said, there has to be a relay letting the second actuator know not to fire until the first one is extended. Then to close:

actuator II (on the remote)
-extends all the way down
and then I dont know? the actuator couldn't shut the door... It doesnt have enough force. I guess you would have to manually close it from there. Maybe the actuator could close about halfway so it would still give it the motorized motion that looks nice, but you would still have enough range of motion to get enough force to close the door? That's something else I'll have to look into more. Ahh.. this is going to be quite a project.. money is the least of my worries.

 

talk to Jerry at XS-Customs, he can tell you exactly what it'll cost, and he can do the work I'm guessing. # is 727-535-5011