300c suicide door conversion...completed

**cpracing** · 01-19-2006, 04:26 AM

Good day all,

we had recently undertaken a suicide door conversion for a client’s 300c. Considering the global interest in this conversion we decided to post some pictures. Of all the vehicles we have put suicide doors on in the past, the 300 proved to be the most difficult. To add to the complexity of the conversion, the rear doors needed to be open to no less than 90 degrees to the body as per the customer’s request.

As with all of our conversions the vehicle needs to remain suitable for everyday use, meaning water tight, wind noise free and also the doors must open and close like they did originally and must NOT sag over time, additionally the doors must not appear "flimsily"(Must be a word) attached to the vehicle. The doors required complete reinforcing from with in as did the quarter panel. Owing unto the additional reinforcement, the doors are bounce free and close and line-up like they did from the factory. When we are done the vehicle will appear as though it came from the factory with suicide doors...which in our opinion it really should have. Will post more as we progress.

Update….she is done!

The 90 degree suicide door conversion is now complete. We have managed to achieve the 90 degrees we wanted for the rear doors and re-designed the front door hinges of the car also to open to near 90 degrees in an attempt to balance the visual appeal of the vehicle. The rear doorstops allow the doors to open up to within 3mm of the quarter panel without hitting. All the reinforcement in the doors and behind the quarter worked perfectly. The doors do not twist, flex or sag in the least. Leaning, slamming and general abuse have had no effect on the doors operation so everyone is very please. Total weight added to the vehicle was 18 pounds, 4 lbs of reinforcement in each door and rest behind the quarters and the hinge weight.

We have opted to shave the door handles on the car and have made provisions for hidden hydraulic actuators to open and close the doors. The front and rear doors have remained full power-locks and power windows. Additionally, the weather seals are still in place and function as they should. Behind the hinge is also sealed (not shown) to keep the elements from entering the quarter panel while driving.

The car is now ready for the body shop phase, all the welds will be ground smooth and the car will be stripped even further and prepped for paint. Someone did mention a 3 inch chop for the roof…so we are considering it.

CP

view all our pictures here….

http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/farmz1ca/album?.dir=/ed79

**wheelife** · 01-19-2006, 05:18 AM

Hi there, Welcome to the party...
Its great to see a Canadian company who is working on these LX platform cars, I hate to see all the so-cal boys and girls having all the fun.
To bad I moved to Fredericton from T.O I would love to see this car in person.

Good luck with the project I think your going to get lots of T.O. people from this site looking to do some work on there LXs

How about becoming a supporting vendor and supplying us aftermarket starved Canadian LXrs with some cool bits and pieces i.e. Volant, Kooks, etc..

**boggart** · 01-19-2006, 11:31 AM

Looks like you guys do good work. Just to pick at one thing. As far as your opinion that they should have come from the factory with suicide doors. Aren't they called "suicide" doors for a reason?

**redinorange** · 01-19-2006, 12:09 PM

Nice job. Those are some big honkin' hinges.
With those back doors open all the way, it looks like Rev Hammer walkin' down the road...

**sstevens805** · 01-19-2006, 12:15 PM

WOW could you do that for the magnum?

**Rev.Hammer** · 01-19-2006, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by redinorange

Nice job. Those are some big honkin' hinges.
With those back doors open all the way, it looks like Rev Hammer walkin' down the road...

HEY!! I heard that!!

**ckofod** · 01-19-2006, 12:47 PM

That is something to see. Post more pictures once you have put the car back together in its entirety. Thanks.

**nick_danger** · 01-19-2006, 12:55 PM

W-O-W!!!

I'm very impressed. A sturdy 90-degree suicide door! Awesome! I would love to do this to my Mag! Excellent work! I'm excited to see what it looks like when it's all done. Previous suicide door projects placed hinge bolts within the rear wheelwell, making tire fitment somewhat questionable.

So... what would this cost to do to my Mag - assuming you had a mass-produceable process for it?

**BobCav** · 01-19-2006, 01:01 PM

Wow, now that's suuuuuweeeettt! Great work.

**cpracing** · 01-19-2006, 02:02 PM

Vendor status for the board i am working on as we speak. As for the conversion from the factory...we certainly do understand the scary factor, it just looks so right on the car though. The hinges get comments regularly, we prefer to over engineer and have the doors extra strong and always close perfectly, the hinge is of our design anyway so making it beefy was no more work. Regarding doing other vehicles, we can do them all so the Mag is no problem. As for wheel weel space, we do not consume any wheel weel space at all. We had thought about a kit we can send out, the idea of it being installed incorectly was more than we could handle so in house only. The complete driveaway conversion costs $7500.00 and takes 6 weeks to complete. I will be sure to post more pictures as the car comes back together. Cheers,

CP

**KGBPro** · 01-19-2006, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by cpracing

Vendor status for the board i am working on as we speak. As for the conversion from the factory...we certainly do understand the scary factor, it just looks so right on the car though. The hinges get comments regularly, we prefer to over engineer and have the doors extra strong and always close perfectly, the hinge is of our design anyway so making it beefy was no more work. Regarding doing other vehicles, we can do them all so the Mag is no problem. As for wheel weel space, we do not consume any wheel weel space at all. We had thought about a kit we can send out, the idea of it being installed incorectly was more than we could handle so in house only. The complete driveaway conversion costs $7500.00 and takes 6 weeks to complete. I will be sure to post more pictures as the car comes back together. Cheers,

CP

Nice....i hope to see some pictures of your completion soon.............im currently undertaking suicide door conversion......but im having the doors swing 180 degrees.....along with some other projects im having done my ride should be done by feb/march ......

**GoofyTimL** · 01-19-2006, 02:38 PM

Since the hinge and support work is so "beefy" - Could those rear doors also act as an air brake to slow us down at the end of the quarter mile?! Facicious question, I know, but I had to ask... they just look like those cowlings that come around the rear of the engine, or the NASCAR flaps that keep a car from flippin', and boy!... they sure would disturb the air flow! HeeHee...

**RTracer** · 01-19-2006, 11:08 PM

Looks sweet, but those seats dont look to compfy

**idslamyou** · 01-20-2006, 01:25 AM

Looks like very nice work. One question though. It is hard to tell frm the pics, but it looks like where the new hinges are you can see the inner skin behind it. Why wasn't this boxed in to give it a cleaner look? Is there no room?

**cpracing** · 01-20-2006, 12:57 PM

180 degree suicide....sounds promising. As for the space behind the hinges, it is metal boxed in and we built a seal system to keep the water out when the door is closed. If we just boxed in the hinge, water would collect and sit..bad. Even though we used all stainless material in the quarters it would certainly not help to have water sitting in the quarter.

And yes, I believe we could use the doors in place of a shoot at the strip

CP