Need experienced bodyshop to install Gull Wing door on Honda Civic coupe in Calgary?

[happy hopping]

I emailed 2 body shop, both of them said they don't know how to do it.

The door hinge will be from :

https://www.scissor-doors.com/cart/h...cPath=162_169&

They called it Civic/ Civic SI 2006-2012+ GULL WING DOORS - BUTTERFLY DOORS

I called a 3rd bodyshop, he said the cables would have to be at least 1 ft. longer, but when I called another manufacturer on a similar door (Lambo Door Canada in BC), they said no, they said the enclosure on the door, once open, are cables that are looped, meaning they are saying the cables are more than long enough

there is an old ad. from a co. called Street Performance and Audio that said they do similar door, aka Lambo door instead of Gull wing door, but I think this co. is no longer around

anyone has any recommendation in Calgary?

[TomcoPDR]

Are lambo doors fading out in the car scene? Or do you think they're equally as popular among the tuning crowd nowadays.

[lee88]

Call K&J autobody and talk to Keith. They will do it for you

[mr2mike]

For sure lots of custom fitting to get these kits to work without leaks.
Can't see how the wires would be enough to turn shops away. Just extend the wires, route and tuck them accordingly.

[Alterac]

[happy hopping]

First of all, Lee, thanks for the reply. In regards to K&J autobody, how many Gull Wing door have they installed in the past?

I have heard installation video at youtube with time frame from 2 hr. to 16 hr., would you know how long it takes for Keith to do this?

And is there anything else I should look for or some other shop that I can research for comparison?

[ExtraSlow]

Nobody is doing a decent job of this in two hours. That's total bullshit.

[lee88]

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First of all, Lee, thanks for the reply. In regards to K&J autobody, how many Gull Wing door have they installed in the past?

I have heard installation video at youtube with time frame from 2 hr. to 16 hr., would you know how long it takes for Keith to do this?

And is there anything else I should look for or some other shop that I can research for comparison?

Keith is the owner of K&J and you have to go there and talk to him/ I can guarantee its not going to be cheap to do the job correctly. My guess would be a minimum of $1500+

[J.M.]

This is going to be too much work and money to do on a Civic. Probably more than you want to spend to do it properly. Just buy a Tesla Model X instead and call it a day

[zhao]

This is a terrible idea. Not only will you ruin the resale value of that car, you'll also be hard pressed to find anyone decent who will want to do that. It's going to be a shitty kit that doesn't work right and is going to take way to many hours to do. Plus you're already hoping to pay 2 hours labour... Gfl.

I'd ballpark 6 hours a door from someone who wants to give it a half decent attempt at making work. plus whoever designed that kit is a moron. You can't just put hinges anywhere on sheet metal and not have it bend over time from constantly flexing. Doors are bolted to high strength steel or boron reinforced spots, not thin sheet metal not designed to having 70-100 pounds pivoting on it 5 feet out.

[happy hopping]

no, I wasn't expecting to pay for a 2 hr. job. I have no idea what the duration is, I was just reading youtube people posting their experience on this job.

http://www.scissor-doors.com/gullwing-doors/

Zhao, on the website, they are in New Burnswick, they said:

Gull Wing Door hinges are 50% weld on 50% bolt on.

All of our door conversions are backed with a Lifetime Warranty.

Our Gull Wing Door Hinges can lift 180 degree straight up in the air so that they are completely perpendiular with the ground!

==========================

is that good or bad?

The other question is: what is the difference between cars like McLaren, Ferrari that has Gull wing door, vs. a Honda Civic modified to have a gull wing door? What are the pros and cons and would I encounter any issues?

[ExtraSlow]

I think you need to go talk to a shop and jump into this asap. Question only slow you down.

[speedog]

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I think you need to go talk to a shop and jump into this asap. Question only slow you down.

Wiser words have never been posted.

[C4S]

Awesome!

Just do it, and pose more photo and video! It is probably a $10K job, but will make the civic a 100K car!

(But I wonder how insurance work? will police issue a ticket? )

[ercchry]

I hate when I wake up in 1999.... damn Mr. Fusion is acting up again

[Tej.S]

Where's xzibit when you need him..

[TomcoPDR]

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I hate when I wake up in 1999.... damn Mr. Fusion is acting up again

These are gull wings, not lambo doors

[AndyL]

You gotta have gull wings - Tesla says they're cool again.

All the electric cars are doing it

[zhao]

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The other question is: what is the difference between cars like McLaren, Ferrari that has Gull wing door, vs. a Honda Civic modified to have a gull wing door? What are the pros and cons and would I encounter any issues?

the difference between cars is one has the unibody engineered to have doors like that by the manufacturer, and the other isn't.

People generally understand how houses are constructed so i'll try using this as an example: a SLS with gullwing doors is like having the house built with an engineered designed frame for the door and bolting the door to that frame. It's designed to be like that, it will hold up forever, it wont stress everything around it, etc. A civic with a gullwing door is like cletus cutting a hole in the particle board side of his garage and bolting the door to that particle board. It might work and look legit for awhile as long as you dont look too close, but its not going to last. Its also going to fuck everything around it.

Now what strength is there in a roof rail for having a door pivot on that? Honda didn't engineer it to do that, and they sure as hell aren't putting more metal high up in the roof then needed, because that costs money, decreases handling, and makes the car have worse fuel economy. On a 4 door civic the B pillar and front hinge aperture will have a boron inner reinforcement, a high stength steel inner, and a outer skin that may or may not be HSS. You'll also have added strength where the doors bolt on.

Now for how the roof rails are constructed, you'll have a inner and outer, one probably made out of mild steel and the other HSS. It was not designed to support a door, even with aided by a strut. So attaching a heavy door to that you're going to have constant flexing here. Now a shop could add reinforcement here, or the kit could come with the reinforcement needed (they sell enough of this shit to actually buy a car and engineer something to work well on that specific car??? i'd be surprised if they did) but you're looking at probably 10 hours + a side to cut open the outer roof rail and reinforce the inner section, but you wont find a decent shop that wants to do that (more on that later). So you'll be stuck with your 2000-2005 era tuner shop who didn't have a journeyman on staff but was willing to do absolutely anything because they were desperate for money and didn't know enough to know they shouldn't learn on the job with customer cars.

Then you have the exact same problem on the door; it wasn't designed to have hinges there. its actually pretty minuscule for what you could attach it to on the top of the door, so expect the most mickey mouse setup ever, or some clunky add-on that they designed to strengthen this area and sticks out like a sore thumb. Its not going to feel solid like a car taht was designed to have gullwing doors. For anyone whos ever opened a shitty lambo door converted car, I would say gull wing doors will feel several times worse then that....... and those flop around with the precision of wet noodle in a hurricane.


Now one reason why no decent shop is going to touch this to make it work well is because of liability. A shop in the states was just sued for 30 million dollars and found negligent for improperly repairing a vehicle, and all they did was adhesively bond a roof skin on instead of weld it on on a honda fit. That is actually not a bad way to repair a roof, but its not how honda says to do it, so they lost. Now doors are pretty key to vehicle construction now, so altering how they open can affect the safety of the vehicle, both in how it handles a collision, as well as how people exit the vehicle after a collision.

But the big reason is a decent shop is also busy with jobs that they know exactly what to do and what to expect with. You wanting a gullwing door conversion pegs you as either 1) crazy. potential nightmare of comebacks and shop bashing from you when it doesn't meet your crazy expectations 2) delusional. Expecting to pay about 10% of what the shop will actually want to charge. 3) dumb. More money than brains, taking a perfectly good car and trashing it with garbage mods that only looks good in low res pictures (Not one picture on their site shows any detail of how this shit attaches or looks after its on).

[ercchry]

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These are gull wings, not lambo doors

Are they though? The product page is pretty vague... and he seems to be using the words interchangeably