Lambo Doors

by Ian Slacker

Lambo doors are also called scissor doors or vertical doors because they open vertically. They're also called gull-wing doors, which is plain wrong as gull-wing doors are hinged at the center of the roof. We'll call them lambo doors as the Lamborghini Countach was the first production car to feature them. Actually, the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo concept car designed by Marcello Gandini was the first car to feature these vertical doors, but the Lamborghini Countach, which was also designed by Marcello Gandini, was the first production car to feature vertical doors in 1974. In recent years lambo doors have become increasingly popular car styling items to the extent that most auto parts shops these days carry universal lambo door kits that can be used to convert most car doors to lambo doors.

The lambo door kits contains two high strength lambo door hinges that replaces your stock door hinges, a set of gas shocks to hold the door open, and a set of bolts to attach the hinges to the car. The lambo door hinges are designed to open outward a few inches like a normal door before swinging upward, thus allowing the door to clear the frame and allowing you to retain the stock door catch mechanism. INSTALLING LAMBO DOOR KITS Installing a lambo door kit is a fairly simple modification but it could take two to three days to complete and you will need a helping hand to keep the door in place. You will also need a couple of tools, such as socket set and a ratchet or some spanners, a tin snips or dremel, an angle grinder, and a hex key set. You will need the angle grinder and tin snips to ensure that the lambo door hinges fit flush against the car's body, but a word of warning before we proceed: if you need to remove reinforcements or parts of the car's chassis, then you will need to do some welding to reinforce the area of the chassis that you've just weakened, and if you need to do that, it may be better to have a qualified professional do the work! Okay then, let's get cracking... The first step to installing a lambo door kit is to disconnect the battery as you will need to disconnect and extend the wiring harness to the front doors. You will also need to remove the front fenders, which could mean removing the head lights to access the bolts that secure the fenders to the chassis. On older cars with metal bumpers, you may need to get the bumper out of the way before you can remove the front fenders. Once the fenders are removed you will have unobstructed access the stock door hinges and the wiring harness that runs to the front doors but take care not to chip the paint work on the fenders. The next step is to remove the door checker (the metal of rubber strip that prevents the door from opening out too far), unplug the wiring harness that runs to the door, and any fender brackets located near the door. Now check that there is no trim or ribbing that protrudes out from the body and will prevent the lambo door hinges from fitting flush against the car's body. If there are any, use the metal snips or the angle grinder to cut off protruding metal trim and use a panel beater's hammer to flatten the ribbing as the lambo door hinge must fit perfectly vertical and flush against the body. However, before using a grinder on the car, cover the body work in the vicinity where you will be grinding with an old blanket to prevent the sparks from the grinder damaging your paint work. Then use the angle grinder to grind the cut flush with the body and apply some rust inhibitor to the area you worked on. Now have someone hold the door in place while you remove the stock door hinges. With the sock door hinges removed, place the lambo door hinge against the door to check that the mounting holes line up with the hinge holes on the chassis and on the door. If they do not, you may need to realign the holes either by elongating the existing holes, or drilling new holes so that the mounting holes on the lambo door hinge match the existing hinge holes on the car. Once the mounting holes are aligned, you can attach the lambo door hinge to the car but be careful not to over tighten the bolts as you may need to adjust the door in a while. Next, have someone hold the door up in the open position while you attach the gas shock securely to the gas shock mounting mechanism. With the door still open, extend the wiring harness that runs to the door so that it can reach the door in the new position and be sure to match the wires correctly. Then tape up the wiring harness and secure it in place. Now all that's left is to close the door so that you can adjust the door hinge so that the door fits perfectly, replace the front fenders and other body parts that you may have removed, and reconnect the battery. Now your car has a cool set of lambo doors! Unfortunately lambo doors can't be fitted to the rear doors as there's just not enough space on the B-pillar to mount the lambo door hinges but you could convert the rear doors to suicide doors. Instead of opening to the front, suicide doors open to the back like the rear doors of a Mazda RX8, though these look silly on some cars where the rear doors close over the rear wheel. Fitting a suicide door kit is also more complicated as it means relocating the hinges and the door catch mechanism.