Hello to all. I am sure many of you have been checking out the thread where myself and Dr.CPU had lambo hinges installed on our cars. Due to the problems we faced, the company who provided our hinges shall remain unnamed in this thread, until of course they step forward to help out. You can read about our experience here. https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/063822.html
Let's begin with my favorite photo...
My car received the prototype hinges and they never quite worked properly. When opening horizontally, the doors were catching my fender GFX and pulling it off, as well as the left door has a faulty strut.
Tonight I pulled the right fender off the car and here's what I've found....
As you can see here, the horizontal pivot point is mounted at an angle, which means that when the door opens it actually swings out and down. For this setup to work on a Fiero, this hinge pin needs to be mounted at 90 degrees vertical (as shown in a number of other threads).
It looks like I will be moving the bottom mounting point of the hinge to accomplish this, as will have to extend the the lambo door stop to keep the door level when closed.
Question for MadCurl and you other guys with these doors, what pressure struts are you guys using? Mine are marked 900lbs, with no brand or serial numbers. Can that be right? My drivers door won't stay up, and my passenger door is marginal, but it works. It could simply use a little more help.
The mounting points on my doors are severely rusted, so I will be mounting new doors while I am fixing the hinges. Pics will follow as I progress...
lol.. I wish all were here and we could ponder hinge mechanics over a beer or 3 :}
It looks like I will be able to do this failry easily, so it won't be bad. If not, Oscar I will come see you with the doors duct taped shut. :}
As for the strength of the struts, the drived side is defective, so that's why it doesn't work at all. The right side works, just not as much lift as I like. I have a line on some 950lb replacements for $30 each.
Mister. :} I want to talk to the LED expert soon :}
Originally posted by Eclipse: I have a line on some 950lb replacements for $30 each.
I hope you are getting them wholesale. sounds like some cheap ones to me(they arent anywhere near 500lbs let alone 950 and at $30 you might get 100-150lbs), shouldnt be any better than what you have from the sounds of it, I could be wrong... what brand??
[This message has been edited by AJ7 (edited 08-30-2007).]
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01:45 PM
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
Jay - just a stupid question. Can the Lambo doors be changes back to stock, bring the hinges over and work on the fix on a donor over the winter? This way if we goof up the body panels nothing is lost. Just a thought to toss around. BTW - the ~75LB door is at a very high mechanical disadvantage, meaning that a lot of force is required to hold the door open, plus a safety factor is to be implemented. Also MOST (not all) gas struts are designed to work with the shiny piston rod facing down. The internal design dictates the orientation. Oscar.
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10:38 PM
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
Originally posted by Eclipse: Question for MadCurl and you other guys with these doors, what pressure struts are you guys using? Mine are marked 900lbs, with no brand or serial numbers. Can that be right? My drivers door won't stay up, and my passenger door is marginal, but it works. It could simply use a little more help.
I'd call Decah or VDI for the correct replacement strut, but remember end links aren't the same as VDI or Decahs. As someone mentioned, the better design is to have the chrome end facing downward to prevent water from sipping in and damaging the strut.
------------------ "Anyone can make a copy of something, it may look good but it never is the real car. Make something from your imagination, something unique, something nobody has, anything is possible and, ideas can be a reality and Archie and the Crew and make your Dreams into a reality."
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12:00 PM
Mickey_Moose Member
Posts: 7568 From: Edmonton, AB, Canada Registered: May 2001
As meantioned, you want to place the 'shaft' (the part that extends out from the inside) down. The oil that is inside of the strut help keeps the seal moist to prevent it from leaking. If mounted as shown, the seal tends to dry up fairly quickly and it will lose pressure in a fairly short time.
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06:22 PM
The Fieromaster Member
Posts: 4124 From: Painesville, Ohio USA Registered: Jun 2001
Its not that the door is 75lbs its the leverage that is the issue. Take a baseball bat and hold the bottom with one hand and use the other hand to rotate it up and down like you would if it were the door, now move that hand close to the hand holding the bottom and do the same. It takes incredibly more force to move it when your close to the pivot point.
Give me a large enough lever and i can move the world!
------------------ "Raced That, Wrecked Better"~In Memory Of Jesse Cesek~ 1980-2000 US Armored Cavalry - Fox 2/81 - Death By 120 - 1 Shot 1 Kill 3800 SuperCharged Series II Swap, Rare BTTK Intercooler, Thrasher MPS, Fastback Swap
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10:29 PM
Sep 1st, 2007
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
ok. Some new pics.... I've been extremely busy at work and have not had a chance to get near the car until tonight....
The hinge in the closed position
The hinge in the open position...
Various pics of the hinge off of the car...
The backside...
Slim profile...
DrCPU... The hinge has a wide range of motion. With a longer strut, and moving the horizontal bumpstop, it could easily be a 90 degree hinge.
Tomorrow the fix work begins. I know exactly what needs to be done, and it looks like it will be fairly easy. Famous last words. I'll keep taking pics. ------------------ Jay Brintnell Southern Ontario Fiero Association Yellow 85 Notchback(A.K.A. GodFearN) The progress thread: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/077740.html
[This message has been edited by Eclipse (edited 09-08-2007).]
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01:17 AM
jscott1 Member
Posts: 21676 From: Houston, TX , USA Registered: Dec 2001
The hinge has a wide range of motion. With a longer strut, and moving the horizontal bumpstop, it could easily be a 90 degree hinge.
It looks good, but I've said it before and I'll say it again...just because a hinge has 90 degrees of motion doesn't mean that a Fiero door mounted to that hinge will have 90 degrees of motion. The door could still hit the fender before it gets to 90 degrees.
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02:18 AM
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
Jay if you have the time first saturday/sunday of Oct come on up to Port Elgin with the wife and kids for Pumpkinfest (huge car show and other activities for everyone ) here is a link for consideration http://www.pumpkinfest.org/ also extend the invite to the SOFA community. All is welcome to use my house as a homebase Good luck with the repairs i hope all the hassels will be justified in the end.
------------------ It isnt re-creation....its recreation!!!!
FYI, I haven't dropped this thread. I have been busy with a new job and the car simply had to go on the backburner. (no that's not a burning fiero joke :} )
I have fixed the angle of the passenger side hinge and have started remounting things. I will hopefully get some more pics next week.
Are you going to try to rebuild the ones you have or are you going to get new ones like Dr CPU ? I know Archie is going to re do his because the other ones sucked so bad. not to mention almost took hes leg off! if you are going to rebuild yours I wish you luck and let us know how it goes.
I have talked to Dr CPU,madcurl and Archie and I have decided to use the same ones they have just because they have had good luck with them and they have held up well so.far.
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02:43 PM
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
I haven't decided yet. To be honest I am in no hurry. THe ones I have will work with a coupe, as it was the GFX trim that was catching (yeah, they were that close to perfect!). I may just hang on to them in case I get another car.
That said, the guys who made them, promised a replacement kit. I don't expect I'll ever see them again. How much are Archies? I was also thinking about the GT Factory kit...
------------------ Jay Brintnell Southern Ontario Fiero Association Yellow 85 Notchback(A.K.A. GodFearN)
hey, I don't mean to carry on and on or thread jack or anything, but I have the same thing going on here, and I thought you like to know. I have a set from "them" myself I bought last year(after a couple dozen e-mails & @6months $600 on the front later...yea almost though that was gone for sure, then one day FedEx and a miracle) anyway. I had all the same problems with the front edge of the door seal in the lower corner, with a lot of work fitting and re-fitting I altered the slots to make the door seal perfectly all the way around, I've had the passenger door off 7 or 8 times already(and I'm having nightmares about even doing the driver side). My door stopper is also hanging up on my fender, my door stopper is just an ugly carriage bolt, I plan to eliminate it. What I plan to do is place an order at www.midwestcontrol.com for a few things (1.) SU-M10-6 is a thread adapter M10x1.5 - 3/8-24 (fits my gas shock)(2.) A turnbuckle HBT6-3.00 (3.) MSML-6-ZC a 3/8-24 left handed rod end. I plan to basically use the gas shock in its bottomed-out position as my door stop, and with the turnbuckle below the gas shock I should have infinite micro adjustment, for proper striker alignment. While I'm at it I will flip the shock fat side up, as others have stated it should be. I figure, as long as the rod end is in-line with the hinge pin I think it should work. My gas shocks are 850lbs, they don't have any other info on them either! (like hmmm a serial# would be nice) I don't think my gas shocks are going to be enough once my inner door skins, speaker pods and some sound mat are installed. If my gas shocks don't cut it, I'll probably get some more powerful ones off Ebay, their everywhere in the 50 dollar neighborhood, some here may say they probably won't last me long, but in Wisconsin, and for the price I'm paying I kinda don't really expect them to last for years + years. I have Archie rockers and my door isn't dragging across the sill, so? I don't know there may be a possibility for you? My hinge looks slightly different, but it's from the same guys, no doubt about it. I fell into an Ebay trap! HA, bolt on, yea right! I myself had to put the Fiero on the back burner, to finish up some old smaller projects to make room for my minitruck to come home, thus eliminating my storage unit. In theory, I will then have another $55 a month to stick into my Fiero. I'm hoping to get the doors done by like November or so. I guess I want to just perfect my passenger door no matter what it takes, before moving on to my driver. -Mickie
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01:08 AM
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
I hear ya man. I just got fed up with trying, and want to drive my car. I have no money and just about as much free time these days. I'd love to see some pics of your car and setup. I was curious about Lambo doors and Archie Rockers (which I have always wanted).
------------------ Jay Brintnell Southern Ontario Fiero Association Yellow 85 Notchback(A.K.A. GodFearN)
The Archie rockers don't utilize the body by fisher sill plates, therefore they are just a little thinner than both the coupe and GT rockers. Sometimes that 1/8 of an inch makes all the difference. I haven't placed my order yet for those parts I need, but I just got my windshield replaced, so that was kinda a big thing. When I get the passenger done I'll forward some pics. If you wanted some just to see the slight difference, I can e-mail you some.
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02:45 AM
Eclipse Member
Posts: 2040 From: Woodstock, Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 2004
Just to be clear, mine were not hanging up on the sills. They were pulling the bottom trim of off the front fenders. They were set up in such an angle that when the doors came out and forward, they did not have enough clearance. Again, it was like 1/4 inch.If I didn't have the bottom mouldings on the fenders, they would have worked fine. I'd still like to see pics.
------------------ Jay Brintnell Southern Ontario Fiero Association Yellow 85 Notchback(A.K.A. GodFearN)
Ahh. Yea I can see where that would be a problem. Mine is not a GT or SE and I do not have the lower door molding and fender trim. E-mail sent with some pics.
