Vulcanwolf

I want to do this to my car sometime and now it is bumped up on my list because of a groundhog I missed and scraped the side of my car on some high grass, weeds, and plants. Since this requires painting I figure that I can get my car touched up during this mod.

Question is:
Does it work on our cars?
Anyone know of any good kits but not really expensive?
It snows here so I need a solinied (sp?) that is strong enough. How strong?

A built in alarm system would be nice but not top priority.

Any info or pics on the subject would be nice.
Thanks

P.S.- I hate groundhogs!!!!!!!! evil.gif

BigBoi

first question.. is this your daily driver? If it is.. i would suggest you don't do it from what i have read. I have read cold weather and shaved door handles dont go together. I have mine shaved, but it isnt my daily so i cant say how much of a problem it is.

TibRacer01

Sorry about the groundhog, that sucks man. My friend hit a racoon and cracked the front bumper of his Eclipse. Since that happened, I swerve rather then making road kill as well.

Anyway, I do not know of any kits, but I know that this can be done. From what I have learned, the "kits" are pretty much universal and you do not need to but specific parts for the Tib. Do a google search and see what comes up. I remember seeing something on the old site, possibly in the DIY section, about this.

Vulcanwolf

It was a pretty big groundhog, and my first reaction was to get out of the way. Yes it is a everyday driver but I hope it won't be for long. I want to get a beater car for the winter and have this car for show or whatever I decide later. (to many ppl around here have their cars for performance. Makes me want to do performance as well.)

The one I have found and was looking at is http://www.autoloc.com/detail.lasso?itemid=SVPROA5

$400 is a little high i think but it is an alarm too.

got to go to work. Thanks

Guardian262

definately guage your door kit by the ammount of usage your doors get. I know a few people who are into custom mods on old muscle cars and they all recommend autoloc. Yes $400 is expensive but, you really get what you pay for here. Autoloc recommends 75 or 100 lb seleniods for daily drivers, but since the tibby door can be quite light, I think you could get away with 50 lb selenoids. I know when I do mine, it will be with autolocs and I will prob use 50 lb selenoids...will still be a while before I get to it though.

Xyrnx

even though mine isnt a daily driver....when i had mine installed they tried something under 50 lbs and it didnt pop open enough....either that or it crapped out after about the 10th time they did it.

if youre going to do it, go with 50 lbs or more (my 50 lbs work fine) and definately autoloc, well known good quality brand right there.

Vulcanwolf

cool and I would never go below 50lb. I need my paint touched up so this mod will come soon. hopefully.

Thanks

FlyRyde

[Dunn Duddahh]

GREETINGS!!![/blacktibs flys in like a super hero]

ITS MODERATION TIME!!!

ok, sorry I just found out I'm a, well, THE moderator for this forum, lol.
Now that thats out of my system...

Ahem..

OK, if you really look at most cars out there, shaved handles dont always compliment the car, in some cases it leaves you looking for them because it looks out of the ordinary.

But when the name of your car is SHARK of all names, I think we can all agree the smooth curvy body of the tib looks only that much nicer with clean doors, free of any handles to mess with the flow of the car.

I totally recommend doing this. Back when I was in the research stage for this, there were only a handful of guys, if that, that had done this. Not only that, but there was no help on the forums about it.

Heres what i can tell you.

I'd say the safest starting place would be 45 lbs. solenoids. 50 may be the best bet. I can say this from first hand experience, I've had 35's in for over a year, and they suck, plain and simple.

So here's what you'll need.

2 50 lbs. solenoids.
2 "plungers" (these are the little things you install to push the door open once the solenoid opens the latch.)

about 4 feet of thin metal cable with corresponding cable clamps.
and at least 4 1 inch bolts, with matching nuts w/ nylon lining for a good lock

Ok, that is just what you need for inside your door. For the outside, what you will have done, is there will be a piece of sheet metal tacked on to the hole where the handles used to be. They'll grind down the metal till it sits flush, and if you have a good shop do the work, they'll continue the line of the car straight through the area with the patch. Then they'll just prime, and paint.

I have heard quotes of around 150 per door. I'd recommend you look around and check out the work of each shop you go to. Not pictures, but find a car they did, and examine it personally. Make sure you like what you're paying for.

Now once you have the doors done, and you install the hardware, or they do, you will want to run one wire from the solenoid to a ground in the door, and the other wire to the inside of the car. One from each door, and have them meet right under the kick panel above your feet. You will use these wires with a relay to make them functional with your alarm system. You need only use one channel per door. So if your alarm has a trunk pop button, and an aux button, there's your two channels right there.

One important thing to do once everything is completed. Dont tell anybody where, but find a kick ass location for a "back door" switch. This is a button you can press that is wired to the solenoid in your drivers or passengers door. You will want a "momentary" style switch. Make sure to hide it well, because there is no point in shaving the handles, when it only makes it that much easier to break into the car. I'd suggest somewhere in the rear of the car where nobody will want to stick their hand.

I'll post some pics of the work in progress from last year when my body guys were redoing my shave job. They did an amazing job so you'll have great pictures to show any shop you might go to.

One last thing, keep asking questions, the more you ask, they less people will try to slip something past you like they did me back when I was not in the know.

Xyrnx

oh and another thing you might want to think about (if youre shaving your trunk key hole as well...) is extending the battery terminals somewhere to withing a decent reach of jumper cables.

reason being is if oh say you leave your lights on one day, come to your car and hit your fancy new button and *cricket* nothing happens....oh crap i just shaved my entire car down to a babys bottom.

well there ya go, completely unnecessary if you dont shave everything, but i have it just for personal insurance (ive dont it a few times and i DID shave everything).

i can also put up pics of the new location and that button that blacktib was talking about on my car if youd like

Vulcanwolf

Yes please post pictures. Anything helps.
As for the person that will shave my doorhandles. It will probably be my friend who knows how to weld and just finish the back left tail light section of a caddy. He cut the quater panel in half and replaced it. I will check out what it looked like finished when I go home. I saw what it looked like to start with.

Again any pics would be awesome. (Blacktibs/Xyrnx)

Thanks