Shaved doors...

[Petos]

Hi, guys
I bought my VX from Rickster with shaved doors (attached) and this mod is getting on my nerves.. The battery goes off or the power locks refuse to work, and I need to crawl through the trunk every time...


I also need to make an important decision about taking my car home (Moscow) or trying to sell it and get another VX to take home (cannot live without one..) so need to understand how easy it would be to restore the door handles..
Your thoughts?
Maybe know of someone in Illinois area who could undertake this kinda job? What spare parts will I need to restore handles?

much appreciated!
Petos

[johnnyapollo]

Try to find someone who would like the mod and swap doors - it would be easier than going back - might even be easier to find two doors from a junked VX rather than spending the time trying to fix those.

-- John

[fuzzy]

<raising hand excitedly like one of my cadets ready to ask an inane question>

How do you open the door now? With a popper, a concealed handle, or slipping fingers between the creases?

[WormGod]

Uhg, that sucks.

Rule #1 should always be, when shopping for a used car, DON'T buy a car with questionable (or any at all) mods, heh.

Unsure what all went into getting this mod to work, but its most likely poppers, so if you do a swap with someone, you are still looking at some brute force labor. Seriously doesn't sound like fun and I dont envy you. Your best bet would probably be to just get the door poppers to work "right".

[JHarris1385]

Swapping doors with another member is not that easy........remember he has the rickster painted doors.

[johnnyapollo]

Is the issue that the electronic locks aren't engaging, or is the problem that the popper mechanism doesn't have enough power to push the doors open? It's usually the second issue - I'm solving the one on the rear door on my proton by adding a second popper. Some people with shaved doors adde a contact switch on the bottom so they'll have a backup if the remote doesn't work - that's another option.

-- John

[creeg]

Another solution is to put a door lock back on the door. It would be easier to re-drill the round door lock into the door than to add handles back in.

In theory, all you would need to do is drill a hole in the EXACT right spot, install the lock, and then you can use the key to open the door, and the door poppers would open it the rest of the way.

The only problem is that there is a filled hole, possibly that has a piece of metal welded (and bondo'd), right where you need to drill- so it could be tricky.

Not an ideal solution- it kinda messes up the "smoothness" of not having handles, and you should probably look into getting the mechanics in the door fixed by a pro. But it's possibly the easiest solution.

One other thing: make sure the poppers are actually popping open the door. They may be too weak, and that might be your problem (you would just need to get stronger poppers). Or, the motor (or is it a solenoid?) to the door lock might need to be replaced. And lastly, re-lube everything. Its amazing what a little grease in the right spot can do.

good luck!

[johnnyapollo]

Any cutting that would need to be done to restore the handles and locks would require repainting and some finish work - I still think it would be less expensive to locate doors (the labor would equate out to the cost of the doors in my opinion, but I'm no expert).

-- John

[Petos]

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen..
Well, the passenger door does not pop up at all at the moment - I press the button on the remote, and nothing happens.. I guess the electric lock just does not engage for some reason...
John, can you please comment on the "Some people with shaved doors adde a contact switch on the bottom so they'll have a backup if the remote doesn't work".. pardon my stupidity, but I'm not sure what the "bottom" refers to?

And even if I get it fixed somehow, there is still a problem with closing the door with the key (and the remote I use to pop the door) in the ignition..
Also, in Russian climate I may have the door freezing issue (rain + cold night later), unlike Texas where the VX used to be before...
Also, every time I want to let the passenger in from the inside, I have to lean to reach out for the inside handle and open the door..

referring to Wormgod's question, how are the doors shaved? Do people just put another sheet of metal on the doors??

thanks again for your support.. I promise to repay with some Russian drinks/food in Moab

[nfpgasmask]

What kind of labor does swapping doors require? How hard can it be?

I would opt for junkyard doors. Cart-part.com shows that Veldman's has both left and right doors. I don't know what color though. They are priced at $450 each, so you are looking at about $1000 to get the doors, plus labor to put them in and a possible repaint.

All that said I still think this is the best option. Veldman's is about 1.5 hours from Chicago. Its an easy place to deal with.

Bart

[Chopper]

Getting someone to swap is by far the easiest answer, but these have been repainted, so the tradee is still stuck getting the doors shot. Changing them out is physically easy, not challenging at all. And yes, metal is welded into the openings, then bondoed over ...the handle and mechanisms are then discarded the skins are a loss....so....a couple of door skins, whatever mechanicals that are gone, some paint, and the shop to put it all together is all you need. Trading or used doors are the only two reasonable answers I think

[johnnyapollo]

People will put a contact switch somewhere on the vehicle so the doors can still be opened without a remote. This can be a hidden button or whatever - sort of like adding the popper switch for the rear door, only it's accessible. The only issue is that the alarm still needs to be disarmed or it'll go off - but it does get one around a failed transmitter for the door actuator itself.

-- John

[creeg]

Yeah, trying to deal with these solenoids in the russian winter sounds like a big problem- my money is on swapping the doors with ones with door handles.

I'd be happy to do the swap with you if I lived closer.

Good luck!

[VCrossfan]

It would be easy switching doors but very tough to match that paint, except if Ricksters paint on the door skin is factory and only the candy type paint is on the cladding, you could pull the cladding off and install it on the replacement door. I would go the route of having the existing mechanics repaired, start with a hidden button to pop the door and a power shut off/on to that button to lock the VX, No power-No open...Good Luck...

[Knigh7s]

You could have two of these "Water Proof Switches"
installed. I was thinking about doing the shaved door deal. Two of these can be easily installed in the rear fenderwell on the drivers side. Its a perfect hiding spot for these. If the alarm is set and someone happens to find the switches, the alarm will sound.

Also, If your car battery dies, here are two more options below.
the first option you can find here. and the second option, if you look around online, you can find a kit that lets you hook up a 9 volt battery to a switch for emergency power to the solinoids.