Gullwing doors

"Don't be Gullible"

Gull wing doors have been around from the very early days of the motor car.

Mercedes produced a stunning car with gull wing doors as pictured above.

The gull wing doors really hit the public eye when the Back to the Future films featured a Delorean with a gull wing door.

Gull wing doors are so named because they move like the wings of a bird. The hinges are mounted in the roof and the doors lift upwards.

Where a lambo door will lift vertically upwards a gull wing door will swing out. The amount it needs to swing out by is determined by how far over on the roof the hinge is located.

Conversions to Gull Wing doors on cars is certainly possible and we have seen a few stunning examples around but there is a lot of work involved.

The roof is key to a cars structural rigidity so making cuts in it for a gull wing door will require strengthening. You should strengthen the chassis and reinforce this, as they do when building a cabriolet version of a car.

As the roof now has to bear the load of the doors it will need a reinforcing seam to be welded into place. This will create a suitable mounting point and will also help to retain some of the roofs original structural integrity.

Door alignment can be a pain although with a minor adjustment you can still use the standard door catches if the final angle of close is similar to that of a conventional door.

The gull wing doors need to be counter sprung and if done right can be lifted and closed with the pressure of a finger.

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