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!