Thread: Stupid, STupid, Stupid!!!!!!

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Ever have one of those days? Was at a car show the entire day, hot tired and not thinking right.... On the drive home, realized that the door on my '34 Ford Tudor was not fully closed.... so........

(NO IDEA WHY I DID THIS, BUT......)

I OPENED the door while driving 40mph! A SUICIDE DOOR mind you! You should have seen that sucker swing out and wide! Cars in the approaching lane swerved off the road, my wife grabbed the wheel as I LEANED OUT & grabbed the door handle! ALmost fell out of the car...

Got it home, now the damage assessment... couple of small dents where the door HIT the panel behind it, and the top of the door, on the rear section, is pushed out about a 1/4 ". Doesn't look too bad, the body work, other than the pin stripping, won't be difficult... BUT anyone know how to adjust the door so the top will be closer to the frame again?

It's hot rodding ... these things happen ... even to the best of us.

Good luck with the repairs ... hopefully its something you can tackle.

Throw some pix up ... everyone loves to see stupid.(LOL)

Ratty 46

wow bt you are lucky that it did not pull you out of the car and into the traffic. good luck with the repairs

Been there, done that with a Fiat 600.

Any pics of car before or after!

Way back when, I was riding in a friend's 47/8 Dodge 4 dr when we hit a bump at about 75 mph. Rear door flew open and bent back completely. Destroyed the door and most of the rear quarter. You were lucky if that is all the damage it did. Those old door latches were not Bear Claws.

Originally Posted by techinspector1

Been there, done that with a Fiat 600.

Richard, you and I seem share an appreciation for fine Italian automobiles. I bought Fiat 600 brand new in 1958. It served me well and gave me 40+ mpg, but I have to say that it was not exactly a prestigious vehicle to own and drive.

My love life suffered accordingly.


Jim

Originally Posted by Big Tracks

Richard, you and I seem share an appreciation for fine Italian automobiles. I bought Fiat 600 brand new in 1958. It served me well and gave me 40+ mpg, but I have to say that it was not exactly a prestigious vehicle to own and drive.

My love life suffered accordingly.


Jim

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony

A guy I worked with had a little Fiat and I never heard of a car that had so many problems - tho it was several years old when he bought it as a DD

Had a similar thing happen on my 48 vauxhall, had been away for a weekend rod run, 500 mile trip on some of the roughest roads in the country, returned home and just half a mile from my house the front drivers door decdided to popped open about an inch, just as i reached to grab it, it swung open smshing into my rear fender, i almost fell out trying to stop it. this has happend to me twice now, but i have since fitted bear claw latches and also a remote pin that locates in the door jam, i think that it may have bent the pillar and hinges as its never lined up properly since the first time it popped open.
check straps don't seem to be worth much on front doors, when they fly open the check strap just breaks and causes more damage.,
good luck with your repairs, hope you can get it all fixed soon.
cheers barnsey

Yup - Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. After that I put in Suicide door locks that latch at 7 mph automatically. NEVER going to have that happen again.
Jerome

Too bad - I hope you can show us some pictures and it really isn't a hard fix

While I don't have suicide doors, they were contemplated so I bought some $60 lock pins from Julianos, JIC. I still am using them as my bear claw latches ended up being single cams because of the very thin 'A' roadster doors and the fact that this model car is real flexible even on the boxed TCI chassis. These come with a switch (not used by me)to hook up to a buzzer or even the ignition if the latches aren't closed. I've also seen a solenoid operated version of these as well. They are a PITA to install, but they do work nicely. Normally with a suicide door, they would go in the door itself. In the photo, it's that little lever shown beside the driver's seat

Now - those @#$% check straps - the set of leathers on mine have stretched enough that they need to be replaced (almost got the fender a day or so ago) - and they are less then 6 mos old. The local discount junk store has real Chinese leather belts for ~$5

rested my arm out the cockpit of a T6 Texan once.

ow.

OUCH!!! that made me Kringle just thinking bout it.

I know that feeling,my passenger side door opened last week while going around a corner........the outside handle stuck in not quite the locked postion,happy that mine aren't suicide doors,so only harm was to my pride.

Bear claws and dead bolts. Never leave home without them.