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So I'm thinking about smoothing my doors.. The car is a 4 door and I want to do all 4 and the boot.. I am thinking I will need only 3 poppers as I can open the rear doors from inside the car. My questions are as follows. Is this a blag? Can anyone recommend a kit? Will I massively regret this when the battery inevitably dies one day..? The car is a Volvo Amazon.. Cheers
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Be wary of the MOT implications of such a modification. It's not a "specialist modification" to allow wheelchair access etc) so personally I don't know if it'd be allowable or not. The relevent section can be found here - www.motuk.co.uk/manual_620.htmPaul H
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Ryannn
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,421
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I think the mot says you have to be able to open a door from outside doesn't it?
Something which says you have to have a handle or button, and you'd def not get away with "I can open the rear doors from inside"
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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The exemption for rear doors went about a year ago, all4 have to open from the outside now. I don't think it specifically states they have to open by mechanical means attached to the car, so remoted poppers are still legal i think. Id play it safe and have a hidden button on the car though, that deactivates when the alarm is armed (can be done through immobiliser circuit) to 'lock' the car.
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Yeah I seen a youtube video last night where some guy had hidden hard wired buttons inside the wheel arches to pop the doors open in case of a lost key or something.. that would be sufficient? Bit of a security issue..
Why is everything fun curse word illegal or you have to pass a test for it?
Cheers
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Oh and thesolenoids in pretty much all kits are woefully inadiquate, especially onolder cars. Ended up replacing the ones in the speedway kit with starter motor sels on a mates bug to get enough pull to open the doors!
You could just dempsey it, far cooler/more traditional.
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I used a central locking soleniod (from an old orion I think, strong but nice and quiet) that pulled the drivers door catch instead of the lock and just wired in an alarm with remote unlocking, so when you deactivated the alarm it popped the drivers door, the others you opened from the inside handles. You don't need to worry about locking any of the doors if they can't be opened from outside anyway.
Is it not correct that if you present the car for MOT with the windows open then standing outside the car and leaning in to oepn them counts as opening from the outside?
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Hmmmm.. I could do that actually.. that's where you have like a button of some sort flushed into the door skin right? Do the MOT regulations say anything about doors locking as well or could just the driver door look from the outside and the rest lock internally? Or would all four have to have locks as well? I take it the boot is fine being smoothed though as hopefully nobody is going to be locked away in it..
Cheers Dez
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You could just dempsey it, far cooler/more traditional. do what now? this sounds interesting.
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nofrills
Posted a lot
my wings are made of Steeeeeeeel!!!
Posts: 1,243
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my mate had his door poppers hidden in his fuel cap so he opened that and the poppers were in there, my other mate used his side repeaters
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I think it's where you shave the door handle off and have it completely smooth but have a mechanical button which pops the door open, like the size of a £2 coin and flush with the door skin..
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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I think it's where you shave the door handle off and have it completely smooth but have a mechanical button which pops the door open, like the size of a £2 coin and flush with the door skin.. Almost. Its a nut welded to the lever arm on the catch, hole drilled in door in appropriate place, then a bumper bolt screwed through, so you just have a chrome 'button' to press. The other trick way to do it is a pressure switch hidden under side trim. Push trim in right place, door opens. With a little slight of hand no one will know how its done, and its cooler than waving a plastic remote at it!
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A magnetic reed switch in a door mirror also works, and its quite easy to casually wave a magnet near enough without looking obvious about how your door opens, especially as one of the rare earth magnets from inside an old hard drive can pop a reed switch from a good distance.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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omega
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,060
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watching with intrest as this is something i want to do
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Think from M.O.T. perspective the doors have to open from the outside incase you're involved in a car accident, you can be rescued. Alarm wise Ive wired a TOAD one before onto a Tigra, think it cost about £200 tho, think I used the central locking motors to open the doors rather than unlock them
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Another option is fit handles from a modern car, flush style, some could maybe aprreciate the work involved even more, we were going down the shaved route then decided to move the handles to match the door change, glad we did, watching people take a second look, quite ammusing. The mot states front must open from inside and out, rears must open from at least outside. but it doesnt help much more, the iva manual is just as vague. I know the suggestion someone needs to be able to get you out if your in an accident, ie open the door, but ive been to loads of damaged cars where it doesnt take much to prevent them from opening by use of the handle, and usually if its so bad that you cant get out yourself the doors are well stuck, requiring the friendly fire dept to use there nice kit, but once theve used it though the door never fits again!, its usually left leaning against a wall. or its least of your worries as you now don't have a roof. if you do fit poppers and solonoids, in case of flat battery you can run a cable like a bonnet release from the say the grill panel or under a wheel arch through the 'A' post to the lock. ive used bicycle brake cables you can buy any length to good success. more pics s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae201/voyager72/MG%20ZS/
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Have a flylead from an optimate connected to the battery and hidden in a wheelwell. Worst case scenario if the battery goes flat, you've got a way of getting to the battery to charge it.
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Ok so lots of good info here and I'm tired from a days graft so I will distil what I understand now.. and present a possible scenario..
I could shave the door handles all round, and wire poppers in. I could wire these poppers into the alarm circuit so they will only activate when the alarm is disarmed, the poppers could be hidden somewhere, ie in the front arch or under the sill.. somewhere! Thus the doors could all open from the outside and would also be secure as the alarm would need deactivating before the circuit would be live? Also I could attach a mechanical emergency popper somehow using the above suggestion of a bicycle cable.. and also an optimate so should i run flat I can still get in the whip!
Lot's of somewheres and somehows but I am not feeling clever..
Does this all seem correct?
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Ok so further research down the route Dez suggested has led me to believe that the mechanical "Lincoln button" or "Dempsey button" is a good way to go.. it is a mechanical way of opening the doors from the outside, no electrics to worry about and should please the mot man.. and I could just use a solenoid kit or something as a lock?
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What about Aston Martin door handles?
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