RE: hydraulic doors

[Darryl Tinnerstet <darryl@xxxx>]

To the question "Has anyone ever thought about replacing the gas struts on
the delorean with hydraulics?" the answer is yes (well almost). There is a
high-dollar red car in Canada that was brought down to Seattle a few years
back for the installation of pneumatic doors. Everything - doors, hood,
louver, and engine cover, all go both up AND DOWN by air pressure. The shop
installed two large custom air cylinders parallel on the package tray behind
the seats (requiring the fuse box etc.to be moved for future access) which
pull the doors down by tiny cables. An air compressor was mounted up front
to power it all, and other toys like a high grade stereo and GPS system were
installed. Several members of PNDC saw the car and I provided some of the
parts. Contact Arnie Brandon, PNDC president, for more info
(arnie@xxxx).

If I might add a note on the "escaping from a rolled car" thread, there
might be another problem here no one has mentioned. A while back I had a
lower ball joint fail (in a parking lot), making the car suddenly twist out
of shape. The twisting made the passenger door jam shut, forcing my wife to
crawl out my side. Once the car was jacked up the door worked fine. I
would be more concerned with this possibility than whether the leverage is
such that a 160# man could open the door...
Just a thought.

-- 
Darryl Tinnerstet
Specialty Automotive
McCleary, WA