Falco

I've been looking forever. I've heard there was a Scion Xb with Gullwing doors (and not the back door). Is this true? Does ANYONE have pictures of it? I've been wanting to do this to my Xb for a long time, but I have no clue if it would look good. Also for those of you who might be wondering... these are gullwing doors

grizzly_choppers

This topic comes up about every two months.

To my knowledge, and I look at a LOT of Scion sites, nobody out there has done this yet. We've talked about it extensively, but nobody has done it.

-Alex

Falco

Really? I've seen people speak of Gullwing doors here but they don't seem to know what a true gullwing door is. I know this is possible, I got a quote from one guy for 8,000 for both front doors.

What I would like to do is set up a ebay auction telling someone I would promote whatever business for the funds of 10,000 for the gullwing doors and the expense of me not having a car for a few weeks. It could work. I just may try it. What do you guys think about a Xb with Gullwing doors?

RTon20s

$8000 seems quite excessive to me. Then again, if you aren't willing or able to do the work yourself you have to be willing to pay.

The work wouldn't be all that difficult. You would have to have some custom fabricated offset piano hinges at the top of the doors as well as building a mount for the door struts. To get everything to close properly you may have to do some relief in the door or your pillars for the struts and hinges. At least for what most people consider "gullwing" doors.

Now if the $8000 included cutting into the roof and welding those cut sections back into the door for TRUE gullwings, it isn't as bad of a deal. Especially if that includes all of the finishing work.

Falco

No, I believe 8000 was for everything. The doors, the cutting all the work, blah blah blah. I think it would be cool. I am going to try for it and see how people react to it on ebay.

frogbox

You would have to do major, repeat, major reinforcement to the roof and a pillar, 8k sounds about right, without paint.And it would take a little more than a few days.
It has been tried.

Tumbleking

I e-mailed a shop that is very capable I saw an altima or a maxima they did with gull wing and gull wing/ suicide goors... it was sick! they quoted me 5k I am sure I can find the e-mail if you want... it's Team Prototype they do a lot of work and their cars are the best custom work I've seen ( not that I am anyone special...) But that is what this topic is about ... who can do it and getting it done.... hopefully this helps? they are in cali btw..

grizzly_choppers

When asking for a $10,000 sponsorship on eBay you need to remember that for an extra $4000 the company that sponsors you can just buy an xB of their own to use in advertising and such.

About a year and a half ago there were a bunch of guys that were looking to sell their cars as billboards to make their payments. To my knowledge, nobody actually got a sponsorship out of it.

In selling advertising on eBay you may be able to expect people to pay in the hundreds, but not the thousands.

Just my experiences there.

-Alex

cz3ch

Actually that is about right on $$ wise... It's a lot of work and it's never been done on an xb.. Really it's not worth it unless you have a trailer queen. But that's my opinion.. spend 8k how you want ;)

pollup

due to the size of the door on the xb i dont see this being a practical means of entry into an xb. the doors would swing too far out and parking would be insane.

cz3ch

Not to mention, potentially ugly as sh*t

Tumbleking

Well that is a matter of opinion...not eveyone will like every mod... the fact that it's very custom would make it cool on it's own... There are a lot of mods that I don't care for but you have to give props for the craftsmanship put into it... Isn't that atleast somewhat what the whole car customizing scene is about?

cz3ch

Ergo why I said "potentially". If it's done right it would look good and definately be "one-off" as I doubt anyone else will do it, but if it's done poorly it will look like crap. It's not an opinion, simply stating fact. Craftsmanship connotates quality, quality displays the effort put into an idea.

I definately give kudos for originality (there's only so many mods you can do that no one else has, or has overdone)...

Falco

OK, not to bash anyone and I know this is going to sound harsh, but everything seems a little more harsh with typed letters then spoke words. Again, please this is not ment as harsh.

Let's make one thing clear. Gullwing doors do NOT make it harder to park. People think this and it does make sense to a point. If the doors where hinged on the top of the door, yes, it would spread out as far as the eye could see.

Take a look at the Delorean. It's hinged in practically the center of the car. Allowing the doors to slid up. It takes the Delorean only 11inches (less then a foot) to open the door. A normal car, in order to get out, would be 14 inches. As far as the size of the doors on the Xb. Yes, they are bigger, which might add a few (or possibly take away) a few inches. it would depend how far the would hinge it.

Also, while a company could purchase a Xb of their own, it would be a normal Xb, not one with the novilty of Gullwing doors.

OldYeller

I could believe it only by seeing it. I don't see how you could hinge anywhere near where the Delorean is hinged without fabricating a whole new door.

Tumbleking

I believe it would have to be reinforced... have the door welded at te top where your window rolls up into. Then you would have to cut back into the roof...much much more supports would have to be put into place... Our ceilings are so high though that we could lose a couple inches and have it just made smooth and you wouldn't tell much of a difference...

eburgsspeedyxb

It doesn't seem that hard to do from an engineering standpoint. Just need to build a partial (or preferrably full) roll cage for the front of the car, and use that as your reinforcement on the chassis for the doors. Obviously the roll cage needs to blend in behind the 'beautiful plastic'. you'll loose some headroom in the front of the car, and a lot of fab work would need to be done on the door frame itself, but if it's done right, don't see why it wouldn't work out right.

chadfo

It's definately a unique idea and I think it would look good. Just too much $$$ for me.

What about the back doors? Are they included in the $8K? I've seen many pics of cars that have the lambo doors on the front but the rears open normally and it makes the whole effect a bit lackluster to me. It's almost like doing a custom paint job only on the front half of the car.

cz3ch

Now here's an idea... Fabricate a hinge that does a Reverse lambo effect in the rear.... think suicide meets vert doors.. That would rock with a pair of front vert doors....

pollup

been done on an expedition.