How To Make Opening & Functional Doors, Hoods, and Trunks

[Maindrian Pace]

Closest I have is a Danbury Mint '58 Edsel wagon, everything opens and closes smoothly. It could be a good template for plastic model door engineering.

-MJS

[Edsel-Dan]

I did it on a Jo-Han Ambulance.

Got to Find it to take pic's though!!

I used Auto World hinges on the second doors.

(The ones that almost match the 48 Woody pic.)

These on the rear doors of my AMT Chevy van Blue Rescue

Hinge is 2 piece. Wire and Sheet brass.

Wire section is a Squared off 'U' with the two sides bent into "L's"

Brass sheet is folded over to wrap around the Center of the wire, and also "L'd"

One piece is epoxied/super glued to the door, the other to the body/pillar.

I straightened the part mounted to the pillar on the Ambulance due to the narrow width of the B Pillar.

It extends into the cabinet/driver divider instead.

I started one of those and have cut all 4 doors out too.

Styrene hinges & pins kept breaking. Replaced those with metal ones cut from Pie tin aluminum

Need to dig her out and take some pic's too!!

Edited January 21, 2013 by Edsel-Dan

[Gluhead]

if i'm not hallucinating, memory-wise, one of our Eastern European members did a Turkish Dolmus taxi (based on a Chevy Impala) that had a buttload of operational stuff.... can't exactly recall if opening doors were in that mix. the main difficulty would be retaining enough (or building enough IN) strength in the B pillar to keep the doors aligned. traditional model car door hinges would be almost out of the question; fabricating them out of brass would be the best way to create the proper motion necessary. the best body to work with would be one that has a full floor-to-roof B pillar. if two doors can be opened and hinged, four can.

That's Korkut's '64 Chevy wagon. Fantastic builder...very creative. http://www.korkutvarol.com

[Guest]

Why anyone would want to build a 4 door to begin with is beyond me

Because 4 door cars are cool.

[heroncustom]

Hey all been searching all day i wonder if anyone knows a good tut for the actual process of cutting both the bodyand the inteior and jamb building etc all i can find is hinges! Lol i just need a couple pics really on how some of you do it so i can get some better ideas. Any help would be great thanks!!

[Tom Geiger]

First, I'd suggest pulling out a kit that has opening doors to see how the body structure looks. You'll see the thickness of the door, the inner door jamb and how it relates to the interior. I'd actually build one of these before attempting to open doors on your own.

When deciding to open doors on a kit, look it over carefully. There are kits, like old Johans, where the interior and door bottom do not match up. Johans tend to have very shallow interior tubs. Another one I tried once was the old AMT VW Rabbit. The floor was fairly high inside that kit. So be careful with that.

Here's a photo of the old Auto World hinge kit. I was lucky to get a few packs of these, but using the above photo you can bend wire to match this. Note that on the one hinge I cut the ends off so I can slide them under the plastic mount I will create.

The following pictures are of a trunk lid, but the work was done for a seminar and the body was just a scrap one. For an actual trunk lid, I'd cut the hinge in half and mount each half more in the position an actual car trunk lid would be mounted. But onward with our example... note that the ends of the hinge are glued to the trunk lid, but is free under the mount on the body side. That's to allow it to travel, open and close. The mounts here are just bits of Evergreen plastic with the grooves needed for the hinge just carved into them.

Same hinge in the open position. I hope this helps!

[Foxer]

This is a popular subject here so I did a google search of this forum to get a few links for you, but even better, here's how to search yourself and get tangible results. It's pretty simple .. into Google type: site:modelcarsmag.com open door tutorial. Notice the structure .. the site and after that what you want to search for. Just do it and save th ebookmark. Clich it and change to your new search.

The first link has an excellent comment by Mr Obsessive!

[heroncustom]

Thanks for the answers! Tom could you suggest some of said kits that i should look for?

Foxer thanks for that link and the lesson in google! Very helpful for future searchs i had no idea i could do that.

Thanks again!!

[Casey]

Foxer thanks for that link and the lesson in google! Very helpful for future searchs i had no idea i could do that.

The key to using the Search function here is to click on the white star thing to the right of the search box, which allows you to do an advanced search and will give you better results.

There are many posts asking how to open doors, trunks, etc., and there is some overlap with the pinned hinges topic, so I will go through the posts covering opening/functional body panels and combine them into one topic.

[CrazyGirl]

no way is that Lincoln a model !!!! , if it is i'll eat this pizza

[Ace-Garageguy]

no way is that Lincoln a model !!!! , if it is i'll eat this pizza

No. Too many tells in the photo give it away as 1:1.

[Tom Geiger]

Thanks for the answers! Tom could you suggest some of said kits that i should look for?

Look at the AMT '56 or '57 Fords. Both have doors that open so you can see the inner workings and how it mates up to the floor. I built the '57 and the plastic hinge on one side eventually broke, so you're much better making them from metal or wire. I'm sure others can suggest more kits with opening doors. That's just what I thought of today

[MrObsessive]

Hey all been searching all day i wonder if anyone knows a good tut for the actual process of cutting both the bodyand the inteior and jamb building etc all i can find is hinges! Lol i just need a couple pics really on how some of you do it so i can get some better ideas. Any help would be great thanks!!

Andrew if you click here, it'll take you to a thread that I started a while back on a '59 Chevy Impala WIP. I go through and show how I cut open the doors and other parts, as well as making the hinges. I haven't worked on it for awhile, but it's back on the bench and I'll have some more progress pics before long.

Hope this helps!

[MoparWoman Jamie]

You all know, anyone can opening up a model car door, anyone can hinge them.. But the way I seen done on the doors in this thread, is no the correct way though. All I seen is doors opening like on diecast vehicles out wards which is very much incorrect to the real vehicles, so me one door on a real car that swings out past the fender. The correct way is to use the other end of you all door hinge idea on the door and fender, the front of the door swings inwards not out past the fender. By turning you all door hinges hinge pivit point around on the tube on the doors and the wire on the fenders will make the doors open correct and door fronts swing inward not outwards (like on diecasts).

[MrObsessive]

You all know, anyone can opening up a model car door, anyone can hinge them.. But the way I seen done on the doors in this thread, is no the correct way though. All I seen is doors opening like on diecast vehicles out wards which is very much incorrect to the real vehicles, so me one door on a real car that swings out past the fender. The correct way is to use the other end of you all door hinge idea on the door and fender, the front of the door swings inwards not out past the fender. By turning you all door hinges hinge pivit point around on the tube on the doors and the wire on the fenders will make the doors open correct and door fronts swing inward not outwards (like on diecasts).

Jim, that may be true as far as it goes..........but it depends on the type of car being modeled as you said. While most (if not all cars) being built today have "swivel" or "pivot" hinges, old cars out of the '50's thru the mid '60's used gooseneck type hinges where the door swings outward.

This is where research is paramount! I built a Turbine Car here years ago, and I had to significantly rework the hinges as they weren't quite right to my liking............I wanted them to look and function more like the 1:1. If you click on the pic, you'll see what needed to be done to make it correct.

I guess it all depends on how much time one is willing to spend on his or her project. It's all about fun, and for me sweating the details is well............fun! Not everyone sees it that way or should they.

[High octane]

Guys, here's the link to an article about using thread to cut doors. Just click here.

Bill, you ARE a true craftsman as I've met you in person at the Toledo NNL and have seen your amazing work. Your tutorial is WAY out of my "comfort zone" however I do appreciate the work that goes into your models as well as some of the other great builders on this forum. When I look at your builds, I have to stand back a bit so I don't drool on them. LOL!

[MoparWoman Jamie]

Bill, you are correct about it all depends on the model it self. I'm sorry if I came off at you all alittle to hard. What I meant to say is for the folks that are doing where to doors swing out by the fenders, if they want to have the doors open correct is reverse the pivot point and instead of having the door swing outwards it would swing inwards.

Again you all, I want to apologize if I came off alittle harsh the other day at you all.

[southpier]

YOWZA!!! yes; i clicked.

[Lownslow]

Bill, you are correct about it all depends on the model it self. I'm sorry if I came off at you all alittle to hard. What I meant to say is for the folks that are doing where to doors swing out by the fenders, if they want to have the doors open correct is reverse the pivot point and instead of having the door swing outwards it would swing inwards.

Again you all, I want to apologize if I came off alittle harsh the other day at you all.

designed to do both