Are body-side mouldings REALLY a thing of the past?
11-24-10, 08:24 PM
#34
Crown Vics have a place in the door that is cut out for their moldings. If you ever see an interceptor without the moldings, then you see a nasty cut out on the door where they are supposed to be. Of course with or without the moldings, it was still an ugly car.
11-25-10, 01:07 AM
#35
IMVHO, if you want to prevent door dings, never ever park your precious near a GM vehicle. GM is stupid and it shows. They have been designing spring loaded doors for years and that is the #1 cause, not soccer moms and kids, as most believe. The kids when they open the doors, the spring loaded doors fly open and hit the vehicle next to them. Kids are not strong enough to restrain these spring loaded doors.
I say sue GM and get their newly earned IPO money into our pockets
I say sue GM and get their newly earned IPO money into our pockets
11-25-10, 08:29 AM
#36
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
IMVHO, if you want to prevent door dings, never ever park your precious near a GM vehicle. GM is stupid and it shows. They have been designing spring loaded doors for years and that is the #1 cause, not soccer moms and kids, as most believe. The kids when they open the doors, the spring loaded doors fly open and hit the vehicle next to them. Kids are not strong enough to restrain these spring loaded doors.
Surprised that this observation of mine got no response.
11-26-10, 06:51 AM
#37
Out of Warranty
Back in the mid-70's a friend owned one of the big FWD Eldorados. It wasn't just big, it was MASSIVE. The doors were long and extremely heavy in order to offer easy access to the back seat and still carry the recently-mandated guard beams to prevent cabin intrusion in the event of a T-bone collision. Evidently nobody ever tried to open those doors except on a level surface.
1975 Eldorado - note the long doors . . . and the tiny body side molding . . .
Something overlooked by the engineers was the problem of opening those heavy doors when the car was parked on a high-crowned street. You had to push several hundred pounds of iron "uphill" in order to exit the vehicle. Similarly, if you unlatched the door downhill, you had to hang on for dear life to avoid smashing the car next to you, or be dragged out of your seat. But there was an even more critical problem with the Eldo's door design.
My friend had purchased an Eldo for his wife, who was a dietitian working for one of the major hospitals in the Texas Medical Center - where parking was always at a premium. One day she parked at the curb, where the high crown of the road pointed the driver's door at a pretty steep angle uphill. She was a tiny woman and after struggling to get the door open, it overpowered the detent that was designed to hold it open and it slammed on her left leg, fracturing and crushing it severely. Fortunately she was in the center of a huge medical complex where you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a medical professional, and she was in the ER within a couple of minutes.
Her husband then found that this was a common occurrence with the Eldorado - and several of its stablemates, including the Toronado, and the RWD Buick Riviera and Chevy Monte Carlo that shared the same basic platform and similar doors. A few years later I purchased a Rivera for my wife, but warned her about opening those long, heavy doors uphill. Yup, she ignored me, and determined to overcome the weight of the door with brute strength, she still has the scar on her left leg to testify to GM's oversight. There were a lot of us who could have been sold some kind of spring or power mechanism to help with those doors.
1975 Eldorado - note the long doors . . . and the tiny body side molding . . .
Something overlooked by the engineers was the problem of opening those heavy doors when the car was parked on a high-crowned street. You had to push several hundred pounds of iron "uphill" in order to exit the vehicle. Similarly, if you unlatched the door downhill, you had to hang on for dear life to avoid smashing the car next to you, or be dragged out of your seat. But there was an even more critical problem with the Eldo's door design.
My friend had purchased an Eldo for his wife, who was a dietitian working for one of the major hospitals in the Texas Medical Center - where parking was always at a premium. One day she parked at the curb, where the high crown of the road pointed the driver's door at a pretty steep angle uphill. She was a tiny woman and after struggling to get the door open, it overpowered the detent that was designed to hold it open and it slammed on her left leg, fracturing and crushing it severely. Fortunately she was in the center of a huge medical complex where you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a medical professional, and she was in the ER within a couple of minutes.
Her husband then found that this was a common occurrence with the Eldorado - and several of its stablemates, including the Toronado, and the RWD Buick Riviera and Chevy Monte Carlo that shared the same basic platform and similar doors. A few years later I purchased a Rivera for my wife, but warned her about opening those long, heavy doors uphill. Yup, she ignored me, and determined to overcome the weight of the door with brute strength, she still has the scar on her left leg to testify to GM's oversight. There were a lot of us who could have been sold some kind of spring or power mechanism to help with those doors.
11-26-10, 08:10 AM
#38
I'll make one response. Don't forget that all newer 4-door vehicles with rear-seats come with hidden, Child-Proof switches, inside the rear door-jambs, that disable the inside rear door handles so that kids can't open them from the inside. That way, YOU open the rear doors, from the outside, and let them out. Those switches are a Federal Regulation.
11-26-10, 11:00 AM
#39
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Back in the mid-70's a friend owned one of the big FWD Eldorados. It wasn't just big, it was MASSIVE. The doors were long and extremely heavy in order to offer easy access to the back seat and still carry the recently-mandated guard beams to prevent cabin intrusion in the event of a T-bone collision. Evidently nobody ever tried to open those doors except on a level surface.
1975 Eldorado - note the long doors . . . and the tiny body side molding . . .
Something overlooked by the engineers was the problem of opening those heavy doors when the car was parked on a high-crowned street. You had to push several hundred pounds of iron "uphill" in order to exit the vehicle. Similarly, if you unlatched the door downhill, you had to hang on for dear life to avoid smashing the car next to you, or be dragged out of your seat. But there was an even more critical problem with the Eldo's door design.
My friend had purchased an Eldo for his wife, who was a dietitian working for one of the major hospitals in the Texas Medical Center - where parking was always at a premium. One day she parked at the curb, where the high crown of the road pointed the driver's door at a pretty steep angle uphill. She was a tiny woman and after struggling to get the door open, it overpowered the detent that was designed to hold it open and it slammed on her left leg, fracturing and crushing it severely. Fortunately she was in the center of a huge medical complex where you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a medical professional, and she was in the ER within a couple of minutes.
Her husband then found that this was a common occurrence with the Eldorado - and several of its stablemates, including the Toronado, and the RWD Buick Riviera and Chevy Monte Carlo that shared the same basic platform and similar doors. A few years later I purchased a Rivera for my wife, but warned her about opening those long, heavy doors uphill. Yup, she ignored me, and determined to overcome the weight of the door with brute strength, she still has the scar on her left leg to testify to GM's oversight. There were a lot of us who could have been sold some kind of spring or power mechanism to help with those doors.
1975 Eldorado - note the long doors . . . and the tiny body side molding . . .
Something overlooked by the engineers was the problem of opening those heavy doors when the car was parked on a high-crowned street. You had to push several hundred pounds of iron "uphill" in order to exit the vehicle. Similarly, if you unlatched the door downhill, you had to hang on for dear life to avoid smashing the car next to you, or be dragged out of your seat. But there was an even more critical problem with the Eldo's door design.
My friend had purchased an Eldo for his wife, who was a dietitian working for one of the major hospitals in the Texas Medical Center - where parking was always at a premium. One day she parked at the curb, where the high crown of the road pointed the driver's door at a pretty steep angle uphill. She was a tiny woman and after struggling to get the door open, it overpowered the detent that was designed to hold it open and it slammed on her left leg, fracturing and crushing it severely. Fortunately she was in the center of a huge medical complex where you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a medical professional, and she was in the ER within a couple of minutes.
Her husband then found that this was a common occurrence with the Eldorado - and several of its stablemates, including the Toronado, and the RWD Buick Riviera and Chevy Monte Carlo that shared the same basic platform and similar doors. A few years later I purchased a Rivera for my wife, but warned her about opening those long, heavy doors uphill. Yup, she ignored me, and determined to overcome the weight of the door with brute strength, she still has the scar on her left leg to testify to GM's oversight. There were a lot of us who could have been sold some kind of spring or power mechanism to help with those doors.
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yammy
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12-26-12 11:00 AM
