I drive an 04 Nissan 350z. Recently I was talking to some other Z owners and we were discussing changing the color or chroming the external door handles.

Well I got this bug up my ass about how cool it would be to completely delete the external handles and just have a smooth finish where they used to be. I think it would really accentuate the lines of the car nicely.

The doors would have to be opened via solenoid similar to how the trunk works now. I figured the additional control channels offered on the security system Ive been looking at would work fine for actuating these, but I would also like to place some kind of hidden switch on the vehicle (at least on the drivers side) just in case.

I realize that this would be best done at the same time as re-painting the body as the door is going to require a good bit of work. I also though this would be about the coolest shit ever if it was integrated with a lambo door kit.

My questions for you are:
Have any of you ever done anything like this before?

Is it feasible?

How much do you think this would run in addition to repainting the car (which its going to need soon anyways)?

 

It's called shaving.

Pop Door Kits & Accessories
and then just seal the hole from the handle...

No idea on cost now. When I was doing it I billed it out at $50 and hour, about a 2-3 hour job all inclusive.

So 150 for the labor and the cost of the kit

 

Wow, thats the first time Ive looked into a mod and had it wind up costing less than I expected. Thanks for the info!

 

Don't think so fast. For that kind of mod, if it is done RIGHT it will cost more. It will require them to weld in a piece of metal, not just mold it in with Filler. Get it done right and have it done only once. For a daily driver or anything like that, it will loook good but there are downsides...battery failure and such. I would suggest thinking of something else to emphasis the look of the handles, something simple like just painting the black or something...

 

Research has shown that most of the kits out there also offer an add-on "emergency cable" just in case of the situations you mentioned. While she is a daily driver, I meticulously maintain her, so Im not terribly worried about the battery.

I have to shop around for body shops yet, but I'll take your advice regarding having a metal 'plug' for lack of a better term installed.

I'm looking into having this mod, a widebody kit, and a re-paint all done at the same time. A little down the line, the doors will be further modified with a powered lambo style kit. Needless to say, this ain't gonna be cheap (rough estimates put it in the $7,000-9,000 range right now) so I'll be looking for a quality shop with a good reputation and some other work I can look at.

 

the cheapest lambo style door kits you will find are gonna be from .body parts of america off florida ave in tampa.Look um up.

I'm gonna give you some advice and hope you take it serious .
I used to tinker at a friends body shop a few years back painting and doing few things to my own cars that i would by and sell.paint body work ect.

To make a long story short . A guy came in with a 2000 corvette he had the lambo doors installed custom paint and a wide body kit installed the car looked awsome the body work costed about 15,000$ to complete paint and all.

His car was worth about 20k at book value he owned it for 2 years and paid 30k for it. he dumped 15 in bodywork and paint another 5k into the exhuast and custom interior then another 5k into chrome motor dressings and rims .he was so happy he won a few first place thopheys at a couple shows.
At this point he had over 55k invested in a 2000 corvette coupe.
he tried to sell it and could not even get 25k for it. Then it got stolen and wrecked and the insurance company gave him a check for 20k all the car was worth.
But he has some nice 50cent plastic thropeys and plaques to show for his
35k loss

So take warning that if you dump 10k -20k in that car in a few years say in 2009 all your gonna have is a 04 350z with fancy doors and not worth even close to what you got into it..

Be sure that you love this car and do not even plan on selling it and will pretty much keep it forever.

If not wait untill you find a car you do ..

I am all for custom cars but rember do not ever look at a car like that as a investment..each year its worth less.

If your gonna dump cash dump it into a classic car that is going up in value each year that way you can recoupe the restoration cost..

just my 2 cents...

 

we do this type of work, quality installs, and we stand behind all of our work, we also have more pics of this type of work and more projects, please let me know if you would like to see them.









Please pm me for more info
Mike

 

People told me the same thing 12 years ago when I purchased my barracuda, this model isn't worth the money...
classic cars wernt worth alot just a short time ago.... so who knows?? a 350z may be worth more in a short time.

I say go for it!

 

Believe me this has crossed my mind several times. It a lot of money to put into her, but I truly do love this car. This whole project is in the early planning stages at this point, as there are some safety related modifacations that I need to complete in the short term (upgraded brakes, seats, harnesses) to make autocrossing a little easier on me and the car. The next phase after that will be to shop around for new wheels (Im still stock). That will all likely happen before this calender year is out.

Early next year is when I'll begin purchasing components and shopping around for a body shop to do the work, with the inten of having it all complete in time for summer.