# Advice needed on Shaved Door Kit?



## officialhb (Mar 23, 2003)

I'm thinking of shaving the doors on my B12. Advice is needed on what type of kit I should purchase.

1)How many pounds will I need from the actuator/solenoid for a B12 door?

2)What is the best Brand of kits? I saw that Autoloc offer a decent price on a kit.

3)Can the door kits be wired into and existing alarm? I Or is the door popping system separate.

4)If wiring into an existing alarm, will the alarm only need two available channels for driver & passenger door?


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

I really find it humorous how they come as "kits." Shaving isn't exactly a DIY sort of things unless you work at a bodyshop. I assume this kit includes a solenoid, and some sort of Bondo (putty) material to cover the huge hole. Let me tell you, If you fill a gap that large with any sort of putty, it's eventually gona crack. To truely shave a hole, the paint must be sanded off around the hole, then a piece of sheet metal must be cut and welded into the hole. The entire patch must be grinded smooth, primered, painted, and clearcoated.

The solenoid can be purchased seperate (not sure how many lbs, prolly around 10lb to just pop the latch). If you have an aftermarket alarm (Like DEI: viper, hornet, etc.), they usually have multiple channels that work off of the alarm (my viper has 6 channels). The channels can activate solenoids like my trunk popper, so u should have no problems getting the door popper to work. the only bitch is getting the wire into the door.


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## Captain Obvious (Jan 2, 2004)

1997 GA16DE said:


> the only bitch is getting the wire into the door.


not realy just run it along where the speaker wires go into the door

but ya we shaved a chevy truck once and my buddy grinded too deep cause we didnt use metal we used a solid fiberglass sheet, what a pita 
so we had to destroy that and use metal after that took an extra 2 days 
but ya running the wires to the poper is the east part just roll up the window and take off the panel and run it there put go past the speaker
oh and some poper solenoids come with remotes too i think


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

studeringaaron said:


> not realy just run it along where the speaker wires go into the door


believe me, threading wires into the door isn't fun. Took me like 30-45min to run my speaker wires, I tried heavy gage wiring, to lead it, then I tried a drinking straw, then I finally found an old wire hanger, it took me like 3 tries with the hanger.


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## Captain Obvious (Jan 2, 2004)

1997 GA16DE said:


> believe me, threading wires into the door isn't fun. Took me like 30-45min to run my speaker wires, I tried heavy gage wiring, to lead it, then I tried a drinking straw, then I finally found an old wire hanger, it took me like 3 tries with the hanger.


well ya its not fun but with the right tools it can be "ok" 
go to a hardware store and get an electriians snake Im not sure what its called but its like a long guided metal wire that makes it a little easier
I didnt mean to sound like its easy it is still a p.i.t.a and I tried a drinking straw before but that was lost and is still in the door then Iwent to audio expres and asked a install tech how he did it and got great advice


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## officialhb (Mar 23, 2003)

I have the Python 880xp alarm, I'm not sure how many channels it has.
It seems like the 35 or 45lb solenoid are standard for the doors.
Do you know the differences in the weights?




1997 GA16DE said:


> I really find it humorous how they come as "kits." Shaving isn't exactly a DIY sort of things unless you work at a bodyshop. I assume this kit includes a solenoid, and some sort of Bondo (putty) material to cover the huge hole. Let me tell you, If you fill a gap that large with any sort of putty, it's eventually gona crack. To truely shave a hole, the paint must be sanded off around the hole, then a piece of sheet metal must be cut and welded into the hole. The entire patch must be grinded smooth, primered, painted, and clearcoated.
> 
> The solenoid can be purchased seperate (not sure how many lbs, prolly around 10lb to just pop the latch). If you have an aftermarket alarm (Like DEI: viper, hornet, etc.), they usually have multiple channels that work off of the alarm (my viper has 6 channels). The channels can activate solenoids like my trunk popper, so u should have no problems getting the door popper to work. the only bitch is getting the wire into the door.


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## Freak Style (Jan 14, 2004)

Ive heard autoloc is a good brand to get. The lbs. for the solenoid depend on how much you use it, like if you have a show car that you rarely open you should go with a 10lb soleniod but if its a daily driver than you need 50lb solenoid. I know with the autoloc kits you can get an alarm relay that will work with the popers. Go to www.autoloc.com they will explain everthing if you ask or read around some more.


Truett


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

studeringaaron said:


> well ya its not fun but with the right tools it can be "ok"
> go to a hardware store and get an electriians snake Im not sure what its called but its like a long guided metal wire that makes it a little easier
> I didnt mean to sound like its easy it is still a p.i.t.a and I tried a drinking straw before but that was lost and is still in the door then Iwent to audio expres and asked a install tech how he did it and got great advice


Hehe, all I know is I don't wanna have to run more junk thru there again.


officialhb said:


> I have the Python 880xp alarm, I'm not sure how many channels it has.
> It seems like the 35 or 45lb solenoid are standard for the doors.
> Do you know the differences in the weights?


I have the Viper 800ESP, the control has 4 buttons, which means I have 6 channels (1, 2, 3, 4, 1&2combined = 5, 3&4combined = 6), channel 1 locks/unlocks my car and sets the alarm, channel 2 pops my trunk, channel 3 opens my windows, and 4 turns on my radio (w/o the key in). 5 & 6 are not used currently. The alarm can be set so when you activate the channel, the trigger is momentary (such as a solenoid activation) or solid (like my radio, push once to turn on, push again to turn off).

I agree with what freak said. 10lb will do it, it doesn't take much effort to unlatch the door, you do it everytime you pull the handle. going up in rates most likely won't make any difference except that it'll prolly last longer.


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## B14_Stealth (Aug 14, 2003)

i got a stupid question.... so if you use the solenoid to unlatch the door..what do you use to pop the door open


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## I'm tired of my usernamee (Feb 16, 2004)

You would use the door poppers. I helped my friend shave almost everthing off of his prelude and that includes doorhandles, trunk, rain gutters, antenna, just about everything. I have pics of the progress and ill post them up if i can find them.


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## RBI*04 (Sep 10, 2004)

the autoloc kit is just a kit to get the doors open, YOU have to get the actual door shaved.


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## xbrandonx (Mar 27, 2004)

Ninety-Nine SE-L said:


> believe me, threading wires into the door isn't fun. Took me like 30-45min to run my speaker wires, I tried heavy gage wiring, to lead it, then I tried a drinking straw, then I finally found an old wire hanger, it took me like 3 tries with the hanger.


he said he had an XE, so take out all the power windows/locks wiring and that frees up quite a bit of room


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

B14_Stealth said:


> i got a stupid question.... so if you use the solenoid to unlatch the door..what do you use to pop the door open


Door poppers are nothing but ordinary solenoids. Basically, when the handle is pulled, the door pops itself. The latch is spring loaded, I'm sure you've noticed that when you pull on the latch from the inside, the door pops itself open. All the solenoid does is replicate the pulling of the handle and the spring-loaded latch does the rest of the work. It's just like when you use a remote control trunk release, it just pops upen with the use of a solenoid.


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## B14_Stealth (Aug 14, 2003)

thanks for the info
i did some more research on that. Oh yeah i forgot to mention that i dont have remote control trunk release but im thinking about doing it cause ive found few solenoids on ebay.
Anyway going back to the topic, if i wanted to pop the door open even more i could use the door poper right? its like a spring. Autolock is one of the companies that makes them.


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