• Please only use these forums for blogs, they are not a discussion forum

Sonic Micra Blog

sonic

sonic

Has anyone put door poppers on their car or has anyone used them in the past ? I'm thinking about going completely smooth on the doors i.e. no external locks or handles, but I'm not sure how the doors would be opened from the outside, does anyone know how these door popper things work and where to get them from and install them ? I already have remote central locking, is it possible to tie the poppers into that ?
 
A lad on the AOC did this and built the opening buttons into the underside of the wing mirrors, so all the wiring was on the door.
He also added metal prongs under the bumper to connect jump leads to if the battery went flat!
 
Off the top of my head I think kristian had these, or was it someone else with a yellow micra?

He had actuators on the wing mirrors I think. It looked good.
 
Quickdraw (going back a bit) did this on his K10, and also had them on the wing mirrors.
 
They'll all on the wing mirrors if you for some reason don't use the fob. Otherwise u only need to use this. They pop open just far enough for you to get your fingers behind the door to open it.
 
i had a kit for this somewhere but the cost of smoothing the handles was too much at the time... did the locks and indicators instead ;)

really easy to do, you get the kits off ebay, you have solonoids with a cable on them and they pull the handle just like your hand would.. they doors will pop naturally as they do this anyway you just don't notice it cos you are pulling the door as well with your hand.

the system can be triggered with a remote, or buttons under the wing mirrors... both are easy ;)

but a backup is very important, i got a dead battery on my car and couldn't unlock the doors, cos of the lack of locks so i had to jump the system by back feeding the caravan port on the tow bar....

i have been looking into other ways of triggering it such as sensors in the glass or card reader.... something like that....

remember that with no handles there is no need for locks and so you can leave the car unlocked and then pop it by remote... i think this is the best way rather than having one fob for the locks and one for the handles....

did the same thing with my smooth boot... really simple :D
 
img00797resized5qi.jpg


^ Ah my old car ^

These doors are now featured on the New 2.0 project..

Do it.. its simple enough and achieves a great look.. not to mention security..

I wouldn't tap it into any other wiring systems on the car though.. leave them isolated..

Remote the locks and leave the handle poppers on the car..

need any more info just ask.
 
cheers Nex, I did a dummy run with the smooth handle and de-lock on a scrap door, it turned out great, I wont be using remote actuators though, because as you say I dont want another remote fob as well as my alarm one, plus if I do have remote activation then wont both doors pop when I press the button on the fob ? So there are then, as soon as I get the actuators I will be going Smooooth.

Cheers for your advice as well Kris, I definately am going for it, it's going to look cool, I've been working on the bodywork all week now, another day or two and its ready for the paint, the perfect weather for it too. :D
 
no probs mate, :D you wouldn't mind taking a few pics as you do it and putting up a guide would you? i know a few people would like to try this

does your key fob work the locks?

what you could do is only pop the drivers door on the remote and open passenger doors from the inside.... infact you could remove all the lock workings from the passenger door completly and just have one popper in the driver door.

but this is always going to be a problem when modding which is compromise between looks and function. without handles it makes getting into the car harder when you have passengers or shopping etc... but then its up to you. IMO it is worth the hassle for the looks :D
 
NeX said:
does your key fob work the locks?
Click to expand...
yes it does, but I'm not sure if the alarm supports an auxiliary output.

NeX said:
what you could do is only pop the drivers door on the remote and open passenger doors from the inside.... in fact you could remove all the lock workings from the passenger door completely and just have one popper in the driver door.
Click to expand...

Thats something I've thought about, after all the drivers door is the most important, there is a question in my mind as to the legality of not being able to open the passenger door from outside.

I've removed the lock and its rod from the boot lid and filled, smoothed and primed it this morning, it's all in motion now, here's a before shot.....
march 042.jpg
Here's an after shot....
march 060.jpg
I cant wait until I get the import size plates on.
 
sonic said:
yes it does, but I'm not sure if the alarm supports an auxiliary output.



Thats something I've thought about, after all the drivers door is the most important, there is a question in my mind as to the legality of not being able to open the passenger door from outside.

I've removed the lock and its rod from the boot lid and filled, smoothed and primed it this morning, it's all in motion now, here's a before shot.....
View attachment 7275
Here's an after shot....
View attachment 7276
I cant wait until I get the import size plates on.
Click to expand...

oh wow that is a really nice job :D

well if you smooth the handles and the locks then get the remote to operate the handle instead of the lock and just leave the car unlocked.

at the mo you will have a motor to unlock the door and then the handle relases the catch and you have two manual ones for the inside too...

but with no handles, how will anyone get in if the car is unlocked? so when you push the unlock button it can just pop the driver's door....

as to weather its legal or not to have a way in from the outside... it has always been a problem. my dad's classic car failed its MOT cos the passenger door handle didn't work, yet i know people who have had their handles removed and the only way to open the door is via remote, and depending on where you go for your MOT or which police person you talk to depends on how legal it is.... its one of those things that nobody knows....

but i would have thought it would not be a problem.... if it is a matter of safey like in a crash and a fire person is trying to open the door, then what if the crash jammed the door anyway... you'd have the same problem... and if it was so the police could open your passenger door like they do when they pull you over then you cant do that if the door is locked. like a car without central locking, how many people get in their car and then unlock the passenger door if there is no passenger....

so i don't know... but i know smoothed doors are not ilegal no matter what people say cos they are stock on them TVRs.... one other option is removing the passenger seat and geting the car converted to being a "light goods vehical" so that it will only have one person in it and the passanger door is like a loading hatch :D
 
NeX said:
oh wow that is a really nice job :D
Click to expand...
Cheers mate, I'm removing the aerial at the moment, so there's some before after pics to come there

NeX said:
well if you smooth the handles and the locks then get the remote to operate the handle instead of the lock and just leave the car unlocked.
Click to expand...
it's a good idea that, the fob I've got is the alarm fob that is linked to the central locking, so I could just connect the drivers side to the door latch popper instead of the locking mech, and leave the passenger side as it is so its only openable from the inside, as you say it wouldn't need to be locked with no external handles to open the doors.

NeX said:
one other option is removing the passenger seat and geting the car converted to being a "light goods vehical" so that it will only have one person in it and the passanger door is like a loading hatch :D
Click to expand...

this isn't viable unfortunately, it is still going to be a family car after all and I need all the seats in.
 
I dont know what all the hubub is about..

On my car ( the one pictured above ) I had remote central locking..

Like many cars do..

All I did was wire in two actuaters directly to a battery feed.. the drivers door had one as did the passenger door..

The drivers door had a button to operate the drivers door .. as did the passengers door have its own button..

If your drivers door failed, the the passengers one was available for use..

They dont need to be spliced into any existing wiring or anything.. mine simply used the connecting rod that the handle used to ...

So for example..

I Park... open door.. close door.. lock with fob as usual...

................ and the car is locked..

If anybody aproaches the car and presses the button. Then the handle latch can be heard operating, but with the door being locked, the door doesn't open..

As if I was outside lifting the door handle on your car now..

The system setup in this way, basically, replaces the handles with mechanical ones inside.. the locks still work, the inside door handles and interior locks still work..

If you need a pic of how and where to position the lock.. ill root one out..

All you need to get this to work fine is two water-resistant buttons and two actuaters ( centeral locking ones are fine.. ) ..

in addition to some wire and some screws ...

Provided your car HAS remote central locking.. if it hasn't.. then you need to get a remote centeral locking kit and fit that..

My car PASSED an MOT with no problems with the handles removed as described above..
 
sonic said:
Cheers mate, I'm removing the aerial at the moment, so there's some before after pics to come there
Click to expand...

As promised, here's the before and after on the aerial mount removal, another job off the list, now I need a beesting for the rear of the roof.
Before... march 062.jpg After.... march 064.jpg


I think this is unintentionally turning into a bit of a blog here, could one of the admin please move this thread to K11 blogs, cheers.
 
sonic said:
now I need a beesting for the rear of the roof.
Click to expand...

i have one for sale, £10 + p&p and it's yours.

and i can't believe you've got a march and have gone and fitted an ugly uk long number plate, 12x6 jap plates are the way forward.
 
squarepants said:
who said he fitted it? ;) he could've brought the car with it on......
Click to expand...

I did, I didnt see any point in changing them until the car was cosmetically finished, sort of the 'icing on the cake', when they are changed I will be fitting 13.5" x 5.5" purely because that is the exact size of the front number plate carrier and I want the plate to fit it exactly.

Swiper said:
i have one for sale, £10 + p&p and it's yours.
Click to expand...

I'll take it !!
 
i remember watching a program where the plate they welded over the door handle mounting point was actually the door opening mech, as in when you touched the car door at that spot it would earth out and cause the door to pop open...so you still had a door handle with a handle (if that makes sense lol).

Could be cool if you were able to find out what was used to achieve it.
 
well after finding out that my March has K10 type hubs and therefore wouldn't accept my new pusar calipers, I had to change the hubs for the ones on my 1 litre spares car, then the calipers fitted, it was a bit of a mission though, both bottom ball joints and track rod ends were rusted solid on the donor car so out came the grinder. Anyway its all done now and wow what a difference they make.

Before.... march 069.jpg After..... march 072.jpg

Caliper size difference.. march 071.jpg Pad size difference.. march 074.jpg

So I've gone up from a 210mm disc to a 257mm disc with a much bigger pad area and a huge caliper piston in comparison to standard.
 
Well after a couple of days running the K11 Micra hubs and pulsar brakes I noticed that there was a lot of tyre scrubbing on cornering, so I checked the tracking and it was miles out, but when I came to adjust it I found that I ran out of adjustment on the track rod ends, so now I've had to get K11 micra ones for it as they're slightly longer, this conversion has cost me a fortune so far, I'm really surprised at the differences between my March and a Micra of the same age, all the differences seem to be at the front mainly though.

march 075.jpg
 
sweet mod, smooth as you like. you must have some easy going lady to let you spend all that time on your car!
 
Well the door popper solenoids arrived this morning along with the led number plate light and orange 5mm leds for the side repeaters in the mirrors :D :upside: (Y) , but I haven't got time to do anything on the car this weekend, AAHHHHGGGGGGG !!!!! it's killing me to have the stuff I've been waiting for for ages and not be able to fit it :doh: :glare: :( , I'll pick up a fibre glass matting kit from the car shop in a bit and then I'll have everything I need, it's so nearly ready for paint that I can almost smell the thinners.
 
if you want it smooth it might look better to loose the rear spoiler rather than try and smooth it in.

the bubble shape of the micra suits smoothing really well :D and i am a big fan of smooth too ;)

if you loose the spoiler sell it to me :D i love that brake light :D is that factory?


looking good anyway mate :D
 
NeX said:
if you loose the spoiler sell it to me :D i love that brake light :D is that factory?


looking good anyway mate :D
Click to expand...

I'm keeping the spoiler, its a genuine Nissan Japan factory part that was only fitted to the G# March, it's too unique to get rid of I'm afraid, anyway Nex, you're supposed to be getting rid of your stuff if you're going to Sweden, not collecting more, you must have a warehouse full of stuff by now.
 
sonic said:
I'm keeping the spoiler, its a genuine Nissan Japan factory part that was only fitted to the G# March, it's too unique to get rid of I'm afraid, anyway Nex, you're supposed to be getting rid of your stuff if you're going to Sweden, not collecting more, you must have a warehouse full of stuff by now.
Click to expand...

no way! i didn'y know they did factory ones with brake lights :D yea ok hang on to it then.

lol yea i should sell stuff but its hard to kick the micra habbit lol, and yea i have about 3 rooms full of rare and intersting micra parts ;)
 
Many (too many) years ago, I cut my car obsession teeth in a small auto body shop in Virginia. A popular modificaton we did was to remove the door handles, weld in a couple of plugs (often using metal coat hangers) and lead loading the welds over. A small solinoid was the then fixed inside the door so that all you had to do was "knee" (gently) the outside panel and the door popped open. Can't remember what we used to spring the door open, though. Not recommending this, understand, as anyone can get in your car.

I had a '57 Chevy two door Bel Air hardtop, all red, in those days (my first car) and how I wish I had it now.

Enjoying your blog, sonic.

S
 
The very one, except mine was all red. It was a respray, actually. I was so hot to get one of these cars that, instead of shopping around, I literally bought the first one I saw on the lot. It was a sickly pea soup green on the bottom with a white top, luckily the interior was easier on the eyes: silver with black inserts. The car had the 283 cubic inch engine with a two barrel carb and powerglide, which we called a slushbox. So, unhappy with the looks and performance, like many on this site, I set about changing everything. The fashion back then was to drop the front end and put big tires (tyres) on the rear. You dropped the front either by torching one or two rings off the coils or heating them 'till the the car just collapsed, often on the rubber bumpers. The latter method was riskey in that you could end up with your car canted slightly to one side if your were too generous with the heat. Crazy days, those. Sorry to hi-jack your blog, incidentally.

S
 
Well I fitted the door popper on the drivers door yesterday, unfortunately the solenoid didn't have enough power to pop the latch :doh: so I took it all off again and made some modifications today, basically I had to weld a 3cm extension onto the outer door handle lever of the latch mechanism to give the solenoid more leverage and therefore require less power to pop the catch, this worked like a dream, I decided not to splice into an existing live feed but to run a new cable direct from the battery via a 10 amp in line fuse to the button which I have bonded into the inner side of the mirror with Araldite epoxy resin, it's very discreet and easy to use without it looking obvious, I thought I would have to fit a spring to push the door open, but after trying it it would seem that the door rubbers give it enough pressure to spring the door open about three inches, I'll take some pictures tomorrow when it's light, I'm quite happy with the outcome of this door and now I know what I'm doing the passenger door should only take half the time. :grinning:
 
heres the pics of my smooth doors,
182746e29ca0186b5.jpg

182746e29ca124a00.jpg

I think the smooth doors make the car look longer and lower,
182746e29fef55746.jpg

182746e2a0cb88bdc.jpg

And the remote opener, it needs a bit of filler round it still to blend it in and the button painting body colour when the car is done.
182746e29ca1cd157.jpg

I still have the ugly side repeaters to remove and replace, the washer jets to remove and resite and the number plate light to finish off, then it's a quick once over to find any blemishes and finally paint it, so close, so close.
 
looking good! how much practice did you need to become such a master with body filler! btw ive got some of those tsw's in my shed but they are et 20 otherwise they would have been painted black and put on my micra!
 
butta said:
looking good! how much practice did you need to become such a master with body filler!
Click to expand...
It's something that ive always had a knack for, most people dont apply enough filler for the job, I've used a gallon and a half so far on my car, I'll probably use another half gallon to finish it.
butta said:
btw ive got some of those tsw's in my shed but they are et 20 otherwise they would have been painted black and put on my micra!
Click to expand...
ET20 would look cool with wide arches, were they off a BMW or a VW ? my bet would be VW. Do you like the centres btw ?
 

Similar threads

ClnlPanic
Noface's Blog
Replies
19
Views
2K
ClnlPanic
ClnlPanic
T
the swede's blog
Replies
7
Views
2K
the swede
T
DannyG
Daniels micra blog
Replies
24
Views
3K
DannyG
DannyG
-ToM-
-ToM- Micra Blog
Replies
0
Views
2K
-ToM-
-ToM-
joesouthgate
My "moddedmicra" K11 Super S Blog!
21 22 23
Replies
1K
Views
147K
joesouthgate
joesouthgate
Back
Top