Looking for Wings a Loft, door popper reviews

[SS Spoiler]

Has anyone tried an old street rod trick of mounting
an old valve spring to give that initial boost to the door?

[David T]

Has anyone tried an old street rod trick of mounting
an old valve spring to give that initial boost to the door?

Be careful with that, you must find a place to fit it when closed and it will take additional force to close the door. The strut is supposed to do that. If you have problems like that maybe you need to replace the struts. Also if you manage to fit a spring it will put a lot of force on the latches and they may not release easily.

[DMCVegas]

Has anyone tried an old street rod trick of mounting
an old valve spring to give that initial boost to the door?

The VPA did have "kicker solenoids" in some of their old kits. You would mount them down at the rear of the door frame, at the bottom. When the door is closed, they don't make contact at all with the door. However they took a LOT more work to install. You've had to drill the car to mount them, then you still had to wire up the relays and door solenoids too.

When I asked Don Steger about those after he had installed them on other people's cars, he advised against them. Funny enough VPA stopped selling them too. Probably WAY too much of a preload on the doors to let the locks function correctly.

Now if you're looking for an alternative to kick/push doors open such as what they use on a car with shaved door handles (which is what these kits really are) you can used what are called Door Poppers. They're just spring-loaded plungers that push the doors out. But the problem is that you STILL have to deal with drilling and mounting them, and that is an irreversible modification.

I would just recommend that along with a Wings-A-Loft kit, you should also remove the stock solenoids and replace those with the actuators. The weight reduction will tip the counterbalancing in your favor for the torsion bars to help push the doors out without adjustment. But as it as been stated, you MUST ensure that your doors function properly before hand. Clean & grease all internal linkage and clean the doors up.

[cybercusp]

For my wings-aloft I've found that keeping the hinges lubricated is important. If they're not lubricated then my doors will release but fail to launch.

[ssdelorean]

For the door opening system to work you have to crank the torsion bars up a little more than normal.

disagree

Another thing that I should mention is you can drop the old heavy solenoids and replace them with the same linear actuators...making the door much much lighter and maybe, just maybe making the adjustment necessary in the opposite direction.

agree

The doors need to work perfectly before (and after) the installation. The test is that you can lift the outside door handle and let go, and the door will open all the way by itself. Weak struts or draggy outer door seals, or just plain door misalignment will cause the system to work less than perfectly. None of this is a problem with the kit itself. But if you start with a car with doors that don't quite work, you can spend more time fixing the doors than you do installing the system.

The door latch(es) is (are) slightly out of adjustment, so with vibration the latch is slightly out of position for opening the door. The launcher is pretty particular about this. Needs slightly more preload on the launch solenoids and/or a lock/latch adjustment to make the lock disengagement more "sure". This goes along with what I said about it all being perfect and sometimes taking some time to do it.

. . . but things do go out of adjustment over time. It's maintenance.

BOOM!

Get those doors perfect before installation and routinely checked and adjusted after installation to keep working properly. Even trading out rubber door stripping can, and probably will, affect the remote openers. The rule of thumb test for the torsion bar (I believe trademarked by Grady) is to remove the gas strut and let it hang. It should be about 6-8 inches away from being closed.

I have had my DPNW openers for about 10 yrs as well and had no issues with the setup/product. My issues come from the doors & stock items themselves. I modified the connecting rod linkage to hold tighter and push/pull in a more straight line (but again, I believe that was due to sticky/stubborn door internals than the DPNW product).

Parking on a slight incline may hinder operation as well.

Even trading out rubber door stripping can, and probably will, affect the remote openers.

[BLWNAWY]

The VPA did have "kicker solenoids" in some of their old kits.

Okay, I know I have been out of the loop for 12 years, but who/what is VPA? The only other door opener kits I was aware of were the stillborn attempts by Grady/Zilla. And yes I know some owners designed their own systems - it wasn't that complicated, and was not patented.

[DMCVegas]

I have had my DPNW openers for about 10 yrs as well and had no issues with the setup/product. My issues come from the doors & stock items themselves. I modified the connecting rod linkage to hold tighter and push/pull in a more straight line (but again, I believe that was due to sticky/stubborn door internals than the DPNW product).

Yes! One really HUGE problem I had was after I replaced my exterior door handles with DMCH's metal ones. The handles are great, but they require some readjustment of the connecting cable since they have a slightly different size, and need lubrication inside of the sheath after decades of dirt and dust. If you don't do that, it'll preload too much tension on the Bellcrank. Which leads to binding of the locking mechanisms in the door latches. Best case scenario is that you'll have sticky locks that require a whole lot more power to actuate. Not-so-good scenario is that your stock door lock module doesn't get triggered properly and burns out your solenoids and drains your battery. Worst case is that it'll totally bind up the latches and the door will not open at ALL.

So keep your door mechanisim internals properly lubricated and your seals straight. If you can't close the door with a single finger in the middle of the tollbooth window, something isn't right.

Okay, I know I have been out of the loop for 12 years, but who/what is VPA? The only other door opener kits I was aware of were the stillborn attempts by Grady/Zilla. And yes I know some owners designed their own systems - it wasn't that complicated, and was not patented.

Vehicle Power Accessories. They sell universal kits for hot rods that shave their door handles off. 15lb. or 45lb. solenoids, spring-loaded door kickers (formerly solenoids), and the keyless entry module. Summit Racing sells them. In a nutshell, they are complete shit when it comes to product support & function. One of Don Steger's old employees (not Don himself) installed the door launcher kit from them in my car back in 2000. And the guy didn't do a good job. He miswired stuff on my car between the dome lights and my clearance lights with the kit. So what happened was that my clearance lights were on a delay to turn on whenever the car was unlocked. Then whenever I armed or disarmed the system, my interior courtesy lights would flash. Then after a couple of months of intermittent performance, the thing stopped working entirely.

I wanted to troubleshoot the system myself, but the schematics couldn't be located. I tried contacting VPA and found out they don't really exist per se. They're just a shell brand sold by another company called "autotrickz" who other than uploading some new photos, still doesn't look like they've updated their website almost 17 years later. I tried e-mailing and even calling them (only to find out they only have a Fax line) to get a copy of the schematics to troubleshoot the entire system myself, but they were no help since they never responded. I even used the FCC License # printed on the module & remotes to track down the manufacturer of the system since it turned out VPA/autotrickz was just repackaging their unit into a kit. But they outright refused to help me.

The worst part is that 15-16 years later, verified buyers of this same VPA kit over on Summit are complaining about the same exact things when installed onto different cars. Piss-poor schematics when you do get them, no manufacturer support, and intermittent function and failure. So apparently it's not just my car. I'll eventually rip it out and install the Wings-a-loft kit. If I ever needed a door popper kit for another car, I won't EVER use VPA again, and wouldn't wish their products on anyone.

[David T]

Vendor support, no one cares about it when buying but if you need it after the sale and you can't get it, you find out what you REALLY bought! A big reason most of the aftermarket burglar alarms have to be dissected out of the car. No support. The other big reason, as DMCVegas pointed out, is cr-ppy installation. From short-cuts, to those vampire clip-on terminals, to sloppy wiring, you name it, a quality product is worthless if it isn't installed well. This applies to radios too. One good reason to buy from one of the Delorean vendors. They have worked the bugs out, will sell you what works, and know how to install it into a Delorean. When you buy stuff from a D vendor they know the product because that is what they put into the cars THEY service and have to stand behind.

[rickjames8]

So I have a question about how the Wings-a-loft functions. I've installed poppers on two other cars, but both of those were to 'shave' the door handles, and the locks went too. So there was no need (or ability) to lock the door. Theft protection was built in to the fact there was no handle for someone to grab. The door was opened with a single press of a button.

With the wings-a-loft I've read the system unlocks the doors, and pops the door. Is this done with 2 button presses, or is the system designed to unlock+open in one function?

[ssdelorean]

So I have a question about how the Wings-a-loft functions. I've installed poppers on two other cars, but both of those were to 'shave' the door handles, and the locks went too. So there was no need (or ability) to lock the door. Theft protection was built in to the fact there was no handle for someone to grab. The door was opened with a single press of a button.

With the wings-a-loft I've read the system unlocks the doors, and pops the door. Is this done with 2 button presses, or is the system designed to unlock+open in one function?

I cannot confirm for the full kit DPNW sells as I previously had the Zilla remote unit and purchased the DPNW launchers separately. They offer the components individually and as a full kit. My Zilla remote works two pushes of unlock button opens just the driver door. To open both doors at the same time: one press of the unlock button then one press of accessory button.