Vertical Doors

Vertical Doors, Inc. was founded in 2003 by several car guys in Los Angeles, who coveted the vertically-opening doors first used on Italian-made Lamborghini exotics. They now have Lambo Doors for more than 100 fitments, and are constantly developing more. They’ve also branched out into Suicide Doors and hood and trunk hinges. Some of their products are true bolt-ons, but others are strictly for the cut-and-weld kind of gearhead – like you, right?

The driving force behind the first Vertical Door was the compelling need to impress judges at car shows. Custom car show judges have sort of seen it all, every color of metalflake paint, every wacky body mod and every anodized piece of underhood aluminum. It takes a really unique vision, executed perfectly, to take first prize at any half-baked show nowadays. A Honda Civic or a Camaro, no matter how perfect the bodywork, paint and interior, needs an edge to be competitive – and a Vertical Door might be just the ticket.

Their patented hinge mechanism is engineered to be a true bolt-on installation on the cars they’ve developed it to fit. Two hours should have you back on the road. A Vertical Door can actually be practical, not just an attention-grabber: the door needs less space than a conventional hinged door to make getting in and out easy. It’s great if you have a narrow garage, or you’re forced to park your Escalade in a parking spot that’s barely big enough for a Civic.

The genius of Vertical Doors is the true-bolt-on capability engineered into their kits. You won’t need to weld or drill holes, although a discreet amount of trimming out-of-sight sheet metal under the fender might be necessary. So you could get a set of Lambo Doors installed on your leased car, drive around in style for two years, then reinstall the factory hinges and drop the keys on the lease agents desk with him none the wiser. OK, probably a bad idea, but at least it means you can sell your car if you need to without having to find a buyer who’s as car-crazy as you are.

A second customizing edge, one that will really impress judges, casual passersby or serious car geeks, is a suicide door. As you might expect, re-engineering a front-hinged door to open the other direction is not a trivial undertaking. It requires serious fabrication skills, and requires reworking and repainting the car and the door. Vertical Doors Inc. makes an assortment of hinges engineered to make this arduous process as simple as possible. Their Suicide Door kits will result in a rearward opening door that looks, fits, and works like it came from the factory that way.