Bringing Concepts to Life

I’ve been continuing to ponder how I’m going to be able to make my gun doors work with the flip-flop hood setup I am planning to use.  I blogged about some ideas for the gun doors in a previous post, but I don’t think the rotisserie style of door is going to work because of…

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Gun Doors Revised

I’ve been continuing to ponder how I’m going to be able to make my gun doors work with the flip-flop hood setup I am planning to use.  I blogged about some ideas for the gun doors in a previous post, but I don’t think the rotisserie style of door is going to work because of the height of the guns.

The trick that I’ll have to figure out, is how to make the hood easily roll up and down without constantly having to remove the gun doors.  At the same time I would like to have the gun doors totally tuck back down out of sight when the guns pop up.

One of the mechanisms that just might work is one which is typically used for garage doors.  The mechanism is commonly referred to as a retractable “up and over” garage door.  This allows a solid one piece door to sit flush and then entirely retract away.

I’m thinking that if I were to pivot this mechanism so that the door rolled down instead of rolling up, it would provide what I’m looking for.  I may be able to connect a lever to the mechanism attached to the guns to automatically roll the door up and down as the guns raised and retracted.  Or maybe simply re-use the power window motors to open and close the gun doors.

I’m sure I’ll have to do some prototyping, but so far this mechanism is looking promising.

4 responses to “Gun Doors Revised”

  1. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Mr Neil,

    As far as your ‘gun doors’, if you have the lateral space, can I suggest a slider mechanism vis a vis a sunroof? That way the doors don’t have to go vertical (if you use the ‘folding door’ visualized above on the door’s long axis, or go excessively far inboard or outboard for a short axis rotation). I seem to remember that the ‘fender’ is roughly 3 times longer than the gun door, providing sufficient space for it to slide out of sight, and out of the way. This would also allow you to raise the hood with the guns in either the ‘down’ or ‘up’ position. The mechanism would be two tracks per panel for guides, and a pass-through servo for each panel.

    Great build, and the ‘remote’ aspect makes it really special!

  2. David Boboc Avatar
    David Boboc

    Hello Tim,

    I am also starting an 89 project with a Hines body. I was wondering if replica 30 cals are still available from the source that provided yours.

    Dave Boboc

    1. brcewane Avatar

      I’m not sure if Lou is making more from his molds or not… Here are more details on the 30cals… Lou’s contact info should be able to be found on the links to his site: https://batberry.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/the-batberry-gets-some-30cals/

  3. Working on the Dash Layout | Building the BatBerry Avatar

    […] BatBerry like raising the car up and down on its air ride system, opening and closing the canopy, raising the 30Cals up and down, and hiding and showing the license […]

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