Suicide doors

["Bill Watson" <wwatson@xxxxxxxxx>]

Suicide front doors are not that common on Mopar vehicles, but virtually the
whole coporate line had suicide front doors in 1933 and in 1934 on
non-Airflow cars.  Some custom-bodied Imperials prior to 1933 had suicide
front doors, as well.

As for the rear doors, the suicide style was common on closed body styles
until 1949, and after that on the long-wheelbase models.   Mopar 4-door
convertibles generally non-suicide style rear doors.

On  luxury vehicles of the 1930's, custom bodies were common and many of
them had suicide front doors.  Cadillacs had them in the early 1930' and in
fact virtually all 1935 GM models (except most closed Cadillac models) had
them.   For non-Cadillac models, that is the easiest way to tell a 1935 from
a 1936.

Same holds true for Lincoln.  Many custom-bodied Lincolns came with suicide
front doors up to and including 1935.

Packard also had suicide front doors on its custom bodies of the early
1930's, and in 1935 even the production models had them.  Many senior models
continued with them for 1936, although the juniod models dropped them.

As a matter of fact, 1934-35 seems to be the peak for suicide front doors.
Only Willys seems to have avoided the style.

Bill
Vancouver, BC


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Middlebrook" <delamothe@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: IML: Suicide doors


>
> So far the only luxury car that comes to mind from the 30's with the
suicide door design, are the Pierce Arrows of the mid 30's.  In particular
the Silver Arrow.
>
>
>
>
>  --- On Tue 03/23, Kerry Pinkerton < pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:
> From: Kerry Pinkerton [mailto: pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx]
> To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:00:23 -0600
> Subject: Re: IML: Suicide doors
>
> Some early Crown Imperials had suicide rear doors.  My 50 crown does and
<br>I expect the same is true through through 54.
<br><br><br>RandalPark@xxxxxxx wrote:<br><br>>That is correct. Doors that
open in such a way that if they were ajar and the car was moving, that the
wind could catch and open them, are in fact called suicide doors. I don't
think anyone actually committed suicide in this way, but it could be said
that opening the door while the car was in motion would be "like committing
suicide". This was since the wind would pull the door off the car, and
possibly the passenger along with it, if they hung onto the door handle.
Lincolns and four door Thunderbirds in the '60s had a door ajar warning
light for this reason. <br>><br>>In the '30s, some cars had the front doors
opening in this way while the rear ones were conventional. Were any '30s
Chryslers or Imperials set up this way? I'll have to take a look in my old
"70 Years of Chrysler" book.<br>><br>>Paul<br>><br>> In a message dated
3/22/2004 8:04:27 PM Eastern Standard T
> ime, DavisADM writes:<br>><br>>  <br>><br>>>Who says that suicide dorrs
applies only to the front doors.  So, yes, Lincolns and T-birds had suicide
doors!<br>>><br>>><br>>>In a message dated 03/22/2004 11:45:53 AM,
<br>>>imperial1971@xxxxxxxxx writes:<br>>><br>>><br>>><br>>>The
Engel-designed '64-'66 Imperials were never<br>>>offered with suicide doors.
And neither were the<br>>>'61-'69 Lincolns.  Lincoln (and Thunderbird for a
few<br>>>years) used a center-opening design, which is rather<br>>>different
than the "suicide" design, in which the<br>>>front door opens from the
FRONT.<br>>><br>>>But, much like the misuse of "Kelsey Hayes" for
the<br>>>Motor Wheel wire wheels, the misuse of "suicide doors"<br>>>has
stuck.<br>>><br>>>Elijah<br>>>    <br>>><br>><br>><br>>----------------- 
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