Suicide doors

[Richard Lichtfel]

How and why do doors that are hinged on the left called suicide doors?

[oldcarfudd]

I believe it's door hinged at the REAR that are called suicide doors. If you open one, even a little bit, while traveling fast, the wind will blow it wide open. If you're still holding the door handle, you'll be pulled out of the car.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

[alsancle]

Rear hinged doors are called Suicide because if you hit a bump at speed and the door blows open it's flying off.

[Guest Oracle]

Suicide doors because you are opening the car doors and getting out straight into the path of oncoming traffic. Rear-hinged doors were used on the Austalian Holden body to 1948 and now have been resurected in the MINI Countryman!

[Steve Moskowitz]

Suicide door - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[CarlLaFong]

This is another term that will never be clearly defined nor will it's origins be determined. It is a slang term and there will be as many answers as there are opinions. It's like the perennial "What is a classic or antique" question.

[alsancle]

This is another term that will never be clearly defined nor will it's origins be determined. It is a slang term and there will be as many answers as there are opinions. It's like the perennial "What is a classic or antique" question.

Totally different issue. The origins of the expression "Suicide Doors" is not known. The origin of the word Classic when referencing cars is very well known. The issue is when and how "classic" was co-opted to apply to any cr*p box that somebody was trying to sell.

[ply33]

Suicide door - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are a lot of Wikipedia articles that are pretty good. Especially when the topic is about computers or networking (I think a lot of the contributors are geeks). But the one on suicide doors is very poor. Not worth reading.

[CarlLaFong]

Totally different issue. The origins of the expression "Suicide Doors" is not known. The origin of the word Classic when referencing cars is very well known. The issue is when and how "classic" was co-opted to apply to any cr*p box that somebody was trying to sell.

Totally different issue? Not really. You can argue with people until you're blue in the face about these sorts of things and the only opinion that matters is theirs. If he heard ol' Uncle Booger tell his buddies around the pickle barrel that all red cars are classics and suicide doors were invented in '29 so stock market losers had a simple way to dispatch themselves and he chooses to believe it, it becomes fact, at least in his mind. I don't intend to argue either point. I know what a Classic car is and couldn't care less about a stupid term like "suicide doors".

[TG57Roadmaster]

I've always taken ol' Uncle Booger's pickle barrel parables with a HUGE grain of salt.

TG

[CarlLaFong]

I've always taken ol' Uncle Booger's pickle barrel parables with a HUGE grain of salt.

TG

There's plenty of salt in the pickles.

I've come to realize, over the years, that a great many BS stories start with either, "Mah deddy tol' me", or "We got an ol' boy down here that (fill in the blank)".

[Guest prs519]

yeah, what they said! all of the above! a permanent solution to a temporary problem!

[Barry Wolk]

I thought that any rear-hinged door was a suicide door. Cars with wood body frames were apt to pop the doors open. On a front hinged door it's no big deal if the door unlatches, but a rear hinged door would rip off if it opened at speed. If you happened to be holding onto the door you could exit the vehicle. Don't know how likely that is, but it is possible.

My new-old '33 Continental Flyer is an all-steel body, somewhat limiting the potential for flinging doors.

[Rusty_OToole]

How many people these days know a suicide blonde is one dyed by her own hand? lol.

[CarlLaFong]

How many people these days know a suicide blonde is one dyed by her own hand? lol.

Groan;)

[Guest Siegfried]

Here's a thought for you all. Perhaps they were called suicide doors because it was easier to jump out of the car at speed and kill yourself. This is what my dad told me many years ago. He had a friend at one time who did exactly that.

Sort of made sense to me. But then again so does the body flex idea. I imagine that hitting a hard bump could also pop open a door if the latch was worn, or out of alignment.

[ply33]

.... I imagine that hitting a hard bump could also pop open a door if the latch was worn, or out of alignment.

Been there. Done that. If my instinctive grab to hold the door shut had been successful I might have been pulled out. Fortunately my reaction time too slow and only a little damage to the hinges resulted.

I did fix the wear on the latch after that. Also on my car if you lock the door the latch tongue is extended a little bit farther. So I always check that all doors are locked before the car moves.

[Guest publisher]

Actually, they were named that because of Rodney Putnam, who worked in the Crudly V9 factory installling doors. He hadn't noticed, before installing a door, that someone had turned the car around facing the opposite direction, and he installed it backward. He couldn't take the ribbing from his fellow workers, so he decided to end it all.... ;o}

[West Peterson]

For how many years was the Crudly V9 factory in operation? Did they shut down production after Putnum's suicide?

I always thought that the "suicide door" term was self explanatory??? I, like others who have replied here, don't like it and edit it out of any stories that refer to it as such. It's just "front opening," plain and simple.

[Restorer32]

We restored a 1932 900 Packard Conv. A previous owner had offed himself with a gun in the garage next to the car, apparently while stripping paint from a door. For many years his widow would not let anyone even see the car. She finally sold it but refused to even go into the garage with the purchaser. Now THAT was a suicide door! Sometimes I can identify with his frustration with working on old cars.

[keiser31]

When you see a person with a shiner, they always say "I ran into a door". Actually, there is a secret society of doors out there that have made a pact to commit suicide by swinging into people's faces.

[DAVE A]

A guy I knew over in Hinkletown had a Crudly V9. I saw it the other year during the Lint Festival parade. It had a suicide hood. Used to unlatch for no reason at speeds over 55 and wrap around the windshield. It had more bends in it than a circus contortionist. He traded it in on a new Firtheim 5. (sports deluxe).

[Restorer32]

Hinkletown just hasn't been the same since they stopped production of Hinkle's Easter Egg Dyes.

[Shop Rat]

I guess you have to be from Pa. to get the inside jokes.

[Guest Trickstar]

Anybody know what a suicide Knob (steering wheel) is and why they call it that?

[keiser31]

Anybody know what a suicide Knob (steering wheel) is and why they call it that?

I always thought that they should be called "wrist-breakers" because they sometimes hit your wrist when they come back at you.

[Restorer32]

We always called them necker knobs.

[Restorer32]

One hand for the wheel, one for your date.

[Barry Wolk]

They were tractor steering knobs, no?

[Dave Mellor NJ]

They usually had an "art" picture