Roof hinged door in an automobile

Abstract

A car includes a door hinged to the roof to be opened upwardly. A bottom side sill disposed towards the floor of the car is disposed to receive the bottom and side bottom edges of the door when it is closed. The side sill includes angularly disposed positions so that an inward impact of the door causes the bottom edges of the door to crush and lock into the side sill preventing the door from riding over the side sill. Small lightweight cars, having doors hinged to the roof, and adapted to be opened upwardly, are well known. Also, well known are car bodies having foam plastic therein to provide a measure of safety in case of impact. In some cases, these bodies have a pair of platforms adapted to receive foam plastic therebetween in the floor area. In attempts to increase gas mileage, efforts have emphasized minimizing the weight of the car. Very often, aluminum is used in place of steel or the thicknesses of the metals are reduced. In cases where the thicknesses of the metal used are reduced, it is important to compensate possible unsafe conditions in case of impact caused by the lighter weight metals collapsing under low impact conditions. When thicknesses of the metal used are reduced, the overall design of the car body must provide means to assure safety for individuals in the car at times of accidents involving relatively high impacts.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.