There is a used '96 Civic I'm considering purchasing and, among other aesthetic mods, the thing has been given lambo doors. It looked good in pictures but when I saw the vehicle in person I was impressed by how very gingerly he opened and closed the doors and the presence of a 3"-1" rust hole in the fender very near the door hinges.
The doors will sink a bit lower then the height of the door frame if you're not careful opening/closing and at one point as I went to close the door the seller stoped me and closed the door himself, moving it very slowly and carefully into place. The presence of rust on the vehicle already and its location is conerning - all of the door's weight is on what I imagine to be just a single ball joint and as soon as the rust gets near that joint the whole bloody door is going to tear off under it's own weight and the car will be done for. FYI he is asking for 3k$ for the car and it has 155k miles and no performance mods besides an air intake under the hood.
My question is this:
what have been people's experience with verticle doors and verticle door failures? - particularly those that have come many years after the installation. Now that lambo doors went out of style so long ago, does anybody know how all those door modded civics are holding up against time and rust? If the joint failed, how much would it cost to repair? I need this vehicle to last about 5 years. What are people's intuitive guesses about the remaining lifetime of this car?