Oh fun! I think I might have inherited a bunch of this set from my Dad's/Uncles' collection! At least, I have the GARAGE 1x8 brick, the baseplate (with a broken latch), and one door. I was never able to try out the mechanism without that latch and the other door, though!

My very first sets, when I was 4 years old, were 1973 basic/universal sets, and I'm in the US so those were basically relabeled 1972 European sets. So I've always been fascinated by these 1971 sets since they're just before my own Lego history began.

The counterweights were kind of L shaped, inserting into the top of the door, and most of the ones I have are sheared. I suppose I could glue them together. The springy floor was a great idea though. Amazing that still works after 50+ years.

It is interesting that their were two different types of 'automatic garage doors' back then.

I've got that!! The doors ping open with quite a snap, we loved it as kids. Didn't take much to amuse 70s kids to be fair but it was clever!
The natural position of the doors was open, and you clipped them back behind a little sticking up slope in the base. Press the slope down, and the doors spring open.

@MCLegoboy said:
"So I've just looked through the instructions on Brickfactory.info and it appears that the entire floor is at a slight angle, and the doors are held in place by slightly offset holes in the floor to that of where they slot into the base of the roof. Press the button in front and that allows gravity to swing the doors open. It's quite clever. There's also a page telling you the importance of how to insert these doors correctly in 6 languages (with a 7th on one last page) so that it works properly when you finish building it.
And the parts of this set, the base and doors, were only ever used here. Either it was too complicated for the times and never arrived again, or it wasn't popular, but I'm surprised that even with a different type of baseplate that extended to a house or business that the mechanism was never used again, at least using the same doors anyway. Perhaps there are versions with slight modifications I don't know about, but BrickLink states that these doors are only used in this set, leaving me to surmise that the whole automatic door situation was never used again either. There is another automatic door, but the whole door has coutnerweights to open upward, not outward, and that was used many times."

Great web!!! I did not know about it. Thanks!!!

Pretty cool. I've seen these come up a few times through my many explorations, but it's pretty amazing to hear about how it works!

Never had this set myself, but some of my friends and family did. Always loved this, such a cool mechanism!

I vaguely remember seeing these doors, it must've been in the lego tub in kindergarten in the late 70s. At least there was one of them, can't remember if I ever found both, but I'm pretty certain I never saw that (essential) baseplate so I probably never used them for anything.

They had studs at both top and bottom, one was normal (possibly slightly smaller to rotate easily) while the other had an octagonal shape, it could rotate in respect to the door and was connected by a metal wire running along the hinge edge, acting like a torsion spring. The octagonal stud would fit in a corresponding hole in the baseplate or a regular brick on top, which prevented it from rotating so the spring would push the door open.

@PisceanPet said:
"https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/zl/c8z6eeqh9xeh.jpg
Features in this 48 year old photo and is still in my collection!"

That's practically a Lego brochure shot.

@Gamlebilrokker said:
"Well, yes. Automatic means working by itself with little or no direct human control, and these doors open without you having to touch them… So yea… Automatic."

My parents have an automatic garage door opener. You push a button on a remote, and the door opens. You push the button again, and the door closes. You don't have to stick around either time, because it has safeguards that will stop it from descending if it senses an obstruction.

This door, you push a release catch to cause the doors to immediately spring open (a process which will be completed before you can remove your finger from the button). And you have to very-manually close them like regular doors.

This reminds me of the Laurel and Hardy film "Blockheads" that had a great scene involving one of these pad-activated garage door openers. They were the bees-knees back in the 30's. Of course in the film, the car ended up crashing through the door anyway, go figure...

@PurpleDave said: ...]]

Why not simply live with the fact that this set was made before your parents installed the garage door, and it’s function still fits the definition of something automatic?

@Gamlebilrokker:
Because it’s about as automatic as my parents’ new microwave. You press a mechanical button in, it releases a catch, and the door springs open. And you still have to push the door closed yourself.

What is somewhat automatic about this is the floor, which ejects the car when the doors are opened. You don’t directly release the car, but it rolls downhill once a specific condition has been met, and that condition is not the pressing of a button.

@Ridgeheart:
To me, "automatic" means the function has to continue after you've released the button, and stop on its own. A stove is not automatic if you have to turn the dial to shut it off. A doorbell is not automatic as it ceases to function when you remove your finger from the button. A garage door has a button that you push to make the door start opening, to stop, or to start closing. Once you've pressed that button, however, it operates without further input. When it finishes opening or closing, it stops without manual input. If it detects an obstacle while closing, it reverses and opens without manual input.

This responds to no input but the pressing of a manual button. The action is over before you've had time to lift your finger off the button. There's no self-retracting function for the doors, let alone the car.