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Well I lightened REDS rear hatch, so time to move on to the doors. Remember this is a non-streetable drag racer so what I do to lighten the doors up may not work for a daily driver!
I'll let the pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but when all is said and done I have a NON-noodle door that will open and close without folding in half!
My experimental door (the green one in the pictures) that I cut apart to figure out what to remove and see how much stiffness remained ended up being a complete noodle that even by my fairly relaxed safety standards was unacceptable.
Learning how to remove the side-impact beam from the door without cutting it all up took a little creativity. The oval shaped holes at the ends of the door freed up the beam from the door structure, then it could be further cut to more easily remove it.
My "production" lightened doors are actually pretty stiff - though probably not all that safe in any kind of a side impact crash.
Here are the weights:
Standard factory complete drivers door with window, hinges, etc, etc. 53.2-lbs
Totally lightened door, with hinges and door lock (no lexan window yet) 26.4-lbs
A weigh savings of 26.8-lbs per door, or 53.6-lbs total
I had thought about making a welded on door skin for the passenger side, which would have saved an additional estimate 15-lbs, but I wanted to keep both doors able to open and close for both ease of maintenance and to be able to get out of the car in an emergency.
The only piece of sheet metal left to lighten will be the hood - to be continued!
I'll let the pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but when all is said and done I have a NON-noodle door that will open and close without folding in half!
My experimental door (the green one in the pictures) that I cut apart to figure out what to remove and see how much stiffness remained ended up being a complete noodle that even by my fairly relaxed safety standards was unacceptable.
Learning how to remove the side-impact beam from the door without cutting it all up took a little creativity. The oval shaped holes at the ends of the door freed up the beam from the door structure, then it could be further cut to more easily remove it.
My "production" lightened doors are actually pretty stiff - though probably not all that safe in any kind of a side impact crash.
Here are the weights:
Standard factory complete drivers door with window, hinges, etc, etc. 53.2-lbs
Totally lightened door, with hinges and door lock (no lexan window yet) 26.4-lbs
A weigh savings of 26.8-lbs per door, or 53.6-lbs total
I had thought about making a welded on door skin for the passenger side, which would have saved an additional estimate 15-lbs, but I wanted to keep both doors able to open and close for both ease of maintenance and to be able to get out of the car in an emergency.
The only piece of sheet metal left to lighten will be the hood - to be continued!
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