super extreme weight reduction

[motozachl]

So I did a search and the only related thread were about removing jacks, seats, bumpers, a/c, etc. Well I have some spare doors/hood and was just wondering if anyone has ever hacked these up to lighten them at all. The doors feel roughly about 100lbs+ and hood isn't too light either. Then looking at them closer, I see that there is lots of just dead weight metal inside the door (i'm sure for crash purposes) and same with the hood. Has anyone cut this out before? If so how much roughly did it weigh?


Here is a pic for reference...

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

There is a reason they are heavy and sturdy. If you want to lighten the car spend the money on carbon fiber or leave it alone. Once you get all that "dead weight metal" out of there, you better hope you never get into a car accident because that car will fold up like an accordian on you. If someone were to hit your door as well, it would have no resistant to help stop that car.

 

[99gst_racer]

Gutting the doors is actually pretty common, but mostly on racecars. I wouldn't recommend doing this to any DSM unless it has a roll cage (for the above stated reasons). I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of mine on my 1G.


EDIT: Here's a pic of one of mine. IIRC, I pulled 35 lbs of of each door.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[dsmfa9nutter]

If you want to lighten the car spend the money on carbon fiber or leave it alone.

Carbon fiber won't provide any more safety than a gutted door.

 

[LiquidX]

Carbon fiber won't provide any more safety than a gutted door.

The weakest part of the car would be at the doors where you just have the floor and roof to maintain strength. The doors are reinforced for lateral compression so that weak area wouldn't do the accordian like mentioned above. Cutting out the support will cause a major safty issue for yourself if you get into an accident.

Carbon fiber however is usually just the hood or trunk. From the factory both are built to crumple but the carbon fiber will shatter. It's still taking impact force and reducing damage depth, but not as much as the stock pieces. Ultimatly it's not going to put you at much more risk than the OEM hood and trunk.

Overall, IMO going carbon fiber is a much safer alternative to weight loss unless it's a track only car then cut away all you can.

 

[motozachl]

Thanks 99gst that's what I really wanted to know. It looks like the ridged piece was held in just with 8 tack welds? Is you window now permanently up now too? Anyone with common sense will know that cutting this out would prose safety issue but this is just a track car with a rollcage.

 

[endeffect0]

sorry we are all harking on the safety issues. too many people on this site think about safety and reliability last... I know first hand how strong those doors are, the passenger bar saved my brothers life when i got Tboned by a pick up truck. if he was in my old honda he would not have walked away.

in any case i know exactly how heavy that door is because i replaced it. wow yea definitely some weight to be saved there. If you cut out the main beam and throw out the window mechanism and get most of the interior metal you should be able to save half of the weight right off the bat. I would do lexane windows if you have the option. you can even do a half window slider if you want to go plastic and still be able to open them

 

[99gst_racer]

Thanks 99gst that's what I really wanted to know. It looks like the ridged piece was held in just with 8 tack welds? Is you window now permanently up now too? Anyone with common sense will know that cutting this out would prose safety issue but this is just a track car with a rollcage.

Yup, just drill out the tack welds and it will come loose. I also had to cut the beam in half to get it out of the door. And it's pretty thick stuff, so have some patience.

In that picture, I retained the entire window crank assembly and I cut my own polycarbonite windows. For more indo, check out this post: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/151396517-post79.html

OE 1G glass window: 8.5 lbs.
My polycarbonate window: 3.3 lbs.
So, I was able to save 10.4 lbs just in the front windows alone.

But, I've since decided that I'm just doing to ditch the window crank all together and make these fixed windows. I don't think I'll ever need to roll them down for any reason anyway. Now, I just need to figure out how to permanently attach them without making it look like crap.

 

[OEM]

Now, I just need to figure out how to permanently attach them without making it look like crap.

I would imagine you could put window weld in the upper part of the window track, slide the window in and brace it till the weld dries.

 

[BlackMount]

I would say BAD idea unless you throw in a Roll cage that has side bars infront of the doors.

is a tenth of a second for every 100lbs you take off really worth your life in something as simple as a low speed T-Bone collison ?

That is a street car, not a Race Car regardless of how fast it is\can be.


I don't know about where you live, but you can get fines around here for your car not meeting Public + Private Vehicle Safety Regulations.

 

[GSXSixteenG]

I would say BAD idea unless you throw in a Roll cage that has side bars infront of the doors.

is a tenth of a second for every 100lbs you take off really worth your life in something as simple as a low speed T-Bone collison ?

That is a street car, not a Race Car regardless of how fast it is\can be.


I don't know about where you live, but you can get fines around here for your car not meeting Public + Private Vehicle Safety Regulations.

He already stated it was a track car w/ a roll cage.

 

[my98gsx]

I just vote for getting carbon fiber doors.

 

[99gst_racer]

I just vote for getting carbon fiber doors.

As long as you're paying for 'em.

A couple hours with a drill and a cut-off wheel is much cheaper than CF doors. And that's extra important to those of us that are on a really tight budget.

 

[motozachl]

As long as you're paying for 'em.

A couple hours with a drill and a cut-off wheel is much cheaper than CF doors. And that's extra important to those of us that are on a really tight budget.

I'm not even sure if anyone makes CF doors for the 1g but I'm sure they'd be a grand plus

 

[DWR-DSM]

GTFabrications makes CF Doors of 1g a/b

 

[habitatguy187]

99gst_racer you need to unveil that 1g. I keep seeing a pic here and there or find you mentioning in different threads. Maybe the 14b drag race thread would be a good spot.... I want pics!

 

[dsmusmc]

Here is a 2G I found at the junkyard. I say just leave them in.
[IMG=http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3852/crashm.jpg][/IMG]

I'm not even sure if anyone makes CF doors for the 1g but I'm sure they'd be a grand plus

There was a vendor a year or 2 ago that had CF hood, hatch, and doors and im pretty sure it was for both 1G and 2G.

 

[habitatguy187]

I'm wondering if you could take out the stock bracing and weld in a lightweight bar in it's place. Could save at least 25lbs a door.

 

[99gst_racer]

99gst_racer you need to unveil that 1g. I keep seeing a pic here and there or find you mentioning in different threads. Maybe the 14b drag race thread would be a good spot.... I want pics!

It's far from being finished or even assembled for that matter. I've mostly been just working on odds and ends for the past year or two. It's basically just a semi-budget 14B race car that I'm going to use to attempt to take Joe Bucci's record. But as soon as I get it painted (this spring), I'll start posting blogs for it.

 

[dsmusmc]

I'm wondering if you could take out the stock bracing and weld in a lightweight bar in it's place. Could save at least 25lbs a door.

Could try chromoly like on rollcages.

 

[SBstar]

Why do we even have tech articles?

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...254282-how-gut-your-1g-doors-weight-loss.html

Pretty easy to do and worth the weight reduction...if it is a pure race car and you have or plan on putting in a cage.

Also for the hood there isn't a whole lot of weight to remove there and it does make the hood somewhat flimsy. If I remember correctly I think I managed to get rid of less then 5 lbs by gutting the hood. A carbon fiber or fiberglass hood will net you much greater weight loss, but of course will also have a much greater cost.

 

[motozachl]

After randomly browsing the faqs/how to's so many times I guess I've never stumbled across this. That's a great write-up SBstar

 

[boosted240]

I think GTfabrications makes fiberglass doors as well. I think they want like $1200 for them, and they say their like 10-12 lbs. I would go that rout if its a strait track car. Thats what we have on our race car and love them, not from GTfab, we made our own but same thing.

 

[99gst_racer]

I gutted my 1G hood too. I think I pulled about 2-3 lbs from it and it definitely isn't nearly as strong afterwards. I agree with Shane; it's best to just pick up a carbon fiber hood to lose weight in that department.

 

[habitatguy187]

So does anyone have anything to say about the idea of putting a bar in place of the stock support? I could do this for free which is why I'm so interested in it.