Removing Weight From the Doors

[elbon50]

Does anyone have a guide to removing a serious amount of weight from the doors please ?

[LimeyMk1]

Good start is to bin the electric motors and find some manual winders but I think they are a bit rare.

[elbon50]

Good start is to bin the electric motors and find some manual winders but I think they are a bit rare.

Thanks Chris, will look into that

Did the early AW11s have manual winders

Or the AW10 perhaps ?

[kaiowas]

There were no uk mk1s with manual windows (which makes the parts hard to get) but they were certainly fitted to lower spec variants in other markets

You'll not save a lot though, a lot of the weight is in the regulators and the glass itself. If you're serious about getting weight out of the doors you'd be best looking at fitting fixed plastic windows. It's not straightforward though as they tend to be quite flexible and as the mk1 doors are frameless you need to take steps to stop the windows pulling out at speed (dry storage is almost a requirement too as you've got next to no chance of getting them watertight)

[pk_090]

as stated earlier, it will be leaky with plastic windows. You could play attack the door with an angle grinder to get excess material out and leave a bare outer skin, but to me this is getting desperate and i certainly wouldn't do it on any road going car at least. I know a guy who can make carbon sheeting to rivet to the door instead of the door cards.
Alex

[elbon50]

Thanks for all the ideas chaps

Am thinking of replacing the mirrors with lightweight motorcycle ones

Fibreglass outer door skin probably just as heavy as metal

Anyway weakening the structure of the door too much would require a cage with side bars, thus self defeating

Think I'll experiment with fixing the glass on the passenger side first & maybe replacing it with polycarbonate

There's lots of weight in them there doors

[SuperRedMR2]

Ditch the glass, but use Pespex or GRP.

Peter, do you realise how expensive polycarbonate is???

You can get carbon fibre door cards, I saw them on eBay a while ago.

Or ditch it all and have a fixed window with no mechanism.

[aw11rally]

From memory the doors on our rally car weigh 10kg all up ready to go. That's with polycarbonate windows, single seater mirrors (completely useless but very light) manual locking and alloy door cards.

Standard doors are just under 20kg if my memory serves me right (we weighed our stripped ones and some standard ones during the rebuild).

I'm not sure that much can be done on a road car whilst retaining practicality and usability.

You could fix the standard glass in and strip the regulator motor and locking servo. This would also allow you to cut a lot of metal out of the frame just leaving the skin, flanges and enough metal to fix the cards to.

Your right to consider ditching the standard mirrors as they weigh a ton BUT at least you can see behind you with them which is unlikely with any other setup. The standard ones also do a very good job of keeping noise, weather and insects out. With them removed there are some rather large holes to blank off.

[elbon50]

From memory the doors on our rally car weigh 10kg all up ready to go. That's with polycarbonate windows, single seater mirrors (completely useless but very light) manual locking and alloy door cards.

Standard doors are just under 20kg if my memory serves me right (we weighed our stripped ones and some standard ones during the rebuild).

I'm not sure that much can be done on a road car whilst retaining practicality and usability.

You could fix the standard glass in and strip the regulator motor and locking servo. This would also allow you to cut a lot of metal out of the frame just leaving the skin, flanges and enough metal to fix the cards to.

Your right to consider ditching the standard mirrors as they weigh a ton BUT at least you can see behind you with them which is unlikely with any other setup. The standard ones also do a very good job of keeping noise, weather and insects out. With them removed there are some rather large holes to blank off.

Thanks for tht Rally

Very helpful

[BARNEY_MK1]

You could save 7kg with these carbon t-bar panels: http://twitpic.com/7h25w9

Has anyone tried these?

The website for the guy who makes them is: http://pl-performance.com/products.shtml

He does carbon boot lids aswell. Not sure about prices.

[elbon50]

You could save 7kg with these carbon t-bar panels: http://twitpic.com/7h25w9

Has anyone tried these?

The website for the guy who makes them is: http://pl-performance.com/products.shtml

He does carbon boot lids aswell. Not sure about prices.

Yes, I've been in contact with this man in the past, his name is Patrick

Some nice carbon parts, it's the cost that's offputting

Don't think many IMOC members will pay the price of carbonfibre

(Other than Paul Woods of course )

[BARNEY_MK1]

What does he sell the panels for? I would quite like to get them but have other mk1 things to buy first!

[elbon50]

What does he sell the panels for? I would quite like to get them but have other mk1 things to buy first!

Will have a search for the emails

[pk_090]

Hes probably put a massive mark up on them. Only thing stopping me making bits is i need my car to travel to work and back so cant drive there with bits missing while i am making moulds.
Sometimes i think these people making composite parts dream the prices out of the air.

[elbon50]

Hes probably put a massive mark up on them. Only thing stopping me making bits is i need my car to travel to work and back so cant drive there with bits missing while i am making moulds.
Sometimes i think these people making composite parts dream the prices out of the air.

He quoted £300 a pair for the T-bar panels Alex

What think you to that ?

[SuperRedMR2]

How much do you weigh Peter? Ever thought of losing some weight as well as your car?

[pk_090]

Hes probably put a massive mark up on them. Only thing stopping me making bits is i need my car to travel to work and back so cant drive there with bits missing while i am making moulds.
Sometimes i think these people making composite parts dream the prices out of the air.

He quoted £300 a pair for the T-bar panels Alex

What think you to that ?

Depends if you want them functional or not. is your car caged peter?

[elbon50]

Depends if you want them functional or not

He mentioned something about pins, which I didn't quite understand

Is your car caged peter?

Not at the moment Alex

I have a cage but no plans to install it

[pk_090]

Because if you put the cage in (will improve handling dramatically also) but then all it would need is something to A) look better than an air gap B) stop water getting in. Id just make a light but strong sheet, and bond it over the gap.