light weight doors

[bob dunn]

Has anyone weighted a std mkiv spit door or two , total weight for two doors is 5 1/2 stone .  when i drive my car I have my door windows up for 90% of the time , only down on very hot days. so maybe std doors minus gubbins  and plus side screens. or t6 doors plus side  screens . last idea is make a spitfire door like an early mini door with a big door pocket .

[bob dunn]

Oh come on somebody must have noticed how heavy these doors are . OK last idea for now summer doors fixed and low for your right elbow , in and out like the Dukes of Hazard COOL!!!

[jamespworth]

i almost bought some super light fiberglass ones years ago when my doors were in a bad state but backed out at last minute they were 300 quid

[bob dunn]

welcome aboard i,m going to make a pair of these doors from some old ones left over.

[Sheepy]

Carbon fibre!!!!!!!

[James1500]

I have fibreglass ones just not got around to fitting

[willcolumbine]

I've thought about reskinning mine in aluminium to save a few grams but it looks like it might get a bit complex at the top where it meets the doorglass.

[bob dunn]

a bit like this

[JensH]

Nah
Buy a TR3  8)

[JohnD]

Bob,
Silverback's GRP doors weighed 5kgs, with the hinges, lock and handles, no glass.  
Made in two shells, inner and outer, 'glued' together along the edges that normally have the doorskin folded over, plus the top edge closed up, where the glass slot normally is.
Door glass was fixed to A-post on rising hinges a la Caterham sidescreen.

Needs a good door to make a mould from , one for each side, of course, then take a copy from the mould.
I only have Vitesse/Herald moulds, but if you would like pictures and some guidelines, I'll send.

John

[bob dunn]

Still thinking , I quite like the idea of steel doors with side screens , the biggest weight seems to be the glass and gubbins.

[Dannyb]

F/glass doors with perspex windows would be light.

[GTRoger]

Just a thought....

[Dannyb]

I see it's fitted with safety side impact string

[Davemate]

and tassels !

[piman]

Hello Bob,

you are quite right, the glass and regulator is heavy. I would be surprised if John's quoted 5 Kg for fibreglass is much lighter than a steel door with the same fittings?

Take a steel door, cut as much of the inner skin away as you can and use a perspex screen with a window strap a la British rail trains of the sixties.

Alec

[bob dunn]

just checked the weight difference perspex (SG 1.19)  / glass ( SG 3.0 ) so perspex is 1/3 of the weight of glass, appx .

[JohnD]

piman wrote:

Hello Bob,
you are quite right, the glass and regulator is heavy. I would be surprised if John's quoted 5 Kg for fibreglass is much lighter than a steel door with the same fittings?
Take a steel door, cut as much of the inner skin away as you can and use a perspex screen with a window strap a la British rail trains of the sixties.
Alec

Just weighed a steel Vitesse door, no hinges, no handles, no glass no winder, a bare shell.
12.5kgs
And remember, 5kgs was WITH hinges and lock.  Only an outside handle - a pull wire did for inside.
The hinges alone weigh about 1kg, so you would have to cut out all the inside of the frame to get down to the 5kgs I quoted.

I made them very light indeed - gel coat with tissue, plus a half thickness of random mat, reinforcements for the hinges, lock and handles.    The shape of the inner shell maintains enough stiffness.  The skin, being near flat, remains very flexible, so I added a layer of honeycomb with a skin of tissue on that as a composite, that made it difficult to distinguish from steel.
The same method achieved the estate roof that, compared with the original at 30kgs, weighed 9kgs and was many times stiffer.

  John.

[Hugh]

Or this  style

[bob dunn]

So std door is appx 17.45 kg , glass is 4 kg , cut away door is9.8 kg  , perspex 1.33kg .New door weight 11.13 so saving per door 6.32kg, car total saving 12.64 kg .  28 lb in old money. The same as going on a diet and loosing two stone . over the last 2 months i have lost 1 stone on my diet so the car will be 3 stone lighter . or 42 lb,s

[piman]

Hello John,

I am surprised, I based my comment on working on my saloon doors, completely bare they seem very light, guessing at around 12 to 15 lbs?

I have one glassfibre bodied car, I don't think I fancy playing around with doors of the same material :-)

Alec

[bob dunn]

I was costing perspex at 4 mm it is 32.00 euro for 36 by 24 inches, but thats in galway ireland . what is the uk price.

[Hugh]

34 wrote:

I was costing perspex at 4 mm it is 32.00 euro for 36 by 24 inches, but thats in galway ireland . what is the uk price.

You are better of using polycarbonate sheet as it is less prone to cracking when you drill or work with it also much safer than perspex which will splinter if you have a stone etc hit it. Perspex is very brittle and cracks real easy and polycarbonate is much stronger and lighter then perspex.

[bob dunn]

Thanks for that , I was thinking of sliding side screens like an MGA , but how do you make them.

[Hugh]

You cam buy a kit like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-Slider-Kit-Perspex-Window-Kit-Race-Rally-/280878644677?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4165abfdc5#ht_1259wt_1270

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polycarbonate-Window-Slider-Kit-/110885217025?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19d1462301#ht_773wt_1037


You then cut your polycarbonate windows to look like this if you can work with wood you can get the finish cuts you want in polycarbonate http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polycarbonate-Perspex-Windows-Race-Rally-Mk2-Fiesta-Track-Day-Mk1-Fiesta-/221034552325?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3376af9c05#ht_953wt_1154


But you could make the whole sliding window parts yourself by cuting and riveting or gluing the cut strips together to form the sliding frames. Take a look at the ebay parts to give you an idea
Good luck ;)