take out all the pannels besides door too, cut away unessisary brackets and stuff, replace stock seats with a racin gone if you havnt fro another 50+ lbs of savings or so. remove all unnessisary wiring and climate controll stuff and that probaby frees up a few pounts
Everything I don't need is coming out. I weighed my doors, w/window and wo/door panel, manual windows and door locks, it weighs ~60 lbs. The crash bar inside the door weighs ~10 lbs. My doors now weight ~50 lbs (still heavy). As soon as I can afford it, I'll be getting race seats and adding a bunch of weight back in the car with a roll cage.
They are the full length of the door and 8" wide. I'm not sure what gauge the metal is, but they are just under 3/32" thick. These same bars on 2nd gen. Firebirds weight 19 lbs. (much longer door) The ONLY reason I cut these out is because it is a track car and the roll-cage will have side bars. I do not recommend anyone cutting these out or removing the steel from the front and rear bumper as I did on a car that will be driven on the street. I guess that’s my disclaimer
Yeah I found out they were that big when I tried to take a dent out of my door and i was like WTF is THAT in there??? It would protect you very well in a crash I would think though.
This company make off the shelf polycarbonate windows for the 165/162, not sure if they will ship to you, but that would surly save some weight as its a track car. www.plastics4performance.co.uk If thats any use? Also what about fixing the headlights in an up position and taking out the motors as they weigh about 1.5 kgs each.
Thanks, I'll check out the site about the windows. As for the headlight assembly, I’m already 1 step ahead on you. I was looking at an extra assembly I have and I planned to gut the whole thing and just make an aluminum bracket to hold the door in place since I don’t really need headlights. I need to keep some of the headlight bracket since it holds the grill in place, unless I also make some aluminum brackets for that. Even the headlight brackets alone are heavy. I also might replace a portion of the drivers side headlight door with some wire mesh and use it to duct in air for the intake.
I finished the brackets for my front bumper, so my front bumper is a lot lighter now. Basically it is just the bumper cover and a few peices of aluminum for the brackets. I'm working on the rear bumper right now. This should save about 50 lbs. Bumper mounted: Bumper bracket: Do not try this at home.
had any luck with a rear strut tower brace? If I had spare metal i'd fab something up. Maybe even make a few for people on the site
If you're cutting the front for an "air intake" dont forget about aerodynamics....a big hole in the front of your car on a track car can't help too much I wouldn't think....
I haven't gotten anywhere on the brace yet, that is probably next. I already have an idea on what I want to try, just need the time. I haven't made any cuts yet. The car is mainly used for auto-cross, so the speeds aren;t high enough to worry about aero. If I go to a road course, I'll have to add extra bracing to support the bumper. Someday I do want to make some removable block-off plates fo rthe holes in the bumper, and a removable spoiler and splitter. The splitter wouldn't be a good idea for auto-cross.
update: 2/11/08 So I have built a custom front strut tower bar (pix to come). I completely gutted the interior except for the dash. Summit Polyethylene seats on the way (these have got to be lighter than the stock GTS seats). Quaife LSD ordered. Autopower rollcage ordered.
My seats arrived the other day and I just picked up my Quaife LSD. It is a thing of beauty!!! So the engine and tranny come out this weekend and the new seats go in.
take some pictures if u get a chance. i think it would be cool to see. both the LSD and seats, what kinda seats are they?
damn that's nice. when you get her road worthy again hit the scales. i'd love to see what she weighs now.