Fiberglass doors

[lazylongboarder]

After pulling the doors off my beetle, I noticed they weigh like 75 lbs each! And the fiber glass doors weigh 11 pounds each...thats a huge amount of weight savings. I've seen fiberglass doors on race cars and the 1303 rs super has lexan with sliding windows.

Is this possible for a daily driver to adapt fiberglass doors with a 1 piece roll up style window?

Also i remember reading about a red Street/Drag car in europe that made the stock doors weigh only 9 lbs! How is this possible?

This seems like one of the easiest ways to lighten up my car.

Other suggestions on how to lighten up the car and get a better weight distribution besides putting the battery up front, losing the spare, lexan, carbon fenders, carbon hood, carban decklid, no back seat, no headliner, no carpet, an aluminum tank, and finally no stereo, are very appreciated.

Also I live in the states so shipping here from europe is rediculous, thats why i'm not getting a heigo cage.

Thanks

[Uber Affe]

just my opinion, but I wouldn't lose the spare. The rumor is that it may actually absorb quite a bit of abuse in a wreck....at least if it's laying flat other wise...ditch it I guess. As far as the fibre-glass doors. yeah, they're heavy, but you may want to check the laws in your area regarding this conversion. in most places they are illegal for street use, but what they don't know won't hurt ya...I guess.

What year/model car are you driving and what engine are you going with?
This will make a bit of difference in your choices. Let me know.

[lazylongboarder]

Originally Posted by Uber Affe

just my opinion, but I wouldn't lose the spare. The rumor is that it may actually absorb quite a bit of abuse in a wreck....at least if it's laying flat other wise...ditch it I guess. As far as the fibre-glass doors. yeah, they're heavy, but you may want to check the laws in your area regarding this conversion. in most places they are illegal for street use, but what they don't know won't hurt ya...I guess.

What year/model car are you driving and what engine are you going with?
This will make a bit of difference in your choices. Let me know.

I'm going to be using a 6 speed g-50, 550 hp ecotec sr20det or rb20det (I'm commited to the 500 hp mark [on pump gas! {not a word Jason }]), full 14 point cage front bumper to motor mounts, 6 piston 14'' brakes front and rear, 993 multi-link rear suspension assembly, wishbone front, lexan, carbon sparco pro 2000 seats, sparco "D" steering wheel, prototype data logger/gps track info/gps lateral g-force in-dash e.m.s. (neighbor worked for nasa, builds engine diagnostic computers for jets and private planes and went to sema and now has a contract with a big BMW tuner[he won't tell me who yet] and wants to put them on cars, I'll keep you guys updated)... = Not so standard 74' Type 1.

I want to utilize fiberglass doors with roll up style lexan windows and use door rubber for insulation. Stock look and function but weigh close to nothing.

I will have "X" door bars on each side so the doors won't be much of a safety factor. As well as the front end braced, and i wouldn't be able to fit 255/35/18's or 315/30/18's in the trunk of my bug if i tried.

Thanks

[starmember]

remmele got fiberglas and cf doors. and i think it is a copy of a stock door.

can wait to see youre conversion compleet. :agree:

peter

[tom'72]

I'm going with Remelle's cf doors in a few months and will have a bar from the roll cage that protects on the door side on impact (otherwise I wouldn't do it).
cf ones are expensive but you don't really need to paint them (especially on a black bug) and get a nice cf inner door shel.

[lazylongboarder]

How would these doors work? It's just the outer skin. I really like the idea, just the shipping to the states...

[volkdent]

You might want to stick with glass if you're planning on rolling the windows up and down at all. Lexan will scratch pretty quickly and then it's just going to be ugly. You could make the cool Lambo style sliders in the Lexan and have them fixed. Then you just slide it like an old splitty bus. I'm really not sure how well a CF/fiberglass door is going to work for an actually functioning window thought, as I don't think you'll be getting any of the channels that the windows slide in as part of those. Maybe metal frames with CF skins?

Gotta have glass for the windshield I believe. The quarters and back being Lexan seems good to me. Just watch the scratches!

Jason

[1303mark]

this may not be the answer you are afet but, if you can get a scrap stock steel door go at it with a drill and angle grinder, probably 1" , and a 3/4" hole saw would help along the way.

it may suprise you how much you can remove without ruining the external look and window function fo the door, then just get lexan 1 peice or stock glass shape.

but as the above guy said lexan will scratch and look crappy really quickly

[lazylongboarder]

I know lexan will scratch, but aircooled.net has an anti-scratch coating. Does anyone know if this coating helps enough to resist scratching on door windows?

Thanks a lot guys for all your input.

[volkdent]

You know, I have tint on the windows of my car. It's been on for over 10 years and it still is not very scratched. Maybe you could put a light tint on the inside AND the outside as a protectant for the Lexan?

Jason

[coffinator]

lazy,

I dont know about the coating but I have some stuff you use to get the scratches out of lexan and plexiglass. Lexan doesn't scratch as easy as plexiglass. This stuff I have is awsome. It would take about 20 minutes to do both doors inside and out. You just squert it on and use some sand paper (12000 that is 12 thousand grit) and sand it in one direction and wipe it off. Then appily some more and sand 90deg. to the previous direction. I would go with the cf door skins and the stock dor that has been lightened ALOT. Basicly keep the wondow regulator support and the mounts used to hold th cf door skin on. I would use race glass instead. It is thin glass but it is very strong and light. If you do get lexan or plexiglass windows and you need some of that stuff let me know.

hope this helps,
mike

[lazylongboarder]

All of the advice is great guys thanks a lot.

How do the door carbon door skins work/attach to the stock doors?

Also, how much are the carbon doors? And also shipping to the U.S.. (I wish I could speak/read german more than any other language)

I have access to some carbon supplies and a vacuum bagger, I may just make some identical carbon stock doors so I don't have to worry about shipping if its too crazy expensive.

[lazylongboarder]

Originally Posted by coffinator

lazy,

I dont know about the coating but I have some stuff you use to get the scratches out of lexan and plexiglass. Lexan doesn't scratch as easy as plexiglass. This stuff I have is awsome. It would take about 20 minutes to do both doors inside and out. You just squert it on and use some sand paper (12000 that is 12 thousand grit) and sand it in one direction and wipe it off. Then appily some more and sand 90deg. to the previous direction. I would go with the cf door skins and the stock dor that has been lightened ALOT. Basicly keep the wondow regulator support and the mounts used to hold th cf door skin on. I would use race glass instead. It is thin glass but it is very strong and light. If you do get lexan or plexiglass windows and you need some of that stuff let me know.

hope this helps,
mike

Thanks a lot mike, I'll get in contact with you if thats the route i take.

By the way, what is this stuff called, or is it your secret concoction?

[tom'72]

http://www.remmele-motorsport.com/de/index_de.html

The cf doors are 690 Euro a piece and I guess shipping would be 100-150 Euro for the pair to the US.

If you have questions for Remmele, they correspond in English very well

ifo@remmele-motorsport.com

I bought a cf hood there and it shipped out a week after payment cleared.

[coffinator]

lazy,
the stuff for your windows is called Mico-Mesh. It comes as a kit to fix aircraft windows. I can get just some compound and some sandpaper for you if you want.

mike