Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

I am taking a bunch of weight out of my doors, got inspired by a post I read last night from Matt Walter.

One question I have, the door panels seem way heavier than I thought they would be. What have you guys done for door panels on street/strip or racecars? Non stock please. I would even consider ditching the stock armrest if I had something to pull while the windows are up.

Pics would be great.

Thanks!

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Subscribing!

I took off my door handles for my door bars to fit better.
Attachment 339381

I'm going to paint the silver metal tab to black and put black plastic caps to cover the holes in the door skin.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

LB9, if you take the door panels off, those tabs for the arm rest are just riveted on, and it can come off. then make your covers or caps from the inside of the panel.

I'm running stock panels at the moment. i'm really considering making a move to some carbon fiber sheet honestly. i've been thinking about it for a while.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Seth, take a look at this thread i posted up a few years back on the door project that i abandoned. i think i'm going to revisit this:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/orga...ch-weight.html

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Thanks Matt, will check it out in a second :). I guess some Porsches and European cars come with pull straps instead of armrest/pull bars from the factory:

https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3532...d47fa25476.jpg

I am totally doing this the armrests are heavy.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

i like that...i think i'll look into that too.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Lol! I just weighed both of my armrests from my 91 GTA, together they are 5lbs.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

wow! never really thought they weighed that much. it all adds up though.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Not sure if these are much lighter than stock. I made them out of .040 aluminum.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

That looks way better than I thought it would

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

The pull handles are a very European thing... Magnus Walker does something similar on his cars... but it's a good example of a super spartan door that looks good.

http://digitaldtour.files.wordpress....4/dsc_0056.jpg

http://www.roadandtrack.com/cm/roada...1_STR_2351.jpg

And that's inside this car, which is pretty much his streetable track car.

http://digitaldtour.files.wordpress....2/dsc_0656.jpg

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

I gotta tell ya, roads ace guys always have the cleanest race interiors

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Wow that looks amazing.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Man those look good too, a lot to go on in this thread thanks for the replies. I was in Oklahoma for a week, getting caught back up.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Now I am wondering what to make my replacement door panels out of... I liked aluminum but all I have access to are tin snips really for doing sheet metal work.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

We got the driver's side door lightening done. 15lbs saved out of the door itself. the c-channel crash bar is 12lbs by itself. i highly recommend removing it if you have door bars in your roll bar.


this is the passenger's side door, which i haven't touched yet.
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...87040387_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...65778959_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...84140840_n.jpg


here is our driver's door in the "after" state.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...01207251_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...33173970_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...70952289_n.jpg

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

You can cut aluminum sheet using a jig saw. Then finish the edges with some sort of vinyl material.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Trim options:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#trim-molding/=qxnhzw

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Good stuff Matt! Makes me want to pull the crash bars lol, too bad I don't have a cage :(. Are you counting the actual door panel in your 15 pounds or are you planning on putting it back on?

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Ok so here is what I wound up doing:


Before Cutting out:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u..._224541024.jpg

After Cutting out:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B..._171434237.jpg

Aluminum Test Fit (I used the old door panel as a template):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N..._171209323.jpg

Everything Mocked up:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o..._201525159.jpg

Bought a pair of these in grey to replace the stock arm rest:
https://i.ebayimg.com/03/!BRhfiK!!Wk...7i9Ew~~_12.JPG

I will post a real finished pic once everything is mounted.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Very nice!

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

seth, is that ozite carpet over the aluminum?

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

does anyone know the exact year of the c-channel vs round bar crash bar? 87 and older have the c-channel for sure. 89+ has round bar for sure. i've never seen an 88 door (well, not with enough attention to detail anyway). it happened in the 88/89 years i believe.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Walmart sells generic, lightweight black carpet for $9 a roll. The carpet covering the entire door panel weighs next to nothing.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Thanks I just want it to not stick out :) lol. Thanks for sharing those links btw.

Got any pictures of your car's interior/exterior?

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Attachment 338629
Attachment 338630

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

I found out the year split. The 82-87 had the c - channel crash bar and the 88-92 had the tubular bar.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Build is in Fabrication under "ls1 roadracer project"

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Spent the last few afternoons putting together some door panels.

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...37477502_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...27741283_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...75244271_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...89686062_n.jpg

Steven

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

I like the door strap idea.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Went and finished them off with black fabric and spray adhesive, as well as a slim felt backing to stop any rattles.

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...95301014_n.jpg

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

That turned out great!

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Going to be making my own door panels prolly this weekend, not weight saving or anything just tired of my tore up cardboard panels and not paying the crazy prices for good condition panels. I've got 26 gauge galvanized steel, it was free and I'm not worried about weight savings in my wife's daily driver. I've got my plans set for making them and how to attach them, for those using screws/bolts through the front of the panel, what size/length/thread are you using. I've thought about tacking some nuts on the door and using allen head bolts to match the lock/handle screws.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

I used plastic screw/push type rivets, I think they are 3/8" or 7/16"? Used 12 or so of them in all the stock locations around the perimeter, looks clean and is very easy to remove and replace.

~Steven

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

One down!!!
Need to buy more clips tomorrow, ran out, need 13, only had 9.



Attachment 333237

Attachment 333238

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Lookin good :thumbsup:

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

I peeled the fabric from the stock cardboard panel, traced the cardboard panel on a sheet of steel, cut that out, glued the cardboard to the back of the new metal panel so the panel wouldn't rattle against the door, then laid that on a sheet of auto carpet, traced it a little bigger, glued that and wrapped the edges and drilled holes in the panel in the stock clip locations and used the style clips suggested.

I'm positive its heavier than the original panel but it looks and feels so much better to have a solid panel and not the deteriorated and falling off old panel.

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

where did you find these straps at?

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

i don't know about those ones, but my cousin and fellow TGO member sells these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rally-Racing-Custom-Door-Pull-Strap-23-Colors/141256248258?_trksid=p2050601.c100272.m3467&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140813112422%26meid%3D7521f9383c0c49c29daf200bd78bf69f%26pid%3D100272%26prg%3D20140813112422%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D141256248258%26clkid%3D3215215896449221177&_qi=RTM1963929

Re: Pictures of door panels in street/strip or racecars?
 

Maybe you're going to need this.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...-template.html

:thumbsup: