Doors are freakin heavy

[AK-Z]

I just took off my passenger side door off. I weighed it out of curiosity and came out to be just shy of 70 lbs. I took everything out and still came out to be about 40 lbs with most of the weight towards the front of the car.

 

Was surprised to see that there was absolutely no rust on the inside of the door. Outside just had some surface rust that was easily remedied with a touch of a light duty grinder.

 

BTW its out of a 76

[BirdmanZ]

Don't the later model doors have a large beam in the door? You could try cutting it out to save a bit of weight.

 

Brandon

[Challenger]

You should get a 2+2 door, wow its heavy!! I have a 74 parts car Id like to gut the doors down to the skin and see how much they weigh.

[AK-Z]

You should get a 2+2 door, wow its heavy!! I have a 74 parts car Id like to gut the doors down to the skin and see how much they weigh.

 

I have a 240Z door (I think its 240Z) that I already have gutted. Just the door is like 10-15bls. I want to use that, but I don't think the window stuff I have will fit properly with it. Latch design is the same though.

 

Any body know if the window crap from the heavy early 280Z latch design doors will work on a 240Z door?

[Michael]

On the 1978 doors, removing (grinding/cutting) out the crash beams but leaving intact the window crank and lock/latch mechanism saves 8 lbs (4 lbs per side). I determined this by collecting the bits of metal removed from the operation and weighing them all in one bunch. It's a personal call as to whether the resulting weight savings is worthwhile.

[AK-Z]

I don't think 8lbs is worth all that work. Winder why the 240z door is so light an the 280z door so heavy, even with the beam removed.

 

Well I moved on to removing the drip rails. Welding on that is a PITA. Its so thin, I'm afraid of burning through it.

Word of advise: Used a piece of aluminum or copper that you can get flush behind there, so you have some insurance of not burning through and torch the hell out of the leaded area. You'll get cleaner welds and you can always lead load it later.

[ls1Hybridz]

Don't the later model doors have a large beam in the door? You could try cutting it out to save a bit of weight.

 

Brandon

 

you really dont wanna cut that bar out. that bar is called an intrusion beam its what can mean life a death when hit from the side. if you wanna save weight i would make a fiberglass door skin and replace the metal skin on their.

[AK-Z]

you really dont wanna cut that bar out. that bar is called an intrusion beam its what can mean life a death when hit from the side. if you wanna save weight i would make a fiberglass door skin and replace the metal skin on their.

 

Umm. thats kinda obvious. FB door skin? Why not just make a whole door. I doubt anyone makes JUST FB door skins. I think it would be easier to find a 240z or a early 260z door.

[Clifton]

I wouldn't think twice about cutting that bar out to save weight. Anything is safer than a street bike . I had an extra pair of 71 doors though so I used them on my 73.