Fiber glass FC doors
08-20-08, 11:20 PM
#3
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http://www.prodbodies.com/mazda.html
Keep in mind that these are race parts and are likely to be very light and flimsy and not have provisions for the stock trim.
DISCLAIMER: Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors should ONLY ever be used on a full on race car with a good, sturdy cage. The stock doors have beams in them to protect you from side impacts and help channel the forces involved in a frontal or rearward impact around you. Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors will not have this, so the other car will penetrate your car much further in a side impact and the passenger compartment could well crush and hurt you in a frontal or rearward impact. The cage must make up for the reduction in door strength to keep you strong, the bare minimum cage required by the rules would be inadequate for this IMHO.
Keep in mind that these are race parts and are likely to be very light and flimsy and not have provisions for the stock trim.
DISCLAIMER: Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors should ONLY ever be used on a full on race car with a good, sturdy cage. The stock doors have beams in them to protect you from side impacts and help channel the forces involved in a frontal or rearward impact around you. Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors will not have this, so the other car will penetrate your car much further in a side impact and the passenger compartment could well crush and hurt you in a frontal or rearward impact. The cage must make up for the reduction in door strength to keep you strong, the bare minimum cage required by the rules would be inadequate for this IMHO.
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08-21-08, 09:16 PM
#10
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Thread Starter
http://www.prodbodies.com/mazda.html
Keep in mind that these are race parts and are likely to be very light and flimsy and not have provisions for the stock trim.
DISCLAIMER: Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors should ONLY ever be used on a full on race car with a good, sturdy cage. The stock doors have beams in them to protect you from side impacts and help channel the forces involved in a frontal or rearward impact around you. Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors will not have this, so the other car will penetrate your car much further in a side impact and the passenger compartment could well crush and hurt you in a frontal or rearward impact. The cage must make up for the reduction in door strength to keep you strong, the bare minimum cage required by the rules would be inadequate for this IMHO.
Keep in mind that these are race parts and are likely to be very light and flimsy and not have provisions for the stock trim.
DISCLAIMER: Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors should ONLY ever be used on a full on race car with a good, sturdy cage. The stock doors have beams in them to protect you from side impacts and help channel the forces involved in a frontal or rearward impact around you. Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber doors will not have this, so the other car will penetrate your car much further in a side impact and the passenger compartment could well crush and hurt you in a frontal or rearward impact. The cage must make up for the reduction in door strength to keep you strong, the bare minimum cage required by the rules would be inadequate for this IMHO.
just what im looking for thanks. This is for a road race car with a full cage
08-27-08, 01:51 PM
#11
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Location: miami FL
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I was actually just going to post about this..wow..you guys read my mind!
Does anybody have any idea of actual weights here? I have my stock doors gutted, although I had kept the stock crash bars. They still seems REALLY heavy, although I haven't weighed them.
Do you guys think it would be worthwhile to make the jump to the fiberglass, or will removing the crash bars do the trick?
My car is slowly making the move away from ITS so Im really trying to shed as many of those extra "rule" pounds I can.
Does anybody have any idea of actual weights here? I have my stock doors gutted, although I had kept the stock crash bars. They still seems REALLY heavy, although I haven't weighed them.
Do you guys think it would be worthwhile to make the jump to the fiberglass, or will removing the crash bars do the trick?
My car is slowly making the move away from ITS so Im really trying to shed as many of those extra "rule" pounds I can.
08-27-08, 02:52 PM
#12
The reinforcing bar in the door alone is about 10 lbs. itself, no joking. Die grind it out IF you're going to be using a cage with side protection suitable to replace it. Aftermarket doors are huge coin, the Super Now models are sweet but you're talking $1500 for the pair!!!! Not worth it as far as performance gained/weight saved.
Last edited by RacerJason; 08-27-08 at 02:58 PM.
08-27-08, 07:46 PM
#13
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Since you asked, in my personal oppinion, weight reduction such as this that can have an impact on safety should be at the very bottom of the list. If you can possibly make weight without removing them, I'd do it, as no matter how good the cage is, you WILL be safer with the door beams in place. Just my $0.02.
08-29-08, 10:04 AM
#14
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My advise is to cut the side impact bar out of the door, cut the inside skin awat a fair bit, leaving enough metal retain some structure (so it doesn't wobble like cardboard. Use the additional space created my the side impact removal to extend your roll cage bars into the cavity, nascar style. You can see my cage on www.rxracing.com
cheers,
-Trent
cheers,
-Trent
09-01-08, 08:43 PM
#15
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yeah, I wound up speaking to the guy that sells the doors and it turns out that they are really only door skins more for tube framers. In my situation I think that having doors on hood pins or dzus clips is probably more of a pain then its worth...my nascar bars are really overbuilt, so I think that grinding out the crash bars and going with the stockers is probably gonna be my route...If anyone has any suggestions for fiberglass doors I could mount on hinges I would still love to hear about it!
