Fiber Glass panels (doors fenders boot)

[M33EVL]

hey guys and girls.
i know our cars not heavy and all but i was just in my garage and looking at all the parts
i currently have a 5 door kalos 1.4 auto sx..
TOOO slow for my liking.. should have a turbo on it by the end of the year if not engine swap.
BUTT what i was thinking before i even go that route was weight reductin in pannels.

im building a fiber glass bonnet right now which im going to cover in carbon fiber and should be done by end of the month fingers crossed... (going slow as theres loads of other parts of the car im doing at the same time)

sooo basically my question is.. is it realllly worth it :\
had 1 idea to keep the inner side metal due to the electric windows motor and all that, and then jus replicate the out side and just cut it off and mend the fiber glass version on.. or shall i just go full on and do the entire door...

the doors do weigh a ton! as when i was doing my lambo door conversion when i was lifting the door i had a hard time on my own...
fenders will defo be fiber glass as im building my own ones chunkyer and with vents ect.!

as the benefits will be wont be metal to rust! and much lighter meaning.. better breaking and obviously weight reduction... meaning FASTTTERR

any ideas....

[serega12]

Besides being lighter, it also makes the doors that much weaker in car of the accident and you will be removing whatever little bit of protection that door provides. Rear hatch won't make much difference, besides you'll have to get smaller load hydraulic struts because stock ones will sling the hatch open. I'd at least leave the metal frame inside the doors intact.
Wether its worth it is entirely up to you.

[M33EVL]

yee thats one thing that bugged me.. and also the glass wanted to change all my windows to perspex plastic i think its called, its a reallyyyy light weight plastic thats also bullet proof LOL there was a clip on utube of it ahaha! all the drift cars have it on.. so why not :P

but then if i only do the outside of it... am i realllly saving that much weight..
im not too bothered about safety to be honest as im probably only going to have this car for about another year or 2 max, and then keep it as a show car. saving up for a gt500 :P fingers crossed... if not then atleast something with a bit more punch..

[thehunterooo]

a good rule is for every 100 pounds takes off 1/10th second of a 1/4 mile time, so removing 300 pounds would shave off a third of a second, of course less weight helps in many other area, but i would suggest other upgrades first

[M33EVL]

cheers thanks for that ima get rid of everything now LOL!
o 1 idea i had was to replace my roof and only leav like the edg all the way around.
and instead of the metal have a reasonabl thickness perspex plastic panel thats limo tinted so when sunlight comes in from above you dont melt from the heat. lol
so itl be like a panoramix sun roof kinda thing
but is it mot legal again dont wana chop my roof off and find out my car fails..

[trempus]

M33EVL


you coud always go with a rag top like this: http://rupewrecht.com/vw/vw_ragtop_in_open.jpg
so this way it would be nice and light and you can open it up when it's too warm

[M33EVL]

looll nahhh. im not to keen on that personally.. lol.. either the entire roof goes down or none.. lol

[petrified.rabbit]

i was actually considering a ragtop in my car, but the 4 feet of snow we got in one fall collapsed a few glass sunroofs here, let alone convertibles.

as for weight, the fiberglass hood would be about an even exchange with the layers you speak of..

most of the weight in the doors and hatch are from whats bolted to the shell not the shells themselves. (glass, etc)

i think the subcompact culture looses the weight shave ideas, because you can only do the more extreme shaving (removing not replacing) you could drill chamfer holes in your bumper bars, you could do this to unexposed structural pieces as well, but make sure you know what you are doing..

[M33EVL]

i might of considered rag top too if i was in another country.. thats say ALOT WARMER.. loll
thing is in london... its like rainnn monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday.. and... o yee and sunday.. lol every month... every year.... mayyybe off chance u wont get rain... but idsay 70% of the time we have rain.. so if the slightest of seals is loos or not done ryt.. ima hav a leak.. PLUSS not to mention rus on my roof which would be a nightmaare!
but would be a cool idea tho...

[serega12]

That's what seattle is like too. Well, in that case you don't really need A/C, since the only time you use it is to de-fog the windshield a little quicker...