Fiber Glass panels (doors fenders boot)

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 :D

any ideas.... :)

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. 8)

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..

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

cheers thanks for that :D 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 :D
but is it mot legal again :( dont wana chop my roof off and find out my car fails..

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

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

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..

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... :D

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... :D

LOLL
hard timesss for us ay... :cry:

and when it does get hot itl b for a day or 2.. and u jus open the windows anyway LOL!

That's my reasoning for not bothering with A/C install... Plus I'm keeping all that weight off the car and the load off accessory belt for the rest of the year.. :D

hmm you got me thinking now...
i think i might remove my ac you know...!
like you said saves weight and also all the extra havok on the alternator ... annnddd my front mount intercooler could go there :idea: :P LOOLL
wooop woooop =P~ [-o< [-o< [-o<

Oh, man... I hate it when I give people ideas like that... Don't want you to blame it on me in the end... Just something to keep in mind, you'd have to change/move your A/C parts around anyways if you're looking into a VXR engine swap... It won't be identical to the one you have now...

he could sell it and add more money to the expansive parts list lol

@serega12:
NAA DONT BE SILLY..
mate i LIVE IN ENGLAND!! lol the land of rain.. what possible use is AC to me... unless im going to drive with my windows shut..!!
only time id do that on a hot day is motor way driving so the little tin can doesnt fly about...
that AC im even feeling to go take it all out now LOL.. just i dont know were to start.. LOOLL! i would just take the AC rad thingy off and work my way back.. around.. unbolting as i go along lol..

@ thehunterooo
would anyone actually buy it?? :\
i would be more than happy to sell it..
money money moneeyyyyy LOL = parts parts paartss!! spot on!

I'm sure you could make at least a few hundred bucks... Brand new kit is around 800-1000... Used one would be less, but still not very cheap.

AARRREEE YYOOUU SSERRRIIOOOUUUSS??

YOOO ANY ONE WANA BUY A/C KIT...
loll
im selllinggg il remove it soon as someone says i want it.. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M33EVL

AARRREEE YYOOUU SSERRRIIOOOUUUSS??

YOOO ANY ONE WANA BUY A/C KIT...
loll
im selllinggg il remove it soon as someone says i want it.. :D

---

The only disadvantage you'll have with most of the users here is that there's also international shipping involved... :-k

shipping from europe is not bad unless its italty and then itll take a year or so lol

ebay the A/C kit if no one wants to buy on the fourm, cant say how much you will get though, i plan on having mine removed and sold as well

hmm realistically tho.. would it be thaaat much weight removed??
im not bothered even about selling it or not to be honest...
what else would be a really good thing to remove to save weight.. APART FROM ELECTRIC FRONT AND REAR WINDOWS.. i am nottt willing to sacrifice them LOL.. im to lazyyy.. or central locking.. :\ or cd player.. anything else is fine.. :D

idk, thats what i wanted to find out myself, but if its not used then the money is gold lol

i would guesstimate maybe 50 pounds for the entire A/C system?

well and it would give you more room to work on the engine and such, you also will want to relocate your battery to the trunk, at least your car is apart so it will be a piece of cake

im not the brightest tool in the box...
so what would i benefit by relocating my battery to the trunk.. :S if anything wouldnt that be worse as theres more wire for the current to travel through until it passes the engery to the devices..
or is it just for more space in the engine bay...

if you use a large enough gauge there wont be any differences, it makes more room in the bay and when you engine swap, you dont have to worry about relocating the battery in the bay anyways, plus less wieght in the front helps distributes the weight evenly between the front the the back of the car, of course, less wieght on the front of a FF in turn makes it faster until the point that you lose traction

on some FR and MR cars they have to add weight ballist on the rear of the car so the tires can get traction from launch, and beyond if it has enough power lol

eaak... didnt think about all that LOLL
i think something near enough 300bhp will be coming out from that engine once its been twin turboed and then cranks pulleys ect ect changed and fine tuning port matching ect...
oo god.. lolll
ahh still gonaa do it! LOOL
but no one still said if the 2.8 vectra vxr's V6 will fit my engine bay... :|

i think instead of having 14 threads you need one, maybe two..

I think Daox or MetroMPG can combine the threads if you ask them nice enough... 8)

sorry im kinda new to this forum thing... my bad..

its not bad if you keep your topics on task, but you are talking about engine swaps in like 10 threads at this point.

sorry man, get carried away 1 way or another leads from 1 thing then back to the engine lol :( sorry evry1

Not a problem, I know how it is when you get excited about the car projects. If you do end up going through with the engine swap, youll def need to post up some pics, it sounds like it would be a crazy fast ride.

:D :D :D
ye defo will... fingers crossed if funds allow me to then itl be around xmas time.. if not maybe even as late as next summer :(
but the body work and all gadgets should be done by then :D