Fiber glass or steel doors

How much weight can be saved by putting fiberglass doors on a 1985 t-bird with gutted steel doors with lexan?

Not sure on exact weight, but I can pick up my 98 Mustang fiberglass doors with lexan window, tubular window frame, latches and aluminum inner panel with my pinky finger!

I weighed my doors yesterday 45lbs each. I think that a set from Harryglass would be much lighter.

All my fiberglass came from Harry's. It is top quality parts. Did not require a lot of body work. I bought my parts in 1996. My doors came with a fiberglass window frame. I didn't like how they looked with it. We cut the fiberglass frame off and made tube steel window frames. If I get a chance I'll go weigh one of my doors.

Thanks I just don't want to go through the hassle if the weight savings are minimal.

snuff98 wrote:Thanks I just don't want to go through the hassle if the weight savings are minimal.

Just as a suggestion...... Weigh the metal and the fiberglass, then you will know. There is a guy on here building a Fairlane (also at the other place) and the glass weighed the same as the steel.

I got a hell of a deal on a pair of doors. Let me tell you there is a major difference between the steel doors and the fiberglass. Looks like the glass doors with windows and hardware will come in at about a third the weight of the steel doors. The other advantage of the lighter doors is that I can get rid of the original steel structure behind the door hinges. This will save almost as much weight as the door swap itself.

Colt Macara wrote:

snuff98 wrote:Thanks I just don't want to go through the hassle if the weight savings are minimal.

Just as a suggestion...... Weigh the metal and the fiberglass, then you will know. There is a guy on here building a Fairlane (also at the other place) and the glass weighed the same as the steel.

It's possible he might have used "street weight" fiberglass doors vs "race weight" fiberglass doors, usually a big difference in weight between the two.

snuff98 wrote:..............The other advantage of the lighter doors is that I can get rid of the original steel structure behind the door hinges. This will save almost as much weight as the door swap itself.

And you can use smaller/lighter door hinges, smaller/lighter door close latches & close latch pins. Plus if it's a full chassis car (where most/all of the factory inner body structure isn't needed any more) you can chop out most/all of the bodies entire inner door jamb it's self and just hinge/latch the door directly off the cage structure (if it's a tight fitting cage).

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

Colt Macara wrote:

snuff98 wrote:Thanks I just don't want to go through the hassle if the weight savings are minimal.

Just as a suggestion...... Weigh the metal and the fiberglass, then you will know. There is a guy on here building a Fairlane (also at the other place) and the glass weighed the same as the steel.

It's possible he might have used "street weight" fiberglass doors vs "race weight" fiberglass doors, usually a big difference in weight between the two.

I'm just saying what one guy experienced and he was disappointed expecting the glass to be lighter. Now Boteler Racing claims their Fairlane doors weigh 15lbs without hardware. I've not seen their stuff and am not familiar with their quality. I know if I was buying fiberglass parts I would expect it to be lighter, unless I was buying for looks, like a hood with scoops or whatnot.

There really is a huge difference between ‘glass doors intended for the street and those intended for race only. Years ago I bought a set of street weight doors for my Maverick and was disappointed that they were much porkier than I’d hoped. Some liberal and creative use of the “swiss cheese” treatment combined with homemade lightweight hinges and latches now has them at 24 lbs. each with windows.

My new glass doors area about 11lbs without window or hardware.