580grams saved - 4hrs work! Doh. Door hinge weight reduction

Not an easy way to reduce weight on your car! Only did one side too. 4hrs. With my now sub 5kilo doors incl hinges and window setup -why have huge steel hinges? I only had them fitted with a single bolt anyways.



The offcuts, sadly no good for a stew. Original hinge was 400 grams each. I reduced them to 200 grams a piece with an angle grinder and a few drilled holes.

I removed the caged mount/bolt plates from inside the shell too, there is no weight on the hinges so they are not needed, a single bolt holds the hinge to the body now. A large washer gives a decent footprint on the back. About 80grams for the steel plates removed.



I replaced the 5/16th bolts with M6 metric fittings which saved a few grams too...I may replace the 4 bolts on the door with alloy ones, cheapish on ebay.



Did both hinges, painted the bulkhead black at the top cause the painted lifted when I cracked the hinges off.

Jobs a good-en, door fits the same, just about, and opens and closes...I don't advise this mod unless you are very patient or don't give a toss what your car looks like cause refitting the doors was a complete and utter b******. Without the caged fittings in the body, a real swine, took me over an hour and half to hang the door and line it up again in some god awful contorsionist position trying to do up nuts in the bulkhead box section with 1 finger etc...Lot of swearing!

So both sides will give me 1.16kilo reduction - 28.84kilos left from my 30kilo target. After fitting the hardtop, door seals and heavier type-9 box I added a bit to the car want to get back down below its bare best!

Hopefully getting a fibreglass hardtop in the next week too...That should give a couple more kilos and it doesn't rust...Probably paint it white...Cause white is "cool" in the heat...

Next job after the other sides hinges is the caged plates holding the door striker plates in place...again no need for these, must be 200grams each...I will lighten the striker plates to the bone too by drilling a million holes in them and cutting out sections with saw.

Guess its small details like this that will find the weight I need. I am not willing to destroy my tub adding horrible glass panels and de-seaming, de bracketing, and race weighting it, if I was building a race-car the construction would be VERY different indeed!...Good job I don't want to race it, cause I'd race to win and win alone - prolly be completely obsessed with it! More than now eh?! Maybe in the future!

Don't want to spend any dosh on it either atm. Lightening stuff is free! Just takes bloody hours, I am bushed.