Fiberglass doors mounted.

[Mike Puckett]

You can't see much in the photo but the right side is on. I'll be mounting the guts tonight and tomorrow. This thing is a real pain to align. I've got it pretty close and will try to tweak it when everything is mounted in it. I had to shim the bottom with a thin metal plate for alignment purposes but it seems to be able to support it's weight Ok. The hinges need to be lubricated very well to prevent any binding or the door could crack. I have made one mod to it and that was to mount a 3" aluminum bar inside from front to back. I bent it into an L and mounted it under the lower hinge plate. I had to cut a slot in the door edge to slide it thru to the inside which I then filled it back in with cloth and resin. I wrapped it with 4 layers of carbon fiber cloth and then filled it in with MAS medium set epoxy to bond it together and to the door. I'll take some better pics when it's done. I can barely pick up the steel door shell but can easily pick up the fiberglass shell. What a difference.

[tbird88]

A complete factory door with hinges weighs right at 108 pounds.

/wiping drool off keyboard

'bird

[quick35th]

Looks cool Mike. Keep up the good work!

Shane

[Mike Puckett]

These weigh about 20 lbs with the aluminum strip and resin inside not including the hinge. I really like the epoxy better than the polyester resin. It doesn't give off that strong odor when curing. It's almost twice the cost though. While I have the window out, I'm going to trace it's outline on some cardboard so I can get a lexan window made.

[quick35th]

Mike about how much are the lexan windows going to cost? I may be interested in a set.

Shane

[Randy N Connie]

Mike glad to hear your door project is moving along.

Do think the hinge mount area needs to be beefed up?
I still have not had any time to look my doors over.
I am still working on getting my hood to look right.
I hope to start on the door job next.I will keep you
posted.

I would be interested in Lexan window info .

Thanks RANDY

[tim]

Mike what material are you using for hinges? I would think with doors that light and lexan windows they could be made out of something really light. With that much weight off the car it should run .15 faster. What does a set of doors like that cost? As these cars get older I see rust as a problem somewhere down the line. I really like the way they came out.

[Randy N Connie]

I would like to find some hand crank window assemblies.
And install them inplace of the electric window assemblies.

I have a 1973 junk Cougar ,I need to see if they might work.
Anyone have any ideas on the use of junk yard window
cranks?

Thanks RANDY

[Randy N Connie]

Tim
I don't remember,but I think I payed about $750.00,
for the doors & shipping.

[tim]

Pretty steep, If I was going to the expense and trouble of glass doors I wouldnt use electric door locks or electric windows either. The whole point is to go light. I bet you cold find a crank that would work. I doubt if you could use the stock dooor panels. I woud be lookind for the lightest I could find or whars the point.

[Randy N Connie]

They weigh about 18 pounds bare.I want to use hand cranks.
Or some way to lift and lower the windows.Maybe some type
tabs to get ahold of to raise and lower.And a way to hold the
widows up.

I need at least a hole in the lexan to throw cigarettes butts,
beer cans,my finger, out the window. :)

Randy

[DamonSlowpokeBaumann]

My freinds old dodge dart used straps with hooks to raise and lower his lexan windows.

The straps were attached to the botom of glass through door frame and cameout the lower part of widow opening. WHen you wanted to close windows you would pull on strap and attacth it to a hook on the door panel.

Was very neat and clean

[tim]

What if you put most of the window in fixed and in the front part of the window you made some sort of sliding vent window. Or you could put in a real vent window like the old cars used to have. I would have to be able to open the window. Damons idea is good I have seen a lot of race cars that had only two positions all the way up or down. It gets too hot to have a window that wont go down. In my case no air and a black interior make for really hot at the track.

[Randy N Connie]

Thanks Damon,I might give that a try.I want to just remove my
stock doors with all parts intact.And install the glass doors.
I do want to keep the door stock looking at a glance.

I would like to run stock doors,and glass doors.Have it so I
can swap back and forth.I don't know yet but the glass may
be good enough to run full time.

Damon you cannot tell the differents between a stock door
and these glass doors,until you pick them up.Even the seam
around the inside,outside of door.Where the door skin is
bent around to the inside and welded on the stock steel door.
The glass doors look the same.The glass doors sound just
as soild as the steel doors when you rap your nuckles on
them.

RANDY

Randy

[MIKE 38sc]

Randy you're a machinist and you got machines so why not just wittle out some gears out of Aluminum and adapt it to drive the stock track which is a simple rack and pinion system.

[Mike Puckett]

I weighed my window on our digital freight scale at work and it weighed 10 lbs. I don't know who makes lexan windows for our cars but I'm going to check with a couple of places advertising in the magazines. I thought of tracing out the glass on a large piece of cardboard for a template. Then buy a sheet of lexan and trace the cardboard onto the lexan. Heat the oven up to about 200 or so and lay the glass inside, then lay the lexan on top of the glass so it would sag and conform to the curvature of the glass. Would that work? Is my oven big enough?
I've got the latch, handle and lock, and lock solenoid mounted. It seems to close, latch, and unlatch Ok. It sure doesn't sound like a steel door closing! I'm keeping the power lock, it's weight is nothing and I'm keeping the power window, too for the convenience. It's going back in a lot slower than it came out. I couldn't get the latch screws out of my steel door and had to drill them out. I hate phillips screws! Long live torx! Anyway, the next thing is the window regulator. I have a little concern here about the fiberglass supporting it so I bought an aluminum support plate if I need it.
The hinges seem to be fine. The only reinforcement is the long L shaped internal aluminum plate I bonded inside. I prestressed it with the hinge nut plate and bolts before bonding it to the door. I think the door could support itself Ok by itself but it would be much more fragile. I'm recommending to John that they incorporate this aluminum in the door. I may use a similar piece on the driver door upper hinge since this side gets more wear and tear.

[Randy N Connie]

Mike
I have not cut a hole to look inside of the doors yet.

So there is no backing plate for inside of doors for
the door hinge to bolt to.I would think this should
be done at the least,if not how you did yours sounds
like it should work.

The hinge half connected to to door.I have thought
about tring to make one from aluminum .So I can just
pull the two pins to remove the doors.

I just seen on line that it is a good idea to install a
strap limiting the travel of the door.This is because if
the wind would catch the doors.And cause them to open
to fast and far,that the door hinge area on fiber glass
doors may cause fractures in the hinge area.So you
may want to look at installing a couple safty straps
per door to limit travel.So the stress loads would be
speaded accross a larger area.Seat belt material is
what I am going to look at.

[SCme]

Mike, you might look up some old IHRA pro-stock results, say mid-late 90's and then contact the teams with Tbird's. If I remember correctly there were several that ran Tbird's before switching to Probe's. They may have purchased the windows instead of fabing in house and as such could put you in contact with that company.

[tim]

Try five star stock cars in Twin Lakes Wi. They said that a complete set of lexan windows custom made would be $700 I cant remember if that included the windshield. If only I had a ton of money. A under 3000 pound car is not out of the question.

[Randy N Connie]

Mike, www.royhillsdragracingschool.com has three SC drag cars.
he may be a source for windows .

Randy

[Mike Puckett]

Randy, you'll need to use the hinge nut plate from an existing door. They pop right out and are easy to reinstall with the door guts removed. I removed and dissassembled my door and swapped the parts out. I'm doing them one at a time. The door feels pretty secure but what you mentioned could be a problem.
I'll pass on $700 for windows.

[MIKE 38sc]

Heres a thought on the Lexan windows, since I used to mold Lexan parts for R/C models I think it just might work.
Get a sheet of Lexan and cut your pieces slightly oversized then lay one on top of any of your removed pieces of glass. Pick a side to start on and clamp that side down onto the glass you want to copy. You can then take a heat gun and start heating the Lexan until it starts to soften. Once softened it should be real easy to form to the piece of glass you're trying to copy.
I dont believe it would be hard to do at all, I've made parts that had much more extreme bends in them than the windows in an SC have and did'nt have any trouble.
Just a thought.