I have a 79 Malibu drag race/street wagon that I'm wanting to put on a diet. It has a BBC engine and with typical aluminum parts, but is still heavy. I'm considering removing the crash bars from the doors, but not sure the loss of structure is worth the weight lost. Has anyone done this, and your opinion if the result is worth the effort and what affect on structural loss to the door. Yes, the car is plated for the street, but no inspection in my state.
Removing Crash Bars From Doors
- Thread starter slingshot
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I did it to mine. Big difference. I used a dremel tool with the cutoff wheels on each end then i cut it in half with a 4 1/2 inch cutoff wheel to fish it out of the largest opening.
Doesn't seem to be as structurally weak as it would seem either. Not really flimsey or anything. I think having a cage in the car will make it a non-issue.
Thanks for the reply, it sounds like removing them will not create any obvious door problem. About how much weight would you estimate each of the four door, door bars weighs? My wagon already has a six point roll bar, but plan to add to it and my reason for removing weight elsewhere.
The adhesive they used is pretty strong so be careful not to damage the skin on your doors. We always removed them on our circle track cars and didn't care if we wrinkled the door skin
I would say almost ten pounds a door. I never weighed the bars once I cut them out, so don't quote me, but the doors are much easier to handle. I slipped a thick piece of sheet metal between the crash bar and the door skin when I was cutting. I think I went through 3 packages of dremel cutoff wheels to get them cut. Haha. It was tedious but worth it.
Thanks again guys! GM must have used different methods of securing the crash bars in different model and year G-body cars. The crash bars in my wagon have no adhesive and are held in place with what appears to be three spot welds at the front and rear of the door frame. There is about a 1/4 inch air space between the bar and door skin. The bars appear to be removed easily, but isn't that always the case. It does appear they will need to be cut in half to fish out of existing openings and then the cut spot weld holes will need to be welded shut. I'm not too worried about the paint, although it is decent, I plan a future repaint.
I removed them from my 2 door Lemans. They were just over 14 pounds each. They were also attached with spot welds at the front and rear. My doors still seem solid as well.
Cut an opening around the spot welds and slide the crash bar out the side, then weld it closed.
Much less work than trying to cut the bar into pieces inside the door.
If the car is driven on the street at all, I would leave the front bars in place and only remove the rear...
Much less work than trying to cut the bar into pieces inside the door.
If the car is driven on the street at all, I would leave the front bars in place and only remove the rear...
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