Best way of making a door handle with the interior gutted

[kipsy]

Hola. I'm going on a bit of a lightening mission on my e30 325 to loose a bit of excess fat. I'm thinking about getting some pollycarb windows and totally gutting the doors. How can I open the door from the inside? I'd rather have some sort of handle or neat idea rather than a big hole with a bit of wire. I can get hold of some plastic corragated card which I might put over the hole which ways next to nothing. Any ideas or what have you guys done?
Cheers

[milescook]

Might sound daft but I've seen pics of this - I plan to do it myself!

If you're lightening the car, I take it you're taking out the coar hanger handles / grab handles above the doors? Thinking of throwing them in the bin?

Voila! Door handles

[kipsy]

They were binned before I owned the car. I've got some nylon strap as a door handle now

[bimmaman]

As far as I know, the handle is separate to the door card - so if you remove the door card, the handle stays fitted to the door...

[bimmaman]

Here's a pic... not mine I might add...

[DanThe]

I really dont see the point, why fck up a decent door that will end up flopping about and looking stupid for the sake of 500g of steel?

If you want light doors then get GRP and do it properly.

IMO unless your shaving several KG at a time its not worth it

[kipsy]

Not allowed fibre glass I don't think plus too much money. If I totally gut the door and fit a polycarb window it's prob going to save at a guess 20% of the door weight?

[kipsy]

I've already removed all electrics and it's got little lightweight mirrors.

[DanThe]

The glass is the big saving, by chopping the door up you wont remove even 1KG

[kipsy]

Well I took 85% of the internals out of my bonnet (leaving the bare minimum to close it) and once I weighed everything removed it was 1.5 kg less. When I fitted the bonnet it was really flimsy and broke when i closed it. Fitted a replacement today and went to the gym
Mymbrother (kevo) has gutted his bonnet and has it opening the other way on e36 gas struts. Works well

[Speedtouch]

Why not drill lots of holes in the larger internal steel areas to shed some weight?

[kipsy]

Possibility. Will look into it! Cheers for all the help peeps

[milescook]

Heat shieling is another 5-10kg, that's just an estimate. All added together feels pretty heavy!

http://racing.cookieonline.net/e30-320- ... elding-e30

Not sure how hardcore you're going though...

[DanThe]

The exhaust heat shields are less than 1kg and do a great job of stopping the transmission tunnel/prop bearing and most importantly the fuel tank heating up, hot fuel = less power.

[milescook]

Do you mean on the inside Dan, like in my pics, or outside?

[DanThe]

You said heat shields, so I assumed you meant the exhaust heat shields which are the only ones that come to mind. If your on about the stuff under the carpet its called sound deadening

[milescook]

Haha! Every day's a school day

Yes - get rid of that stuff

[DanThe]

Mines down to 1000kg now and ive not chopped anything except the front valance as ive fitted a deep tech2 bumper

[kipsy]

That light? Not with a 6 pot surely if do good effort!

[Speedtouch]

Don't forget, an m52 is all-alloy, whereas the M20 is a steel block.

[kipsy]

I got an m52 in stock

[mrLEE30]

how much do you weigh?

easier for you to loose 5kg then take it out of the car.

then save on fuel weight by adding only the fuel required.

fit a smaller battery, and start it from jump leads, battery only then used for running

[kipsy]

I'm about 95kg. Lost a stone since jan. Going down gym to shape up! I'm even starving the navigator haha. He only weighs about 10.5 stone so ideal