originalmotorhead

Hi Everyone,
Yes I have more silly questions / looking for your opinions regarding erronious things I am planning to do to my 944 race car in the making:

1.) What do you think about taking out all the door seals?
I've already removed all glass, regulators, motors, and window seals from the driver and passenger doors but what about the seal that goes all the way around the doors? Do I want to keep that, to keep the door from ratteling? I'm sure each one is only a pound at most but....

2.) Opinions, ideas on sunroof delete that does not involve putty and repaint.
I was thinking about cutting a piece of thin aluminum or tin and pop rivitng it over the hole, or taking the old sunroof and cutting out the center, then pop riviting the tin to the exterior sunroof frame so it has a nice seat in the sunroof hole.

3.) Anyone remove their ignition key and go to a couple toggle switches and push button start ?
Is it as simple at taking out the current igniton switch and checking continuity from off / on and then installing a switch for each ?
I was also that thinking I might run a toggle switch for the DME relay so I could kill fuel at any time.

Appreciate all your feedback, you guys are always very helpfull.

Tom

J richard

Tom,

My door seals are gone and I'm thinking of putting them back, they do help with rattling which is not much of an issue in a racecar, but it's kind of a pain to wash the car, and if you race in even a light rain I had water that would drive in the front of the door into the car. Several guys in spec went with the start button, I have the key still but you need to disable the steering lockout in most series. You'll need a legal kill switch and having a handle outside and inside is easy with a t hand cable. Check the rules for the group you're going to run with, a fiberglass replacement is an option but some require a steel panel or toy need arm restraints, my 44 is a non sunroof but on my old rs i cut out the support and stitch welded the edges of the panel openings and sealed the gap with silicon sealant...no paintwork needed..

I forgot a good link: Take a look at don plumleys (www.plumley.org/porsche) for a nice writeup on the sunroof panel weld in he has pictures and great info...he did a nicer job than my old track car bit that was a 76 not a 993...

f1rocks

In my case I left the corner of the bottom door trim (maybe 18" or so) so the door has a soft "stop" eliminated the rattling and I left most of the door trim around the window as it wasn't a significant weight savings and the rattle would be annoying.

I also removed the key and go with a switch to arm the DME and pushbutton for the starter. You can do that for $10 in parts. I ended up stripping about 30 pounds of wire from the dash and did this all at one time.

originalmotorhead

I've already got a master ignition / positive battery kill under the hood and will be adding the pull cable to make it accessible from the drivers side, and i've ground out the steering lock so now I'm merely looking at doing away with a need for a key all together.

My current sunroof is all fiberglass and quite heavy, thus the reason I was looking to go to some thin tin to save a few lbs on the topside of the car.

Tom

VaSteve

It seems to me that for the weight savings, skipping lunch would be just as effective.

Mine's a street car, but those doors give such a reassuring slam, as I'm about to head out and beat on the car. I'm not sure I'd want to introduce another rattle to track for that small a weight savings.

M758

1) I still have my door seals & glass. However I also ballast to make min weight so I perfered the ability to seal up the car. Some just have a shell of door however.

2) There are a few that put in an aluminum sunroof panel.

3) I run toggle switches and a push button starter. I did it because my ignition switched failed and this was the quickest fix. I run two toggles. One for power and one for the DME. It is a long story as to why, but it involved some troubleshooting rather than some grand plan.

Van

I think pop-riveting on an aluminum skin over the sunroof hole is the easiest and lightest way to go if you're not too concerned about the cosmetics.

I like the idea of the lower parts of the door gaskets!

If you're going to do push button and toggle switches, I assume you're going to remove the whole dash? That'll save a bunch of weight. Of course, you know I'm going to recommend some kind of digital dash and datalogger!

When are we going to see pictures of this thing? Doesn't your garage phone have a camera?

mark kibort

Im going through this as well with my new car.
my last one was a non sunroof, but the one before was a sunroof delete project. i used a nibbler to cut out all the interior metal, and still didnt get it all. 25lbs saved, and I still put the suroof back in with brackets, And I gutted the sunroof as well. Still it was REAL heavy.

Now, im at the same spot as you. However its going to be painted either way.

Im thinking cut with a sawzall all the way around and use a non sunroof car top and cut that piece a little bigger and glue it or rivet/weld it down. Then, sand and paint and live with a little square raised area.
second, doing it the right way, but it looks very involved to peal back the roof on the donor roof and peal it back on the race car. all those spot welds, glued areas, etc. It looks like a huge pain.

Ive seen the aluminum sheet that just goes over the hole that you cut out . some have used a plasma cutter to get everthing on the inside out, and wet rags on top to keep the paint cool and good around the area you are working on. then, rivets and you are done.

Van

You might be able to use something like this: http://www.eastwood.com/ew-panel-flanger.html , then use autobody adhesive and a few flush rivets to make an aluminum panel look pretty decent...

That would be the lightest way to do it.

originalmotorhead

I thought about the flanger tool, they also make it in a roller version for doing large pieces. I'd have to cut out the sunroof tray/pocket and then flange the new piece and isntall from inside out. That would be really clean install but pretty involved.

Not removing my dash just yet. I have a plate where the center console was, it has the switches(or will have the switches).

I'll get some photos up here sooner or later.

Tom