insite

my car is going to become a dedicated track car. getting ready to do a cage. i plan to gut the doors, remove the regulators, etc.

for the near term, i will drive it to / from track until i can figure out where to store a trailer.

with no glass in the doors, how do i keep the rain out when i'm off track? my car is a boxster, so no door frames like cup cars. do i go plexi with a pull strap or something to that extent?

Matt Romanowski

If you do door bars that go into the door, there is no where for the window to go when it's down, so plexi, etc are out of consideration. We made some "transport" windows out of corrugated plastic that we tape in for transport on the trailer. When not driving, it's in the garage.

insite

makes sense. not sure whether i will get the nascar style door bars or not. pros / cons? thx.

Matt Romanowski

Do a search on cages and door bars. Everyone has an opinion. I like NASCAR bars - they give you some extra room. I also find they are easier to get in and out. Finally, you can tailor their height some to match the nose of the typical car you compete against to give you the best protection.

ninjabones

Another option is to gut the door and then weld a tab with a push-pin to hold the stock glass in place. Leave in for transport, and remove when running. Works with nascar door bars, clean and easy (this is what I had in place prior to moving to fiberglass doors)

Veloce Raptor

+1. This is what I have in mine (M3) also with frameless windows.

fatbillybob

If you make plexi/lexan transport windows NASCAR uses "hartwell" latches. you can google that.

J richard

...figure out the trailer parking, it's the end game anyway...

JBreckeen

Window Socks:

Now I did not invent this - some PCA'ers who run a shop down in Miami made some for themselves and with their blessing I copied them.

Just take two sheets of nylon and sew them together on three sides to make a pillow-case like thing. Open the door and slip it over the top, close the door.

We also cut openings for the side mirrors and attached Velcro strips to hold it around the mirrors. The guys in Miami went further and have riveted button snaps to the outside-bottom of the window and once they put the window sock on, it snaps tight.

Their version can even be used while towing the car, while ours flaps around and we just use it while it is stationary.

Have fun . . .

insite

slick! if i had door frames....

Shivatron

This. One even easier option for frameless windowed cars is to just tape/glue a piece of L-channel to the glass and then drop it in when you need to (so that the L-channel rests on the windowsill). That's the arrangement I have on my Miata and it works beautifully -- even in the rain.

ninjacoco

I need a tarp or something. The Chump came sans windows and we just cut out the insides of the doors anyway, so I end up having to bail out my floorpan every time it rains.

Are there any safe places to drill extra drain holes on a 944? The floor's pretty floppy, so I don't want to completely disintegrate it just trying to avoid a little puddle.

J richard

on the 944 you have frames, I made a pair of rigid plastic cutouts the same shape as the window glass, with a piece of velcro along the bottom, slide it up into the window channel and then secure it against the window sill velcro. pops in and out easy and great for tows.

If you don't have frames like a boxster/996 its a different deal. I used to have a cover for a targa, it only covered the cab from the window sill/windsheild base and bottom of the rear window. It had straps that looped around the window wipers, mirrors and door handles. Very secure and kept water out of the car even with the top off, and handy to keep sun out as you can just throw it over the cab at the track. Been thinking of having one made just for the boxster...

scott40

If you don't have a frame, and your doors are gutted, you could set it up like mine. Had lexan windows made. They are long on the bottom and fit right through the molding like the OEM window did. Wright then just made little stoppers that keeps the window from falling all the way through and allows it to be tucked up under the upper rubber window seal. Works great and very simple and easy to use.

longhorn911

I have a Spec Boxster with the doors fully gutted with a fiberglass shell top with no window framing at all. I made two transport/rain windows out of Plexiglas. I cut a large piece of cardboard to test fit the shape in the car and then used it as a stencil for the Plexiglas. I notched the rear of the window to sit on one of the roof support tabs on my cage (the red arrow in the first photo shows the notch). I also cut the front of the window to slide up into the vertical factory window seal that is part of the mirror housing.

Photo #1 shows the window and notch. The black thing is a rubber stopper I bolted to the window to use as a pull up handle and the green stripe is just a piece of tape to help see the window when it is off the car. To install, I slide the rear notch onto my cage tab (photo #2) which holds the rear in place. Then in photo #3 as I start to close the door, I line of the front of the window up into the vertical seal slot in the mirror housing and slide it upward into the slot. Then with the door fully closed, I pull up on the rubber stopper handle to snug the window into place.

To finish things off and ensure the best fit possible, I used a heat gun to bend the Plexiglas out slightly in certain areas to create a nice snug fit against the door. I don't have to use any other fasteners since the tight squeeze of the forward seal keeps the window firmly in place - even when the car is on the trailer bouncing around on bumpy roads.