DOOR PANELS

Big Red is all steel, so weight can be an issue for some racingevents. Extra attention has been given to the weight savings during the restoration.

Big Red always had run with a completely stock door, but that has changed. The original stamped-steel inner structure of the door was trimmed out, leaving only a flange around the edge. This way, the original door latch, hinges, and molding would work and at least retain a mounting area for the new, thin aluminum skin. Shop muscle man Mark showed how light the newly modified
doors are during the mockup stages. The new aluminum skin will be powdercoated so Tim has left the protective plastic on the aluminum during the build.

Skinning the door was the easy part of this modification. The doors had an aluminum skin before, so there are already many rivet holes from previous mounting points. Tim had to try to use those previous holes, otherwise the edge of the doors would have been weak for support of the new skin. The top of the door skin received holes for a couple of fasteners: a cutout for the door handle and two holes where the plexiglass window frame will be mounted.