Fibreglass roofs yes or no, and some other general fibreglassing weight losing questions
Turbo Mini Forums

I am going to respray my car this year, as due to its constant evolving over the last 3 years since it was sprayed in the first place, it is looking a little tatty. Before I do however I would like the shell in a position where I don't have to chop or modify it any further to loose weight or add stuff like coilovers to the back when its been repainted.

I am undecided whether to cut the roof panel out and replace it with fibreglass item. What is the approximate weight saving for this? More importantly, can from the outside they be made to blend in subtley? I'd like my car to look like a nice, tidy mini, but then it goes like stink.

How much does a steel front panel, wings, and inner wings weigh compared to a fibreglass front and brace bars? Looking at Ian_W weight loss threat the overall weight saving only appears to be about 6kg. Handy, but if its only that then I may leave the steel front on considering it cost me a lot in genuine panels less then 3 years ago.

Regarding removing the roof panel, the car has a weld in cage so safety / rigidity shouldn't compromised - unless I land it upside down on a boulder.

Thoughts please, and preferably pictures of fibreglass roofs if possible.

James

Edited by minimole23 on 7th Jan, 2010.

Dont do it

Go for it.....

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A full steel roof skin weighs 11KG, not sure about the plastic roofs.

Fibreglass is gay.

i have a carbon roof, was a pain in the arse to blend in and make it look stock... however

it depend what your going to use the car for, if its trcak etc then go for it.

Edited by MarkGTT on 7th Jan, 2010.

Hmm, I remember that thread but couldn't find it earlier.

Reading that thread leaves be completely sat on the fence regarding doing it though. I think some more tying in of the cage to the body would be required around the roof level. Though I don't have any fancy bars above head height, mainly because I don't want to be carting any more then 50 kg of roll cage about. It would be nice to offset some of the weight of the heavy rollcage. This is how the rollcage stands currently, Some additional gusseting to be added when it comes apart again.



There doesn't seem to be a clearly defined weight loss either. If It would loose over 8 kgs then I will do it, if less its mabie not worth it. On the other hand loosing 8 kgs is going to start getting much more expensive then a £100 roof skin from this point onwards for my car as I have done most of the easy and cheap weight savings already. It would be preferable to only start spending £400 on alloy radius arms when starting to get really anal with the weight.

The car started off mainly as a road car, but to be honest I have started doing, and intend to do more and more track stuff with it.

It will always remain road legal as I enjoy driving it so will do at least 50% of its milage on a road, though comfort and drivability are not a consideration.

Stuff it, I'm gonna do it. There should be 5 kg to come from it at least.

So, unless theres any reason to talk me out of it, fibreglass is the way the roofs gonna go.

Mate i think you should do it i your going to respray it.

I'll try and find a link to a guy on TMF (dare i say it), who fitted one and blended the edges in so it looked standard.

Homophobe! lol

The worrying thing is that I'm having potentially bisexual thoughts about my mini :$

i dont like the idea of it, if you do have an accident the metal roof will bent in the impact stopping debris the fibreglass wont

i dont feel the weight loss is worth it over the extra protection round your head

on the plus side though Neil, removing weight from the highest point on the car is a top priority,

you can always grow another skull if something nasty were to befall you,

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

The link i founds shit lol.

Basically he fitted it with tiger seal as per, then used fibreglass matting on the edge (in the gutter), and smoother over with filler.

Edited by MarkGTT on 7th Jan, 2010.

looks like you could lose more weight out of the doors?

what you need to do is look round the car and anything that looks like it can be removed, well remove it.
if it cant be removed can it be lightened?
you need to think:
how much material can i remove with compremising strengh?
you will find alot that you can lighten

every little helps

I bet the fibreglass skins are pretty floppy and will bend a fair amount. Fibreglass is missunderstood. The knocks and scrapes we have had on the front end of the race car have just sprung back into shape, if it was metal we would have had to get the hammer out.

Over all though I don't like the idea of a glass roof, even with a welded in cage. We use a bolt in cage and metal foor and our car weighs in at 550kg. If we replaced the roof I bet we would add all the weight savings on tieing in the cage and cross bracing.

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Any pics Matt?

your gear knob and hand break handle look heavy

And steering column surround.

On 8th Jan, 2010 apbellamy said:
your gear knob and hand break handle look heavy

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

I meant 12.5kgs a door.

I have the street fighter doors, with a polycarb window bolted in, 'inner skin' cut out, I drilled the fuck out of my hinges, ally clamp plates (that fit on A panel), ive started making some aluminum cathes but then moved house.

IIRC they weighed 20.5kgs, with door card/furniture and now weigh 8.0kgs or there abouts.

Edited by matty on 8th Jan, 2010.

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Isn't it a bit annoying not being able to wind your windows down?