Magnus

iTrader: (4)

Not that hard actually.

1/4" drive to remove the 10mm bolts toward the front of the door. Use breaker bar to get loose.

3/8 drive with 15mm socket to remove the rear.. Loosen it a little and then remove by hand.

Wiggle it off. The front is "sealed" with goo to the door so you may need to pry it out with a screw driver.

Forget cutting it with a sawzall.. steel is damn hard..

Use 1 3/4" hole saw and cut a hole at the very bottom of the rear of the door.

Slide the ~7lb door bars out.

Use some touch up paint on the fiberglass.

done.

Brady

iTrader: (3)

I'll try it this weekend..

Magnus

iTrader: (4)

FYI, if you cut the hole low enough you will never even know its there..

makes the job SOOOO much easier.

aram

iTrader: (7)

Thanks! I'm going to try it this weekend I think. Good thing I could care less if my doors have a big hole in them. I guess with those out I should probably install my roll bar in the car.

If you can, take a pic of where you cut the hole on the door.

Magnus

iTrader: (4)

no need for a pic.. When you drop the door bar at the bottom of the door you will see where it hits (the arch at the back)..

Well, pick up the door bar in the door and angle it where the front is up at the top of the door and the rear is at the bottom, you will see exactly where the hole needs to be.

Then move the bar out of the way and into the outter shell of the door and drill the hole.

Then bring the bar back over and slide it right out.

It's really self explanitory. You cannot see the hole unless you get down and look.

People will be more concerned with how light your doors are over theirs than the fact that if you are on a creeper that you can see a hole.

Fireball

iTrader: (21)

I cut mine into pieces with an angle grinder w/ cutoff wheel.

y2khawk

iTrader: (5)

if you take the door off, you can get the bar out the wiring harness hole at the front edge of the door.

No cutting reguired.

FWIW, the bar is 6lbs. The front and rear brackets are 6 lbs, total. You can't completly remove the brackets, but you can swiss cheese them down by 3 lbs.

If you're insane, you can remove 18lbs

Nine Ball

iTrader: (38)

Hey Harlan, just pull out the plasma cutter, take the inner skin off, gut the door, and tack weld the skin back on. Ultra gutted!

Brady

iTrader: (3)

uhhh, the doors are fiberglass...

MADMAN

iTrader: (4)

You can cut fiberglass with a Plasma, Brady. I practiced on Nineballs car Though welding the fiberglass to the steel was a pain.

Hawkn01

iTrader: (1)

I used a gear wrench to get mine out, worked great. Drilled a hole in the bottom of the door and removed. I used one of the rubber hole plugs to cover the hole. The bar out of an 01 TA was 7 1/2 lbs per side, 15lbs total. The doors feel a ton lighter with them removed.

TJ

kp

iTrader: (34)

Maybe the firebirds are different but I had to cut down a 10mm socket and use a 1/4" breaker bar to get the front two bolts. And they were a bitch because there was some kind of locking crap on the bolts and they got pretty hard to turn with a stubby 10mm wrench, the 2nd door I used some wd40 and it seemed easier. The 15mm rear I got with pair of round nose vise grips on a 15mm short socket.

I used a 1/2 inch drill bit and a dremel to open the hole up enough to get the bar out the bottom rear, the rubber plugs from the floor work great if you are paranoid about the holes..

Nine Ball

iTrader: (38)

wow, I didn't know the inner doors were 'glass too. I just thought the outer shell was. Good to know

12secSS

iTrader: (30)

Thanks for the info Keith, I will be doing exactly that to our Z28 ... and any other light weight mods.

slowmaro98

iTrader: (8)

To get the side impact bars out of my 98 Z I used the following very simple procedure: (by the way, I did both doors in the time it took me to write this procedure)! It's not hard & doesn't take that long. Maybe 2 hours for both doors!

1. Take the inside door panel off the door.
2. Unplug everything.
3. Pull all the wires through the rubber gromet in the door. Note: You don't have to pull them all the way out (into the inside of the car), just out of the door.
4. Take a pencil and trace a light line around your door hinges (mark the actual door, not the hinge). This will come in very handy later on.
5. On the end of the door, take out the door latch screws, and the side impact support bolts that come through the door skin.
6. This next step is were you have to make a decision...
-You can either unbolt the door hinges, take the door off the car and (set it on an old couch) then start unbolting the side impact bars (with a 10mm & 15mm). Either way I'm pretty sure you are going to have to cut the side impact bar at one point or another.
OR
-what I did (with the door still attached to the car) was wiggle the "back end" side impact bar around enough to get a ratchet in between the door & the side impact bar, the take your trusty grinder with a zip disk and make a nice clean "very careful & patient" cut. It doesn't matter where you cut the bar as long as you cut it once. I cut mine about 6-8 inches from the end of the bar (the end that is towards the back of the door) It isn't bad if you take your time, don't force anything, let the grinder do the work, but you better have a strangle hold grip on that bitch incase it grabs and decides to go it's own course! If you are not patient your door will have some new "sweet looking" air vents. This is why I put a ratchet in between the door & the side impact bar. It gave me about an extra half inch away from the "danger zone" outter door skin.
7. Once the bar is cut: Take the "small end" of the (side impact bar and the support brace) out of the door, walk out side and throw it on your neibours roof.
8. Now this is when I took my door off. Put something under the back half of your door to support it, I used a old couch or sofa. If you want to have a nice clean looking install or i guess this is a "de"stall, then you need to unbolt your door hinges so you can pull the rest of your side impact bars out of the rubber gromet wiring hole. There will be 4 (either 15mm or 5/8 I can't remember) bolts to take out.(Last chance to trace some light pencil lines around your hinges on to the door. You will need these lines when you are putting your door back on. If you want to have a "trailer trash looking" camaro then drill a 2" hole through your door. If this is a street car, the inspectors will notice there are no side impact bars after you get in an accident.
9. Once they are unbolted take the door off and rest it on someting like a couch or "Sofa" so that you can start unbolting the rest of the side impact bars from the other end of the door (nearest the front end of the door). Use a drill to drill out the 2 rivets that go between the outter door skin and the support bracket. You will see what I am talking about once to get the door off.
10. Using a 1/4" ratchet & 10mm unbolt the rest of the side impact bar from the support bracket. Note: use a normal size socket, you don't need to grind your socket to get these small bolts, because the side impact bar support brace is now loose, and you can wiggle the support brace around until you get your hand in there to "feel" the socket over the bolt)
11. Once the side impact bar is un bolted pry it away from the support bracket with a screw driver or something (cause it has that sticky **** all over the bar & support) then slide it through the (already cut rubber gromet) wire hole in the front of the door. Once you get it out Harpoon it at the neighbours "loud *** dog"!
12. Next step is take out the other support bracket (the one you just unbolted the side impact bar from). You have to wiggle this one all the way to the back of the door, pull it out and tie a string around it, the tie the other end of the string to your neibors bumper, then kick it under his car.
13. Put your door back on. This is were your lines that you traced with a pencil will come in very handy. Line up the hinges with the lines you drew on the door. Put the 4 Nuts back on and snug them on enough that you can still bump the door around with your hand to line up perfectly to all your traced lines. Now you can tighten the **** out of your hinge bolts.
14. Pull the wires through the gromet in the door & hook up all your wires again.
15. On the end of your door use some slightly bigger washers and bolt up your door latch to the door skin. Don't tighten the **** out of them yet, just get them snug. Close the door and let the latch "fall into it's natural position", open the door then tighten them up. OH ya, at this point take a look at that black looking "post" that is attached to the car. You will notice that there is a guide in your door that lines up with this "post" You don't need it anymore either. So unbolt that post, it is useless now. Maybe a pound weight savings for each "post"?
16. Put your door panel back on.
17. Have a beer and do the next door.
18. Close your door and from the outside take a look at your door gaps around your door to make sure they all look even. They should be if you lined up your hinges correctly.

Notes: I did this whole thing by myself, but it would have been easier & quicker with a friend. I didn't even come close to cutting or nicking the outter door skin when I was grinding, because I took my time and knew the consequences if I was to "slip". I don't see any reason to keep the side impact support brackets at the end of each side of the door. Some guy's are layzee and don't feel like taking them out, well why bother with this project then? I don't see any structural support in having these support brackets in the door. My door isn't sagging or not lining up with these end supports out of the door, so take them out. They weighed almost the same as the side impact bar itself. I'm willing to bet the side impact bars, support brackets, door "posts" and the insulation I pulled out for both doors weighed very close to 20 - 25 pounds total. Take your aftermarket speakers & wiring out and I bet it's closer to 40 pounds total! This is an awesome weight reduction mod for guy's installing rollbars, and in my opinion well worth the time, effort and definatly worth the cost!

critter

iTrader: (9)

Man, either you are some kind of mechanic, or my '00Z is different than your 98. I have four hours in the first door, and I have been doing this kind of stuff for 45 years. This mod is not for the faint of heart.

Cutting the bar was a bitch because the 3" disks I have from Harbour Freight won't reach all the way through the bar even before wearing down. I had to work perilously close to the fiberglass, even with the bar pried as far away from the door as possible.

The rear nut came off with a 3/8" breaker bar, then ratchet, and finally open end wrench, but there was no way I could get even a 1/4" breaker bar and socket on the 10mm bolts. I had to take the door off and drill the rivets to get enough clearance for the breaker and socket. I switched to the ratchet but quickly discovered that the bolt(s) would not come out before the ratchet was grinding against the door skin. My Craftsman ratchet has a circular direction control opposite the socket, so it was wedged against the door! That was a trick to deal with. I finally ran the bolt back in far enough that I could get the ratchet off and used the breaker bar, a little bit at a time. The bolt is too deep to get at with an open end, so the breaker was the only option. Eventually it all came out and the door was back on. My scale said 16# for the bar, supports, speaker, and the big alignment pin from the body.

Larry

iTrader: (4)

I ground a 10 mm socket with flats on the end so I could wrench it with an open end wrench. Worked like a charm!

GIZMO

iTrader: (8)

I purchased a slim swivel 1/4" ratchet from Matco. It was expensive at $65.00, but perfect for this job. Once I have the bar loose, I remove the door to get it out. Start to finish it takes me about thirty minutes to do one door.

Daren

Big Mike

iTrader: (4)

I like Harlan's idea of removing the door and taking the bars out through the wiring harness hole. That's how I'm gonna do it. It seems easier to just remove the door that going through the hassle of cutting.

Fireball

iTrader: (21)

cutting was easy. I had both done in less than 2 hours using a 4 1/2" angle grinder