Spitfire fibreglass doors

[Mark]

Bought a pair of spitfire/gt6 fibreglass doors off ebay the other month. These are new unused, possibly old Honeyborne. Intention is to use them on future project. 

Thought I would compare weights. Bare steel vs bare fibreglass. The steal doors do have hinges fitted. 

A steel door is around 20lb, fibreglass around 9lb. Fair bit of weight saving, suspect Collins will weigh less! 

[JohnD]

If you're out for lightness, competition etc. then bought panels will always be a bit heavier than you can get away with, to secure strength and reliability.   The doors I made for Silverback (a Vitesse, but same difference) weighed 5 kilos, with hinges and locks.

A layer of paper honeycomb inside the outer skin made them near rigid!

 

[egret]

I think my metal doors have been re skinned badly in the past, so I keep thinking about this, so it's good to have a figure to put the the cost of the weight saving, thanks.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

On 6/21/2025 at 10:57 PM, Mark said:

A steel door is around 20lb, fibreglass around 9lb. Fair bit of weight saving, suspect Collins will weigh less! 

Reminds me that I need to weigh the final articles 😁

But the GRP ones I made previously were 6kg complete with hinges, locks, perspex windows and door cards.

On 6/22/2025 at 7:55 PM, egret said:

I think my metal doors have been re skinned badly in the past, so I keep thinking about this, so it's good to have a figure to put the the cost of the weight saving, thanks.

The moulds still exist