Lightening up a 74 reinforced door

'73 doors are reinforced too. it was the first year for that. Your other doors must be '72 or older...

 

My Sprint had reinforcing beams in the doors.

 

Another one of those "Maverick Mysteries". What year did the reinforced doors coume out? The info I had said '73...

 

I "thought" my door was 73 "Comet", but it may have been earlier. The fenders had the notch, so that puts them at least 73, maybe earlier.

Either way, my older blue door has no reinforcement. So maybe it is 72...much lighter...either way!

 

my 73 had them. now i have one with one without.

 

Ed, did you cut one out, or just find one with and one without?

 

the door i bought did not have the beam. so now i have one with and one without one the car.

 

Ed, your car is reassembled...do you feel any significant difference when closing the heavy door vs the lighter door? Can you easily tell which is which, or notice it, if you didn't know that one was reinforced?

 

the one that is not reinforced does take a little more effort to close. but not much.

 

Found this thread searcing for info on removing the bar and followed the suggestions given. I cut the door out behind the panel, then carefull cut the bars at each end with a cut off wheel. I then cut them in half to remove from the door and then welded the door back together. The bars came in at just over 10 lbs each and for the record my Comet is a '72 and the doors are original.

 

Cool looking car!! Thanks for the info, I wonder if it's worth the work for the 20 lbs? maybe if it's just a race car, I guess.

 

Thanks Dave, I would leave them in a street car and I was hoping for more weight savings but every little bit helps