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Removing inter door crash brace

8K views 19 replies 15 participants last post by  White90GT 
#1 ·
Is this possible to do without a torch?
 
#4 ·
How you gonna get a sawzall inside the door and then get the blade between the brace and the door to cut it loose from the outer skin.
 
#5 ·
i just took mine out yesterday, take out the window and the door latch before you start. it dosent take that long, i used a 3inch air cutoff tool.
will shed 32 pounds between the two, cut as close as you can get to the edge and make sure you watch close . the door skin is about 1/4inch from the bar, once it is cut free it will come out the top really easy.
 
#10 ·
Must be '91-'93 as my wife's '91 were 8lbs. each and only a single thin bar as opposed to the wide flat bars in my '89 which were around 16 each.....anyways good info and the thin bars arent worTH the trouble IMHO:)
 
#8 ·
Took mine out with a 4" cutoff wheel took longer to get the window apart than to cut it out. And BTW sparks from the grinder will trash the glass, ask me I found out the hard way. Be very careful and cut slowly as stated above the skin of the door is very close to the bottom of the crash bar.
 
#11 ·
there are many other places that more weight can be removed....easier
 
#12 ·
OK, so please explain where else weight can be removed without making the car looked hacked up, ie hidden weight to be cut out.

I like my car to at least appear to have full interior, ie it has original carpet and a nice rear seat delete setup (doesn't weigh much), all panels still in place, under dash gutted. Center console removed, all speakers removed. Where else can be cut on and remove weight without looking bad??
 
#13 ·
you have to drill spot welds put of each end. be carefull not to hit out side panel. then you have to cut in half to get it out. use a small cut off wheel, definetly glass out. if u have the thin bars you can cut right in the middle. but if you have the wider bar cut 3/4 of the way forward becouse it is double walled toward the middle and is a s.o.b. the small bar looks like a little beam, big bar is a wider stamped peice.
 
#15 ·
Thats what I did but with the window still in thats the right way it was a bitch to drill out all the spot welds but it was well worth it I took out some other extra metal that wasn't needed on the doors also.:evilgrin:
 
#14 ·
would a roll cage like a 8 point or 10 point be a good substitute for the crash bars? i know the weight is different but safety wise?
 
#16 ·
Bringing this back up.

I removed my drivers bar last night and it along with a little bit of material from the inner door frame came out at 16 lbs. My door also had the nickel/quarter sized holes at the front and I couldn't find the spot welds in there. I cut the entire outer skin away and there is another layer of metal frame work inside the door that the bar is welded to. I still couldn't find those spot welds, so I took the 3" cutoff wheel inside the door and cut it within about 3" of the front of the door. So I maybe left 1 lbs of material there.
 
#20 ·
Got the passenger side out today. Had it out in about an hour from start to finish. This time I was able to see the 4 spot welds up front and used my spot weld drill bit to drill them out. Once I cut the bar about 8" from the rear of the door, I wiggled the front piece a little and it fell right out. Cut a section out of the top of the door by the middle and was able to work almost an entire crash bar out the top of the door.

So, 32 lbs removed from the car in about 4 hours. With the door panels covering the inner door, you can't see a thing other than the drilled out spot welds.
 
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