I am building my new track car from a MK2 4 door and as it has a full cage with side intrusions i plan to remove the big heavy factory intrusion bars from the doors.

Has anyone done this?

Did you remove the outer skin or the inner skin? Or did you just use a small right angle cut off wheel from the inside?

On the front doors i want to keep the inner door shell intact as i plan to keep the windows operational. The back doors dont matter as they dont have to wind up and down.

G

what's wrong with the mk2 2door thats a great track car. piss the 4 door off.......

The 4 door will be better by the time it is all together

I've heard somewhere that orange is the new green

The door intrusion bars are spot welded to the edge of the door frame.

To remove the intrusion bars you can remove the door skin which will expose the spot welds. You can expect some damage to the edges of the door skins when removing and refitting.

Maybe better if you can use a thin grinding wheel and cut out the flat section of the door frame (ie where the door trim fits against), then grind out the intrusion bar, then weld the flat section back in and grind flush. Care is needed as the outer face of the intrusion bar sits only a few millimetres from the door skin itself. You will find a bead of sealer between the outer face of the intrusion bar and the door skin to help support the skin. So even if you completely grind the intrusion bar you might need to wrestle the sealer a bit to get the bar out.

The 4 door body shell should be more rigid than the 2 door. The 4 door door apertures are significantly shorter than the longer 2 door. I recall there was a test done in the late '70's comparing the 4 door Torana with the newly released 2 door version. The 4 door was found to be more rigid. If bracing or a roll cage is fitted then is irrelevant.

I've done this to my two door by peeling back the interior side of the door after making a few strategic cuts where the various access holes are situated. I've cut most of the bar away except for a 50mm central piece. I left that because I didn't want the door to possibly spring out a bit and cause issues when it comes to bolting the door back onto the car. Those bars do weigh a lot - the doors on a two door fully dressed with glass and locks are sods to lift off the car on your own. I used the engine crane to support them while undoing the hinge plate bolts. BTW I've rewelded the inner skin back into place ok by moving the welder around to keep the heat down.