What does the franks custom fiberglass, and MB products front ends weight? What do they weigh in fiberglass, and also in carbon fiber?

Also, what do the fiberglass doors, or carbon fiber doors weigh? What about the hatches?

I want to compile a list of weights so people can get more info, and so i can decide if i'm going carbon fiber or just fiberglass.

Franks:
Doors, fiberglass - 10 lbs

Custom Front end:
Fiberglass - 43 lbs

MB Products:
One piece front, fiberglass - 24lbs with intercooler and lights cut out
doors - 5-6 lbs without lexan or hinges
hatch - 3 lbs


Modified by Beef-Cake at 1:38 PM 9/20/2005

 

I'm pretty interested as well.


Steve

 

I have a set of Franks Fiberglass doors for the CRX, and they weigh in right at 10lbs per door.

Also, my one piece front end weighs in at 43lbs in Fiberglass. It is waaay different than anyone elses, however, i do have an MB front end for a CRX in the shop that i can weigh for you as well a little later today

 

See first post.


Modified by Beef-Cake at 1:38 PM 9/20/2005

 

The MB front i have in the shop with headlights cut out, and intercooler area cut out weighs in at 24lbs.

 

I've felt alot of different front ends, and the MB is definitely the lightest i've seen/felt. I don't think you'll find anything lighter in fiberglass. Carbon CAN be light, depends on the process it's made. I've seen carbon front ends that weigh almost the same as the fiberglass ones, yes real F1 quality carbon parts hardly weigh anything.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tony1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yes real F1 quality carbon parts hardly weigh anything.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The hard part there is trying to pay for a real F1 quality front end ($5k+ I'd guess) just save another 5 or 6lbs over the MB front end.


Steve

 

Well over $5k i'm sure for a real autoclave piece. I know Rado's Scion front end was done in an autoclave and it is VERY light and also very strong! Not sure what it cost, but i'm sure it wasn't cheap!

 

Well Frank's custom fiberglass has a carbon fiber front end, and it's $1300 I think. Probably not worth the $600 extra over the fiberglass piece.

 

Ken's doesnt make anything fiberglass or Carbon fiber.
They buy it from Frank and resell it at a higher price.

Anyway Franks stuff is pretty light. The doors are rediculous. I think the set on Josh's Integra are like 7-8 lbs.

The front ends are light as hell too. I dont know weight, but I know they are really light. .

Off the top of my head Rado's old Body Frank made on the Celica weighed in at something sick like 38lbs.

 

Where can you get these from? I have been looking for a while and the search is down.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itr206 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ken's doesnt make anything fiberglass or Carbon fiber.
They buy it from Frank and resell it at a higher price.

Anyway Franks stuff is pretty light. The doors are rediculous. I think the set on Josh's Integra are like 7-8 lbs.

The front ends are light as hell too. I dont know weight, but I know they are really light. .

Off the top of my head Rado's old Body Frank made on the Celica weighed in at something sick like 38lbs. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You can get to Frank's Website from this link.
http://www.frankscustomfiberglass.com/

Are you serious that Ken doesn't make any of his own stuff, he just re-sells frank's parts?

I would really like to know if somebody has actually weighted their Frankcustomfiberglass front end. Keep the messages coming. Thanks.

 

From the experience I have with fiberglass, majority of the larger front ends that can cover 28" slicks completely will weigh in around 45-50lbs. The MB is so light because it is near stock dimensions. 26 and 28" slicks need to have the wheel wells cut up to fit. Heres a pic of a front end I made out of fiberglass. The weight came out to 47lbs. It can be lighter if I was able to vaccum bag the mold but I don't have the facilities to do so. https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1086388

 

Dang, looking good. I was actually planning on making a sheet metal front end using the hood and fenders and bumper as guides. then hacking them up just before I poprivet the sheet metal onto a very very very cut down "exoskeleton" of the old front end parts. It probably won't look very nice, but EH, something to try out.

 

Yes I am serious.
I am very good friends with Frank and have been for a few years. I know Kenny and what they do too.
Trust me they dont make CF or FG. And if they did they just started very recently and prob arent very good at it.

I can tell you 1st hand though Frank has been making bodies for Kenny and ALL the local drag racers for years.
Maybe not as many of the import guys have known him until the last few years, but he is no stranger to the Domestic and the dragster guys

 

We got a carbon fiber trunk lid for our 2000si. It weighed 16lbs. (I'm sure it was carbon over fiberglas). We took a stock trunk lid and cut out the bracing and got it down to 18.5 lbs. For the 2.5 lb penalty, we decided it was better to run the steel unit.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dnbCreative.COM &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my mb doors are about 5-6 lbs without any hardware in the or lexan. the hatch is feather light like 3 lbs
(eg6)</TD></TR></TABLE>

Is that the hatch for the CRX, or for the civic, what year civic?
Also, how do you mount the fiberglass hatch to your car, with the existing mounting hinges, or do you have to convert to dzus fastners, or hood pins for the hatch?

 

I moved the weights listing to the top of the thread. I also somehwere have a sheet of weights for many parts that I took off my crx. I will also post these someday. Things like heater blower, seats, hatch, cargo box, ect. ect.

Did anybody read my post about the sheet metal front end? I was thinking of using aluminum and mocking something up.

Anybody already try this?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Beef-Cake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I moved the weights listing to the top of the thread. I also somehwere have a sheet of weights for many parts that I took off my crx. I will also post these someday. Things like heater blower, seats, hatch, cargo box, ect. ect.

Did anybody read my post about the sheet metal front end? I was thinking of using aluminum and mocking something up.

Anybody already try this?</TD></TR></TABLE>

goodluck trying to make your front end out of aluminum. lol. you will never make it look good. unless your really good with metal. but than even if you do complete the project, i would say that you arent going to be saving any weight.

 

I don't really care if it looks like crap or not. But I guarantee it will save a lot of weight. cutting out almost all of the hood, cutting out all of bulky plastic on the bumper cover, cutting out all the no longer needed metal on the front end of the car like radiator support, headlight framing.

If i leave the car the way it is, i can only cut out the reinforcement from the hood.

Sure buying a fiberglass front from MB or getting one from Frank's will weigh less and look better, but I can hack up what's there for the framing, and I have a friend who can get me the sheet aluminum for cheap.

Besides, tinkering is what makes people learn and grow.

Anybody try the aluminum sheetmetal front end?

 

you have no idea what you are getting into.

 

Alot of carbon front ends start out as chopped up front ends with aluminum inserts. You better be good working with aluminum though if you want it to look halfway decent.

 

lol, tony, im sure the average guy doesnt have access to a break, sheer, hammer and dolly set. a "stretcher", electric roller, cleeco's(sp)english wheel ..... thats specialty stuff.... for the guys who do this stufff day in and day out. dont go getting his hopes up..

 

Don't worry, I know. The people out there that have the capability to do something like this with aluminum damn sure aren't on here asking about how to do it! That type of work really is an art. I can't even imagine what it would come out looking like if someone who has never done it tried it. lol. Give it a shot man, make sure you take pics!!

Seriously, you're much better off working with fiberglass, it's alot easier than forming aluminum.

 

Hmmm, well i've never done either at that large a scale, so i'm sure both will turn out looking like crap, and i'm fine with that.

If I do end up trying or completing the project, I will take pics. Do it yourself is always a fun time.