The glass and regulators are the main weight in the door. The weight is at least cut in half with the doors gutted. The only thing left in the door is the handle, lock mechanism, and side mirrors.

what about cutting panels out of the interior of the car? I was thinking about replacing metal with thin fiberglass, or at least drilling 2" holes over all the floor panels and covering the holes with fiberglass. But then if you get hit, you're really screwed. Is this just a dumb idea? Would they even let your on the track like this?

i wouldn't do that on the floor of a unibody car! that will weaken the entire structure of the car, considerably.

Yes, it's a dumb idea, and no, they probably wouldn't let you on the track if they saw it. Besides, I doubt you'd actually remove that much weight.

If it was a full frame car, you could probably do the interior panels if it was caged up, but not on a uni-body car.

There are plenty of other things you can do to the car to lighten it that don't compromise the structural integrity of the car. My first two places would be fiberglass hood that's light and not a 30lb show hood. Also, replace the hatch glass with lexan. The hatch with glass and deck lid (without a spoiler) weighs right up near 100lbs. With lexan and a fiberglass decklid, you'd probably drop it down to ~20lbs give or take 5lbs.

That's a pretty easy way to lose ~120lbs, but bring your wallet. Depending on who you buy from, it could run ya $5-8/lb.

[edit] Let me clarify that these are the first two places I would spend money on. There are plenty of things you can do if you have time and a brain. I got 11lbs of wire out of the harness and probably 5-10 lbs worth of brackets out of the inside of the car. Little things add up quickly when you do a lot of little things.

wow, um before you do that there are plenty of areas to lighten.

And yeah thats just dumb.

Dumb idea… probably. Technically illegal without adding extra bracing to the roll bar… or in any “firewall” area, of course you should be able to hide it almost completely, but by the time you do the body work to hide it I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up heavy enough not to be worth doing.

I think the lack of hook from bad suspension geometry created by the body flex, or the required reinforcement of subframe connectors and cage would offset any benefit.

You would be better off leaving the main body stock and replacing the doors, fenders, etc with fiberglass parts and the rear hatch with lexan and rear decklid with fiberglass.

done correctly, FRP will be stronger and much lighter then a comprable steel structure.

Of course, what we're discussing is nowhere near "done correctly"

[quote]Originally posted by nape
Just wanted to put in here about how light my car has become.

Right now the car weighs 2713 with a full tank of fuel and ready to run without me in it.

The car is completely gutted, almost all unnecessary interior bracketry has been removed, the windows and window regulators in the doors have been removed, the car was switched to a T5, 8lb fiberglass hood, no hinges, everything pinned on (no hatch motor or bracket), no rear bumper support, tubular front bumper support, non-power seats out of a '96 TA, GTA wheels, Aluminum PHB and LCAs, and just about any other free weight reduction you can think of.

Check out the pics at the link in the sig to see what I mean. UOTE]

Could you give us more info on the 8lb fiberglass hood?


Dave

That's the figure that's been stuck in my head for a long time so I don't remember how I came to it now that I look at the site and it's not listed. I'll have to take it off the car and actually weigh it, but there's nothing to it. It literally flaps in the breeze, so probably not the greatest idea if you're going to paint it decently.

http://www.glasstek.com/

PN: H3057

I wouldn't recommend it for a street car as the fitment wasn't the greatest since it's supposed to go with their 'glass front end, but I just throw racer's tape over the gap from the hood to the fenders. It's pretty large, probably 1/2" on each side.

ok thanks for that info
goodluck with your road racing

http://www.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=660756

Yeah, that car is going to be INSANE when it's finally done. Hopefully, he makes some OH/IN events so I can get the feeling of whiplash as he blows by.

incase anyone was wondering, i did the swap to the new car and managed to get the car down to #3010 w/o me. 3260 with me and the little 305 got a few upgrades as well and went 13.03@103mph before i broke it. now it's getting a mild 350 (same combo as before, just with 10.5:1 c/r and a 4.060" bore instead of the 9.5:1 and 3.765" bore)

the work that guy is doing on that mustang is incredible! i never understood mold making or the "bagging" process before but after reading through his stuff, i pretty well understand it and i might have to try my hand at some of it!

doing this to the 82 Z28 right now

it already has no heater system at all, no dash at all
no back seats, carpet and plastic work is next to come out

it will have no shifter i will just reach down through the big factory 4 speed hole in the trans tunnel to put the car into gear(th350)

it already wears aluminum 15" 79 Z28 finned gold wheels i know they are pretty light

am swapping the heavy hotckiss LCA's and panhard rod for lighter factory pieces

will remove plastic impacts from under both bumper covers

wiring will all remain and all lights

not sure on wiper system yet, most likely will remove all that though

doors i wont touch unless i can find a way to make plastic windows with pull straps of some kind ? - anyone got any ideas on this ?


remember folks, the sticker on the door is not the weight of the vehicle, it is the GVRW, the max weight that the car is designed to weigh when it is fully loaded down including passengers



good luck and happy stripping

it doesnt matter how many times you say this, some clown will make a post right after yours saying "my firemaro has 3000 on the door as its 'shipping' wieght so thats how I know it is the light..."

those of you that have the lexan windsheild and hatch do they scrath easy, hard to clean get hazy looking. any info will be nice thanks guys

Just to let everyone know, the car in my sig weighs 2775 with a full tank of fuel without me.

The front bumper support is fabricated and the rear bumper support is gone, as are the door windows and anything that goes with them, the headlights are gone, a lot of the seam filler has been scraped out, and the hood is a light fiberglass piece.

Go through the pics to see what's been done.

I think it'll be real hard to get a street car this light unless you go to lexan windows and some other fiberglass pieces.

i agree, due to the fact so much of the removable parts in these cars are light weight, such as dash and interior and such(and still remain legally streetable)


i was screwing around jut now reading the door sticker on the 82 Z28 out here and it says:
gvrw 3975lb
and then below that is says
max load 700lb

i ownder how accurate these things realy were

its really hard to say

but if it were accurate then that sure makes it sound like the car should weigh 3275 empty

if that is accurate anyways

what does everyone think ?

if it really is a 3300lb car complete and unloaded then that is a pretty damned good starting point for a quick lil car with the right drivetrain if you ask me

just imagine after half the interior removed and headers instead of manifolds, and gutted bumpers and doors and no dash or heater system, etc and aluminum drums and aluminum wheels and no hood and so forth

I still have the book falling apart as it is.
says Camaro years 82-91.

The coupe avg 3100
This includes the Iron duke with the 5 speed
and anything inbetween up to the 350 corvette engine
with auto.

Ripping all the jute off of the bottom of your carpet will save you a ton of weight, 4th gen non power seats weigh 18 pounds each this is 2 pounds heavier each than full aluminum race seats WITHOUT the sliders, 3rd gen seats weigh double that at LEAST. Your door panels have a bunch of excess metal you could do away with and still keep power windows. There's jute hidden under a bunch of the plastic panels alot of weight to be saved there. As mentioned before tubular K member and coil overs will save you ALOT of weight, I can't wait to get mine on there's also a few places where a brave man could chop out some metal. I am not that brave man but there's a fellow on LS1tech who's gotten his car down to something like 2800 pounds, look him up you'll be amazed. Where's your car at now? Have you used any of the tips in here?

Chris, take all of your metal panels and body, and bury them on
the beach.....open beverage of choice, observe scantily clad ladies
and repeat as required. After a few weeks of this torture, your
metal will be considerably thinner and lighter, not to mention
having a great tan! Swiss cheese everything you can with a
holesaw without destroying the structural integrity of the unit.
Get phone numbers of said scantily clad yummies, and post them
here, we'll no longer care about your late night quest for 2,800
lbs unless we're refering to 260-290 lovely ladies and their 520-
580 friends.....***, math at 9:45 pm.....and it's probably way off...
and y'all think I like either anorexics or large and lovelies.....

My 1988 Iroc weights 2880 dripping wet, all fluids, full tank of gas.

NO interior, full roll cage 6 point 1 aluminum drivers seat ( road racer). with wipers, and heater ( heater will be gone for this season), no headlights or front turn signals. No side windows, doors gutted, round safety bar in door still there. NO smog etc.
WS6 GTA rims, very light!!! 1 LE brakes, . Aluminum radiator, Full serpenitine system A/C factory delete pulley. TPI last year, carb this year and 400+ HP. :-)
Factory glass front and year.
So it is achivable.

Steve

What are the biggest things to drop that are over 20lbs? Like the rear bumper, door glass, hood, nose..... I'm just looking for a couple of things to drop that will still make the car look stock. I know a guy with a TA that sounds like player 88. He's at 2800 also with an LT1. www.reentryracing.com I autocross my car in street class, so I have to have the interior.

hood, back seat, rims, aluminum driveshaft, lexan hatch, power steering, AC, tubular K member, under carpet jute padding, iron to aluminum heads, other worthwile considerations would be an aluminum radiator, aluminum water pump, headers and exhaust dumping before the rear axle, back cargo carpet (even without the jute it's heavy), and the passenger seat.

I've been thinking about doing the exhaust, but I don't think I've ever seen a camaro with side dumping exhaust. It would be cool to get the flat exhuast pipe and dump it right before the tires. It actually wouldn't be that hard to do if you dumped it on the passenger side huh?

I'm gonna re-weigh mine and see where it is. I'm hoping that since I'm staying V6 that I can get under 2800lbs and still have full interior(minus rear seats and carpet padding). I just pulled 2nd place for my second ever novice autocross race this last sunday so Im in full car mode! Last I checked, I was 3100 completely stock, 1650 front 1450 rear (53/47%)

Mine runs back in the factory location, and dumps at an angle right before the axle, aiming out of the fender well, you see no exhaust at all. The factory exhaust literally weighed a ton and the new stuff is extremely light; only exhaust I've seen that was heavier was off of an RX7, that was so weighty it made the nose of the car stick up when it came off.

I'm running a Thrush Magnum glasspack (NO not the crappy louvered ones, but the perforated center ones, great flowing ones) right after the cat, and then a turn down pipe. Sounds good, saves weight.

what the.....incase of transmission failure, and the fluid catching fire, be sure to have your seat ejection button within reach Batman, and dont forget your parachute. wow.... the 5 lbs that a shifter, cable and plate to cover the hole in the tunnel will weigh, is deffinatly worth your skin being on your body and covering the tissue that lies beneath it. me thinks if you simply left you safety gear(helmet, jacket, shoes) at home you might save the same amount of weight, plus, whats the use of a brain that doesn not protect its own body?


wow....

just think, if you catch fire, you might loose a ton of extra, unneeded flesh! the ULTIMATE in weight savings!

I'm gonna have to try that exhuast routing! Is it really loud in the car? You just dumped it straight down to the ground?

Yes it's aiming straight down with a slight angle out the passenger side, and yes it's quite loud especially with the windows down because it echoes off the ground and basically uses the interior of the car like a guitar body; I personally love it but some people can't stand it. It's by no means unbearable and while cruising it's quieter than alot of the trucks with exhaust I've been in, if you don't like it you can always run it out in front of the back tire, or extend it to an over axle setup.

heres an idea, fill your tires with helium. helium weighs alot less than air. i did some research on helium, i read that a 24 diameter ballon lifted 480 pounds. i know your tires arent that big by any means but theyll be under pressure of around 40psi? so youll have alot of helium in there, i bet it will eliminate the weight of your rims.

WOW I seriously want to see this happen, imagine trying to explain that one to your insurance company if you wrecked "well I hit the corner too hard and floated right off".... you could helium up the front tires and get the car to pull wheel stands, it wouldn't go anywhere but it would baffle those who didn't know!

are you pokin fun of me man, its a trick we do in motocross to make the bikes weigh a little less

yeah its not a crapload, but its still a couple lbs of rotating weight per tire, and there is no real difference other than that.

and even the tire by itself wouldnt come close to floating . . . 14.7+40 psi of helium probably weighs about as much as 14.7 psi of air, so unless tires float when flat, i dont think the car will be going anywhere.

you guys are wierd..lol

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned a mini-starter (unless I didn't see that part).

percy's glass makes great problem free lexan windows

yes but it says they are all one inch oversized. do they sell any "duplicated" pieces? for bolt in? I don't see application on thier website except the few weight examples they list.

No fun making here I seriously want to see the helium tried, I have a mini starter, i can't believe I forgot to mention that, old starter weighed like 22 pounds, new one weighs like 6 and it's on the nose of the car, 10in stalls also weigh quite a bit less than the 12in factory stall we have in our cars.

didnt see it. but if you want to get rid of wieght in the front, move your battery to the back of the car. It puts wieght behind the axil for more traction and takes wieght from the front.

Aluminum water pump and pulleys will save you some weight, as will dropping the swap bars.

As for the helium filled tires, there isn't enough volume in your four tires to make a noticable difference. I believe you will loose 1 or 2 lbs if thats what your into. And they will not "float"

Just trim them then drill for screws.

If you have more time than money to spend on your car and you want to do the weight reduction I suggest you work with Excel or some similar program like that offered by Open Office.
With it, write up all the idea's with 1 column for weight savings and another for how much it costs. Set a 3rd column to divide the weight savings by the cost and you get a number. The higher the number the "better" the bang for the buck. You can make it as complicated as like. For example; take the results and multiply it by a factor depending on a) location of weight b) your personal desire to see this done c) approximate time for job. Example; let's say your bang for the buck is 5 where 50lb/$10. Now let's say there are 2 idea's to do this, which to do. Well using factor a) you could have i) 1 = unsprung, .5 = sprung, .75 = sprung above center of gravity. This could then pin down where you should focus your efforts.
Now that it's spring time I don't recommend spending lots of time on planning. Weather is generous, take advantage of it and don't sit behind a computer "planning" when you should be "doing" .

Have you given any tought to the weight of your oil?

Sure, but it has nothing to do with this thread. The oil weighing system is based on viscosity, not a measurement of weight

yeah, but if you took it all out you could cut like 8 lbs....

For real, get the coolant too! Take the torque converter out of the transmission and just weld the motor to the trans, all of these are GREAT ideas.