i saw a picture of the front and correct me if im wrong, it is in the front bumper cover right? so i just need to remove the cover and pull it out. is this the same for the rear?

 

why? They weigh almost nothing and they could save your life?? A lot of work to make your car more dangerous.

Ric

 

ur gonna find mixed feeling on this subject. i left my rear on but removed the front on my camaro. my front one weight maybe close to 30 lbs. i think it was worth it to remove. but my cars on a strict diet too remember lighter is faster.......

 

I somewhat agree, the absorbers are only good from 1 mph to about 15 mph. I dont think they do much good from an impact of 50-75 mph.

 

I dont see why people want weight reduction here.


Bout the same as removing your seatbelts, cutting part of your frame off, or cuttin part of your cage out. SAFETY COMPONENTS ARE -N-O-T- FAIR GAME IN WEIGHT REDUCTION

The absorb with zero-minimal damage 0-15 mph
Means they normally survive a 0-15mph impact but need repair/replace +15mph

They tie the whole front unibody together via the 'frame rails' and are critical in front and rear heavy impacts



To answer your question yes, they are pretty simple to remove, just remove the cover and 4 bolts per frame rail.
Rear is trickey cuz of the tight space under the trunk pan

 

By crash absorbers I asume you meant the honeycomb plastic pieces that weight about 2 pounds and are bolted or rivited to the crash beams. If you meant the crash beams Then yah you can save some weight but that is even more dangerous than what I thought you meant in the first place.

Ric

 

There is a company that sells a light weight tubular replacement crash bar... and they also have a light weight tubular K-member to go with it. I think it is pretty expensive... but it would be safer.

 

what company

 

i've never heard of a company that makes this but i have seen a few guys fab up their own..or you could get one done at a welding shop.

And it almost kills me to say this but do a search under "aluminum bumper bar" (chris at CE Coatings i think?) this guy made some up for both front and rear they look mint!

Sorry i can't give you the exact link but i saved them onto my other computer!

 

i did mean the honeycomb crap but i want to take the front crash beams out maybe... how hard are they to remove? the rear stuff is staying

 

Pretty easy. Remove front bumper cover, Then take out the 4 bolts on each side that hold it in.

Not a good Idea though. It is very thin sheet metal and weighs almost nothing. It is however the may tie for the front frame without it the front frame rails will deflect under cornering and eventually create stress cracks in the front clip. If you take it out you will have to replace it with something else net weight reduction maybee a pound. Bad Idea.

Ric

 

If i remember correctly some one in the fabrication forum posted a pic of his home made alum ones that weighed a lot less than the factory honeycomb stuff and idmangine that it would be stronger.

 

I asked the company if they would be DOT approved and they said that they wouldn't withstand in heavy wrecks. They appeared to be only used for track use, which means that you have cages and everything else to save the driver if a bad crash happens.

I would find this weight somewhere else, it could save your life. Electric seats, stereo equipment, A/C, etc is not worth more than your life. If you want to keep your amenities, then you are not ready for weight reduction IMHO.

 

Most of the early birds 82-84 came stock with aluminum front crash bars. If yours is a camaro just swap the honeycomb onto the early bird and be happy and SAFE!

 

2 of you have stated there is a company that makes them but neither say who. I am building a racecar and would like to look into buying one. What's the company that makes them? Thank you.

 

i didnt say a company makes them, i said a memeber that had posted it in the fabrication forum

 

I wasn't referring to your post. JohnyIroc and Maroon-IROC-Z are the ones talking about some company. Sorry for the confusion

 

Apologizes, when the search is up and running again i will find the post for the homemade stuff.

 

Have you ever removed these pieces? They are not thin and they weigh a lot more than you are leading people to believe. For someone building a race car is makes sense to remove these and have something lighter welded in place. Doing it to a street car or even worse removing it and not welding replacement beams would be questionable. But doing it the right way on a race car is a reasonable idea if weight is a concern. I have not individually measured the weight of these pieces but I have removed quite a few of them while stripping various 3rd gens. I would guesstimate weight savings to be around 30 pounds if you did front and rear and had lighter mild steel bars welded in place. I have not done it to my IROC-Z yet but it is something I plan to have done. I do not question the strength/safety either, in fact I personally think mild steel bars welded to the chassis would be stronger than the stamped steel heavy pieces that bolt on. To each their own I guess...

To the guy that wants to do it, don't pay some company for replacement bars. This is not a complex replacement part. Take it to a local welder and have him source some mild steel bars and weld them in place. Save yourself some money.

 

The front is about 30lbs and rear is about 15lbs, Ive had to ship them several times

To weld up some tube framing or anything of similar strength youd have nearly the same weight as you started with

Plus, you can mount a solid bar or tubes or whatever on there, but youll lose the crumpling effects the stock stamped sheet has. Look at them

 

Are you sure about this? Have you actually compared a mild steel replacement bar to the stock piece? I'm curious if you have verified this or if this is your opinion. I have measured the mounting points, but have not done any weight comparisons, this is why I dont post any factual data about the swap. Just my opinion. I believe it is more reasonable than some people here are leading on. Especially considering the application I'm talking about, a race car used on a track. Crumpling effects, I have no way to guage this. Are you refering to the plastic "honeycomb" pieces? I've crashed my car a bunch of times, I'm into drifting. One thing I've learned, when you crash its gonna cause damage regardless if those things are there or not. I've had front end crashes that didnt affect those plastic boxes (after removing the front clip), I've had others that did. In both instances the front clip got really screwed up. I dont see what difference it makes.

 

Just to add some more to this thread, here's some bookmarks I had at home (just got home):

The Aluminum Replacement

JerryWHO's Solution

Rear Brace

I think if someone gets creative they can achieve this. What I envision is even simpler than what you see in those links, basically just a bar welded on each end. And I was also considering modifying some of those aluminum front end support cages from the dirt track scene. But I would have to research it more, not sure how much those weigh. I dunno if I'm right and savings of around 30 pounds is gonna happen, but I think its possible. And I think if you are creative enough you can do it.

 

Sorry, I was talking about the member that fabricated them. He said that he would make them for others. I think he owned his own business, but I'm not 100%.

 

The link to JerryWHO's Solution is the one i was talking about, very nicely done