Hello, I am new here. Have been looking about the site for a while now. I have a 1989 Camaro RS. I've been wondering about weight reductions on third gens while keeping looks, strength, and functionality. I don't have the money for expensive aftermarket fiberglass body parts, like hoods and hatches, so I was wondering if there was things I could take off? All I'm doing is adding weight to the car with a bigger transmission, motor, and chassis reinforcement parts and it's driving me nuts! I'm fat enough and I don't want my car to be fat either! Every 10-15 pounds dropped will help, so if anyone knows anything post here. Thanks, Rob-DEATHS-HEAD.

 

Quite simply put, remove any option you're not using

3rd gens can be leaned out quite a bit and still retain DD function

To tell you how much I dropped, most LSx swaps raise the front about 1". Mine came up 3"



Hitting the gym wouldnt hurt either...

 

Here's a list for you, I don't know where your located so you may not be able to remove all of this. I'll use bullet point.
-Backseat
-A/C
-Heat( all of it under the dash out to the water pump
-cpu(only if carb'd, you lose quite a bit of wiring)
-emissions (not so much on weight, but a lot of space)
-spare tire
-reinforcements behind the bumpers

It sounds like I'm being a smartazz, but all of this is gone on mine. Added a glass hood for giggles and I will say it all made that 305 feel a little stronger.

 

heat is nice to have, i wouldnt ditch that, the emissions are illegal to remove, so if he is driving the car on the street, you have ot keep those, spare tire is handy for flats, and the reinforcements behind the bumper need to be there. the honeycomb supports the nose and the steel bumper holds the frame horns together.

however, if you can find the aluminum bumpers, thats a decent weight reduction right there

 

battery relocation for better wight distribution
shorter gears make quicker out of the hole

 

Didn't say they were great ideas, on a 26 year old car you get a lot of help with some of those already half missing. And agreed, in most states emissions and probably heat are needed. Just throwing some ez ones out there, don't mean to be misunderstood or mislead anyone.

 

FYI.......

Regardless of State laws & emissions requirements....The emissions stuff if FEDERALLY required & can't be taken off legally on ANY car. Just because a state doesn't do emissions testing, that doesn't make it legal to remove the Federally mandated emissions parts.

 

Noted.

 

I live in Kentucky. I have taken the A/C, heat, and even the wiper stuff out. Yeah I know, stupid, but it's never going to be a daily driver. Not with 11:2:1 compression!!! Compression is to much even for a Saturday driver with a .016 gasket, so I now I have to buy new ones with a thicker .05? To lower it to 10:2:1. Still to high. Anways, I was going to put the battery in the back. Don't know how that would handle with two Sony Xplod 10" subs, but I will find out. Maybe after I get the car mostly done I can get some fiberglass parts. I'm 15 years old and live in the woods, time to go pick some tobacco haha. Thanks for the help. Now I gotta figure out what to do with the wiring.

 

another thing you can do is pull the headliner out and spray it with rhino seal i did that and i actually like the way it looks better and im working on making a fiberglass dash pad this weekend. a great place for the battery is build a battery box into were the spare is located. and of course you can take the back seat out i didnt because i have ppl that ride with me on occasion of course the headliner doesnt weigh much but every little bit helps dont it?

 

But how heavy is the amount of spray on headliner you put on?

The factory headliner is pretty dang light, so your spray on stuff would hafta be pretty light too, to be of any benefit (other than that it can sag or droop later).

 

well i just put enough to make it so you cant see the roof its just for looks i was just going to rustoleum it but i wanted the texture of the bed sealer another great thing as far as im concerned as taking the headliner out is that i do smoke in my camaro and the smoke gets trapped in the headliner fabric and makes the car smell really bad thats the main reason i took it out. of course i could just not smoke in there but i drive ALOT and i live in albany ny so there is ALOT of time sitting in traffic. and of course another way to loose weight on the car is to just leave the factory rims on it there alot of ppl around were i live that are putting 18-20's on these camaros and then trying to find things to reduce weight that just doesnt make any sense to me because those big rims weigh alot. now another thing i did i actually did it in both my truck and the camaro was i pulled the carpet out and rhino sealed that as well because i do use it as a DD and the carpet looked like hell (plus im cheap) lol. i also covered the frame and non mechanical stuff under the car after rustoleuming it just for that extra layer of protection. now im also going to be working on just making flat door panels out of fiberglass and maybe make it so i can put some speakers in there. but i only care about reducing weight because of gas mileage. i actually love the performance of my little itty bitty 3.1 v6 lol

 

let me ask you, how much did it cost to get a engine like that? it looks amazing

 

Currently about $2300, but I had to bargain shop for over 9 months and a good chunk was DIY

Double that or more for most swaps

 

Ok i am just going to throw this out thereabout 80% of what these people are saying is garbage. If you want to cut weight delete your heater and get electric defrost. Change to an electric water pump. buying new interior will help to all of the build up of mold and dirt buried into the interior is going to add weight. Rhino lining is a shity thing to put inside your car unless it is a hunting truck. If you have electric window convert them to manual. If you can mount the bumper covers with out the honey comb do it that **** is only going to resist minor impact damage. look at any pic of a wrecked camaro front of rear that **** never survives. Ditch the A/C that **** puts a 20% drag on the engine (when on) as it is. It will free up horse power and remove weight. Swap to a mini alternator this will also save weight. Some of this stuff it petty weight to most people but just remember every ounce counts. It all adds up in the end.

 

Do you have a picture?

 

The best place to start is at the truck weigh scales with a full tank of fuel. So you have a great reference point. The topic site that seems to cover this the best is in the "Dragracing Section"; where they take the rule of thumb that loosing 100 pounds frees up approx 10 horsepower.

I dragrace. The shop I sometimes use built a a 4th generation transam and was able to ditch over 800 pounds of crap since the little hot rod was going to be trailered to the track every week.... Nitro-Nicky

 

On earlier thirdgen's, they had aluminum front impact bumpers instead of steel. That's a nice bit of weight off of the nose and will help with weight transfer.

 

good luck finding one. I know people who have been looking forever.

 

There are so many peaces and places on these cars to strip to make them lighter its ridiculous. theres quite a few threads on the borads relating. iv done more then most. i even thoght about dimple die the front and rear bumper but that would be a bit over kill, i still have yet to put on the set of aluminum heads i have, another 50lbs gone off the front. . .

 

ive been looking into some of these thnigs also, we just need to get someone to make carbon fiber doors for third gens!!

 

Not a good idea unless you are willing to put a cage in the car too.

The doors are a structural part of a thirdgen. If a CF door was made right, it could act as a structural piece but its likely that any CF doors made wouldn't be strong enough as they would likely be simple door skins with barebasic frames.

You can get fiberglass doors, however most require non-roll down lexan windows and don't have provisions for a moving window.

 

No real weight can be lost by switching to a CF door. For safety, the impact bar must be retained which is the majority of the weight. The rest comes from the inner workings which will also have to be transferred over

For a drag car, a fiberglass or CF door skin is acceptable because the insides are almost always removed, window fixed and safety components removed in favor of the cage. They will never experience a side impact

VFN makes fiberglass doors for 3rd gens already. They're not for a street car. Read up on AlkyIroc's glass door install thread and see why

 

The front 1LE brakes performance package is around 9 lbs lighter.

 

Mini Starter - that's a good weight drop - 1/2 the weight, 1/2 the size (header clearance), twice the power, same cost!

 

Remove carpet padding get a putty knife And remove extra seam sealer and under coating.

 

- remove the radio and all speakers (those of you with subs... )
- swap to 4th gen seat belts (only 1 belt retractor)
- remove back seats
- remove visors
- remove power hatch motor and go manual
- manual windows
- manual mirrors
- manual locks
- remove overhead counsel if you have one
- remove center counsel
- gut/remove dash
- delrin shift **** instead of stock leather ****
- install aftermarket carpet (from what I've read they are thinner due to lack of quality)
- lightweight aftermarket front seat(s) with MANUAL seat tracks (or no seat track)
- aluminum suspension parts
- tubular K-member
- a new rear end with an aluminum center section
- lexan rear hatch
- lexan rear spoiler
- fiberglass front fenders
- spare tire removal
- hood insulation removal
- glass/carbon hood
- aluminum front bumper
- remove ground effects
- AC removal
- remove cruise control
- lighter battery
- wheels and tires only as big/wide as needed and no more
- aluminum brake drums
- two-piece brake rotors
- adjustable brake proportioning valve
- remove brake power booster
- aluminum water pump
- aluminum driveshaft
- aluminum heads
- aluminum block
- swap to manual transmission
- trim all unneeded stuff from wiring harness
- don't buy a convertible
- make passengers walk
- eat less junk food

Do a search and you'll find more.

 

Fuel cell would probably make a big difference, but only if you went with a smaller size than the stock tank. Most of the weight savings is likely to come from the volume of gas in the tank, rather than material. I'm sure a plastic 4th gen tank is lighter than a steel third gen tank, but the difference is probably not a considerable amount when you consider the whole weight of the vehicle. Still every bit helps I suppose.

Mathius