I would like to hear from 9-10sec cars. Weight? How did you get there? ET. Can't seem to get below 3400lbs.
Fiberglass panels/bumpers, lexan windows, strip absolutely everything out of the car that isn't needed, careful choice of aluminum wheels (some look great but weigh as much as factory steel), aluminum brackets replacing steel for bumpers, rack-n-pinion steering. And don't forget about losing a few pounds yourself if your a bit on the large side. Gary Kubisch has been doing a lot of this. He has a thread somewhere here showing all he's done.
Weight Look at anything on the car and ask yourself, can I make this lighter or do away with it. Radiator support, inter fenders, hood hinges, steering column, wiring harness, window regulators, driveshaft, transmission, rear axle assembly, battery, crossmember, upper and lower control arms, and if you really want to save a bunch of weight, fiberglass doors. Light weight aftermarket brakes, the list goes on. Just how much you want to do to make it light. I have gone about as far as I want to go now but I know there is a couple of hunderd left I could get. I'm at 3165 now and would like to be here with me in the car. I weigh 205 so maybe I can loos 10# my self and take a couple hunderd off the car. Before I started on my car it weighted 3590 with all orginal equipment including A/C and all power. It had a 340 engine and Super Turbine 300 transmission. I now have a 455 and 400 trans, which added weight and I have a 12 point C/M cage and 12 bolt rear. So I took away and then added back with the cage and heavier engine/trans combo and safety equipement. Good luck; Jim N.
Let's see.... :Smarty: Bumpers: Fiberglass Bumper brackets: Aluminum or trimmed (6 pounds each I knocked off 3lbs each) Fenders; Though the cost of bolt on glass compared on the weight savings is very little. Unless you get the racing ones which would need the fasteners. My GS still have a set of NOS fenders. Fenderwells: Savings but a lot of pros and cons regarding the removal. Mine are gone. Door, Fiberglass HUGE weight saving there if installed with lexan windows Glass: All of it removed replaced with lexan Seats, No rear seat, Front racing buckets instead. Only got one on mine Carpeting and all sound dead'ng material and all stuff (factory equip) behind dashboard. Take it out Hood: No brainer...fiberglass lift off hood Deck lid: Fiberglass lift off lid Rear brakes: I still have factory aluminum drums Front brakes: Wildwood racing disc brakes (or any similar brand) Manual steering box All under the hood assessories: a/c, wipers, power steering etc. take out Wheels: Any brand light weight will do. Slicks: Pin them with screws (at least 8-10 per side, per tire) use Ivory liquid soap and coat inside of slicks (seals them) and run without tubes. Engine: aluminum intake, heads brackets. Battery: Spend the cash and get a dry cell racing battery from Summit they weigh at least half the weight of a factory battery. Front cross member: Remove it and install a removable light weight one. Gary can comment on that. His is pretty easy and a nice setup. :TU: This one I do not suggest unless you cannot hook or if you just like the cool factor. Years back I tubed my GS (14x 32's). Saved just over 200 pounds. Picked up 2 tenths only from the weight savings. Just one look around the board and you can see there are a bunch of small tire GS's runing in the 9's. Make this your last "possible" option. It is costly too. And last is yourself :laugh: Back in January I weighed 207. My wife always ribbed me on how I work hard to take a pound or two off the car when I should shead some from me. Well I'm down to 178, so there :laugh: Race weight in my GS with me is 3,080 pounds still run a TH400 and a 12 bolt rear. The add ons: a 10 point roll cage and some other safety stuff. One last suggestion. All of that factory stuff removed either save it or sell it all and roll the cash over into the race parts. Example, I had a perfect GS grill on the racecar along with that steel lower piece that fits between the grill and bumper. Sold them both and it paid for my Wildwood brake set-up. Cost to me was ZERO $$. Hope it helps along with other guys that post info.
isn't there 13 lbs or so per door if you take out the crash beam within the steel doors? has anyone removed the steel dash and made a custom gauge cluster/containment and steering column attatchment point.
I'm at 3550 with me in it and no ballast. I weigh 195. That's all steel (including hood) with full length 3" exhaust, factory bucket seats, back seat, 6-point rollbar, front inner fenders, etc. I started with the bare shell and frame. I scraped out the sound deadener, seam sealer, etc. If I didn't need it to run the car or "look stock", it's not there. Basically what Jim N. said above. The door crash bars weighed 13 lbs each (gone). Lighweight front brakes saved 40+ lbs. You just have to think about each part of the car as an individual piece, not the whole car. Have fun.
Man, some exact details. Thats great. I bought the car last summer as a roller. Been working on getting the motor together so now its time for the car. As you can see in my avitar the car is back halfed. 10 point cage, steel tubes with most of the factory floor intact. Stuff i've done or working on. 1) TA stage2 heads 2) mopar tunnel ram setup, not light weight. 3) block girdle, added 25lbs 4) having lexan front and back windows made. Installing friday when car gets back from paint. Pro Street so side glass stays. 5) Still have inner fender wells. Keeps the motor clean. 6) I'm having a hard time coming to grips with painted bumpers. Like to go glass but.... 7) Hood no brainer, still metal until glass hood arrives. 8) Nothing in the dash or sound deadener. No back seat. Front racing seats. 9) Wilwood brakes front and back driven by twin billet alum master cylinders 10) Wilwood spindles, killer 11) manual steering box, chrome 12) door poppers, added a couple pounds 13) rear tires are MT 19.5x33s, but pro street style so maybe MT ET streets 14) factory trans crossmember so I could make something light I have to admit that i've been adding up the weight and making my best guess at weight. I just don't see it being any lighter than 3200 without fuel and driver (195 lbs). I going to check the door crash bars when it comes back from paint. just for general info, the thicker lexan pro street windows front and back saved 50lbs.
WOW, jeff for a GSE car all steel your really light. I did'nt realize how much weight could be removed and still look stock. You give me hope. I worry it's going to be slow and heavy.
I don't think the door crash bar started till like 77' I know my car does have any and never did.... My car was 3470 with me in it at 180# with glass hood hinged, glass front bumber, 6 point cage,wilwood brakes,weld wheels, Know, I Haven't got to weight it yet but with the ladder bar setup and 8 point cage I put in aluminum seats and the still have to put on the rear glass bumber hope to be around the same weight.....
huh maybe they started in 70' I have cut them out of malibu's and GN's but there is nothing in my doors but the top support for the window
Oh yeah! This is one of my favorite things to do,Reduce weight w/o taking away from the "LOOK" I'll add more but I'm short on time right now......Here's the bumper solution www.snschrome.com The '70 bumper that the little boy is holding on their site is mine. You wouldn't know it's fiberglass on the car and with the aluminum brackets it's about a 30-33lb reduction.
Nope. I simply was trying to convey to David the horror that would come over him if he took the plunge. I'm referring to the money pit that lightening a car turns into. Mine weighs about 2500 lbs without my fat ass in the car. Besides the things that Rick and some of the guys mentioned, how about some of my favorite expensive modifications...... Hacking out and replacing the front-half of the chassis. Aluminum floor from seat to firewall. Aluminum firewall. Aluminum dashboard. Aluminum seat. Aluminum 9 inch Ford center section. Aluminum spool. Aluminum front inner fenderwells. Fiberglass flat panel front grille.
My drag Regal weighed 3125 with me in it. The only fiberglass was the hood. Here are some stupid-easy ideas I used- -If a part like a fender or bumper used 12 mounting bolts, I used 6. -Cut all non-critical bolts shorter. -Don't use washers if possible. -Get rid of all undercoating. I left my frame primered and didn't ever paint it. -Is bondo lighter than steel??? My car had a lot of it!!! -Pop the spring mechanism out of the door detents (Regals). -Replace door lock cylinders with chrome plugs. -Shave the mirrors. -Cut any inner bumper supports (Regals). -Use a lighter steering wheel (as long as it says Buick on it). -Non-tilt steering column. -Ditch all the un-needed wiring and cut the rest as short as possible. -Smaller radiator (holds less juice). -5 gallon fuel cell. Some of these sound real stupid, but it worked for me.
My '70 had the side impact door braces. The darn things were like mini I-beams. They were around 13 or so pounds each and a real pain in the butt to remove without doing any damage to the steel doors.
