3800 Saving weight 101

iliveonnitro

TCG Elite Member
Nov 11, 2008
1,036
0
Schaumburg, IL
Can you shave rims, if so...who can do it and for how much? What kind of weight can be shaved off without sacraficing too much strength?

What else is there to do while keeping the daily driver (aka, full interior). Sure, I can remove my spare tire and mats and stuff, but that really isnt enough to make a notable difference.

So without spending a shitload of money (like new windows), what are some ways to reduce my cars weight?
 

gtphale

TCG Elite Member
Nov 9, 2008
1,578
0
Aurora
James right??

Trying to put sn's with peep's names. lol Been here long enough I should know by now who is who.

Kind of hard for any of us to anser that really,but i'll be doing a big weight reduction very soon. There are a few things you can do. Like cut the braces from under the hood and trunk. Remove all brackets from under hood that aren't needed. Do not throw them out if you have to pull the motor you will need those.

You can pull door skins off and cut away that material i'm still trying to figure out what part and how much is safe to cut. Also there are bumper supports in the front and rear. These are about 60 lb's apiece,but if you get rear ended or rear end someone your car is totalled and pending how bad could cause serious damage to you. There are roll bars inside of a two door that can be removed. There is also a bunch of weight to be removed from under the dash that I haven't looked into yet.

Swaybars can be removed brakes can be shaved. The padding under the carpet can be seperated from the carpet.

These are just a few things i'm sure there are more but these are just some off the top of my head. I'm figuring about 300 pounds with these mods. I"m looking to shave 1k pounds off of the race car but that won't be used on the street very often..
 
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imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Remove the stereo and speakers, exchange a power seat for a manual one, change battery group sizes, thinwall exhaust tubing, remove all A/C components, remove rear brakes (dragrace only), smaller radiator (coolant is like 7.5lbs a gallon) drill lot's of big holes in stuff made of metal. I was able to get a '79 Cutlass to 2600lbs, but it wasn't very safe on the street. Had only 1 seat, bumpers mounted with 2x4's, no interior, Used a 3" hole saw on the whole frame, switched to aluminum drums in back, when you opened the hood there was nothing in there but a motor. The wheelwells were removed, PS was removed, no swaybars, entire HVAC system was removed, etc..
 

Kyle

TCG Elite Member
Dec 30, 2008
2,967
0
Downers Grove
Originally posted by Ron Vogel@Feb 18 2004, 08:38 PM
Remove the stereo and speakers, exchange a power seat for a manual one, change battery group sizes, thinwall exhaust tubing, remove all A/C components, remove rear brakes (dragrace only), smaller radiator (coolant is like 7.5lbs a gallon) drill lot's of big holes in stuff made of metal. I was able to get a '79 Cutlass to 2600lbs, but it wasn't very safe on the street. Had only 1 seat, bumpers mounted with 2x4's, no interior, Used a 3" hole saw on the whole frame, switched to aluminum drums in back, when you opened the hood there was nothing in there but a motor. The wheelwells were removed, PS was removed, no swaybars, entire HVAC system was removed, etc..
I think by daily driver he meant one that is still comfortable. And most daily drivers have stereos too.

drill lot's of big holes in stuff made of metal.

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

rob

TCG Elite Member
Dec 28, 2008
1,237
0
Havent COMPLETELY finished looking into it but.........Im contiplating welding a custom aluminum engine cradle if it can be done safely. So people are using one out of a Monti-carlo... Also one that is not so safe is removing the bumpers and reinforce with aluminum one.....Its a little more involved that some of the other more conservitive suggestions....I think their may be some substantial savings here-I need to follow through with this idea and measure the safety factors...Ill post any positive findings.

Hale, what is it-I forgot....80# per ten of a second?
 

iliveonnitro

TCG Elite Member
Nov 11, 2008
1,036
0
Schaumburg, IL
The best way is on the treadmill ;)


How about all of the REVERSABLE weigh saving tricks?

EG, take out the rear seat (is that even possible), and passenger seat, and temporarily remove the front power seat (if thats possible). I know AC lines are not reversable without anything under like 20 years, but what else?

Also, it's been calculated that every 100lbs is = to 1/10 of a second. Zoomer says 80lbs, Pictor thinks 300lbs, but I tend to go with around 150-200lbs for our cars. Sometimes the weight helps with traction and faster launches, but then it hurts after that. What about shaving those rims?

Lets start a list of reversable ones, and what can be shaved that wont effect structural strength (no one cares about getting rear ended, so supports can be taken off there :)):

Sway bars
Engine mounts
car mats
spare tire/jack
passenger seat
...
 
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imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Back seat doesn't weigh all that much, but the passenger seat is about 45lbs. I take it out when I go to the track, takes all of 5 minutes to do. You'll be good taking out the driver's seat, and going with a lightweight one from Jegs. They're pretty cheap from what I remember. I imagine with the power seat assembly you'd save close to 100lbs between both seats. Anything operated with a motor is going to be heavy. The magnets encased in steel weigh a lot. Also lightweight components can be salvaged off of lightweight cars like the sunfire. I'm looking into what will fit for my car (side mirrors) off of one of these. On my old drag car, I was able to swap on aluminum bumpers from a Skylark, seats I used on the street from a Sunbird. One of these days I need to take a trip to the boneyard.
 
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imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Originally posted by rob@Feb 19 2004, 08:24 AM
Havent COMPLETELY finished looking into it but.........Im contiplating welding a custom aluminum engine cradle if it can be done safely. So people are using one out of a Monti-carlo... Also one that is not so safe is removing the bumpers and reinforce with aluminum one.....Its a little more involved that some of the other more conservitive suggestions....I think their may be some substantial savings here-I need to follow through with this idea and measure the safety factors...Ill post any positive findings.

Hale, what is it-I forgot....80# per ten of a second?
Rob, I believe the Monte cradle save 31lbs IIRC.
 

syP

Not Banned
May 24, 2007
30,096
357
Downers Grove, Illinois
The back seat does not weigh that much at all. I would say 20 lbs together?? maybe 10. When i installed my subs, i had to take out the back peice and the sitting down peiece. All they are made of is styrofoam wrapped in leather (or cloth, depending on ur interior). Sure it will help a little, but im just stating it is not that much weight.
 

Royalgtp

TCG Elite Member
Dec 24, 2008
3,700
0
Taking out steel bumpers, rool bars, and structural members in the door panels do not sound to smart to me at all unless this is a TRUE DRAG CAR......meaning, that you transport it to the track and back.


Saving 100 pounds and getting in a serious accident and being killed are not worth it. Better yet, you wont die but someone else in your car will and then you will have to think about it the rest of you life.... :blink: <_< :ph34r:

On top of that, what do you think the insurance company will do when they find out that you car is now missing frt and rear steel bumpers, roll bars and metal support braces for the doors????.........

They will deny you claim for being dumb and for turning a not so serious accident into a serious one by removing pieces that were ment to be there to protect you. :blink:
 

horist

Geek
Nov 10, 2008
2,031
0
Lake Zurich
Not sure about shaving your rims... would be better to just go light weight rims... I can't imagine you could shave off all that much weight on a regular rim before it becomes dangerous...

Also unless the front and rear bumper supports are alot better than those found on my F-Body... they're pretty well useless... mainly designed to protect in low speed impacts... and even then not very well... so I'd say pull those out...

As mentioned pulling the insulation between the carpet and the metal body will save some weight, no spare or jack, no font sway bar ... you could always look into pulling the A/C also (but keep the heat for defrost) ...
 

gtphale

TCG Elite Member
Nov 9, 2008
1,578
0
Aurora
Carpet is all one piece no seperate foam padding. Believe me I know, been there already. It would be a real pita to remove the foam padding. You would be better off removing carpet and getting some outside carpet for the car.

Front bumpers aren't steel they are a plastic honeycomb and only rated for 10 mph crashes. The side roll bar is only found on two doors I believe don't remeber seeing them on the four door. I'll check next time I have the panel off.
 
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imported_Ron Vogel

Guest
Originally posted by gtphale@Mar 8 2004, 07:36 PM
Carpet is all one piece no seperate foam padding. Believe me I know, been there already. It would be a real pita to remove the foam padding. You would be better off removing carpet and getting some outside carpet for the car.

Front bumpers aren't steel they are a plastic honeycomb and only rated for 10 mph crashes. The side roll bar is only found on two doors I believe don't remeber seeing them on the four door. I'll check next time I have the panel off.
There is a support the width of the car for the front bumper that's 1/8" steel, I drilled mine out with a hole saw. I removed the door bar on a '70's era midsize GM before. On that car it was about 15lbs a piece, I doubt it'd be that heavy on the GTP, but haven't looked at it yet. I'm going to start myself a log as I take stuff off and weigh each piece. I figure I'll lose track after a while if that's not done.
 
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