Extreme Weight Reduction

[LETZRIDE]

Thought you guys might like this one (well some of you), others will probably just laugh lol. I went out and bought this the other day...got it for a steal, and it's about be my new favorite tool.



I plan on starting to shaving some serious weight from this car by getting a little creative.

I started today, although I only worked on a few small brackets and didn't use the hole saw yet, just a couple of drill bits. My goal is to shave 100 lbs through cutting/lightening parts, trimming unneeded wires, and shortening needed wires. So far I haven't removed much, cleaned up a few wires from things that were put in and left some excess wire. I managed to shave 2lbs today, so 98 more to go to hit my goal.

Here is what I worked on today. I took these brackets and drilled out about 8 holes in them. 3 of the holes were in the area that buts up against the window, I took the cloth off, drilled out, and replaced the cloth. The part that butts up against the window is damn thick!



Then I moved on to this bracket which is located behind the side mirror. Just filled it with holes!

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

Tomorrow, I'm going to try and tackle the door. This is what I am thinking of doing, using the circle saw to cut holes where all the red dots are. I'd like to alternate the holes along the top if possible. I can't see how that inner door skin part provides a whole ton of support for the door. I think it is there more so for the window, and I don't think it will miss a few holes.

All the plastic/black crap/dynomat will be removed as well. Along with all the dust :P




I have a ton of spots I have already thought of that will be tackled. Hood supports, bracket for the power steering fluid, brackets that have the stoppers for the hood, hood closure brackets, trunk lock brackets, radio antenna bracket, I am going to try and take out as much metal as I can from the parking brake lever (my parking brakes are gone anyways) I'd delete the whole thing, but if you get stopped by the ministry and you are missing the lever they can yank your car from the road, if the lever is there, I can always say the cables broke :D

I am open to any ideas or any advice anyone wants to offer. Safety pieces such as Airbags, door bars, and bumper supports are going to remain untouched. This car is still DD in the summer, it has to remain safe at the same time.

[ssms5411]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

You said extreme I guess you meant it lol.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

lol, well, I already ditched the A/C, spare tire etc, etc. How else are you really going to pull weight right?

I've seen guys getting down to 2700-2800lbs over on ls1tech...I'd like to be about 2800-2900lbs in street trim.

Besides, I know people don't think holes really matter, but look at it like this. Since you guys don't have loonies/toonies, how heavy is a quarter? weighs nothing right? How about when you put them in a roll to exchange at the bank? has a little more weight right? think about it ;)

[Docta]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

Speaker magnets are pretty heavy too :P

[madforce10]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

the speakers and the radio is around 10 pounds. back seats and interior panels will add up to alot as well. swapping out the back glass for plexi glass will really save that weight.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

speakers and seats will stay in as street trim but can come out when I go to the track (like they normally would) same with the paneling and carpet.

Next year I'll be looking at going with a plexi rear glass and lightweight hood. For now I am focusing on free weight reduction.

I dunno if I will get around to yanking the fenders before winter time, but they are also on the to do list. I've heard you can chop about 10 lbs by cutting out the inner fenders. I'll actually just be hole sawing them as I heard your fenders can technically flex and break if someone really heavy leans on your car if you totally chop them out.

[2.8 Bird]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

A brick instead of a driver will save you a lot of weight too. :D

[transamtom1]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

A brick instead of a driver will save you a lot of weight too. :D

Not if you ever seen Mike;)

J/K buddy.

I hope you never hit a pot hole;)

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

Not if you ever seen Mike;)

J/K buddy.

I hope you never hit a pot hole;)

Hahhaha...eh I've gained a few lbs!!

That's the beauty of this little project though, it cuts weight out of brackets and pieces that aren't really needed in the car and doesn't touch the pieces that are there to distribute the force of a crash or other key parts.

[3.4grapeofwrath]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

Remove your radiator support and Swiss cheese the frame underneath.
Reinstall support and you won't see it. I removed the front bumper and made a lighter one out of black pipe or you can hole saw the original one.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

Remove your radiator support and Swiss cheese the frame underneath.
Reinstall support and you won't see it. I removed the front bumper and made a lighter one out of black pipe or you can hole saw the original one.

what part of the frame under the rad support are you talking about? Do you have a picture?

I was actually intending to take off the rad support all together and replace it with two aluminum strips similar to what this guy did. The plastic piece weighs 3lbs




As for what I covered today, I managed to shave off another .5lbs and I haven't really started cutting yet!!. I actually made 1 cut and that was in the window regulator piece. The rest of the weight came from removing that plastic weather sheet, along with that gooey black crap and the small piece of dynamat I had on the door. The black crap and dynamat were a royal PITA to get off.



As you can see, it is much cleaner than before, could be better and I'll tidy it up a little more...notice my first hole :D

and here is what I was talking about yesterday with those brackets, this is the finish product.

[pace2006]

Interesting progression. I can't remember, but do you have manual windows? If not, manual windows might be an option.

If you're competent with wiring you might also see about getting your hands on some spare harnesses (body, engine, etc) and stripping them to only the bare essentials. That way you still have your original as a backup.

I'm curious to know what the basic "stripper" v8s weigh.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

Interesting progression. I can't remember, but do you have manual windows? If not, manual windows might be an option.

If you're competent with wiring you might also see about getting your hands on some spare harnesses (body, engine, etc) and stripping them to only the bare essentials. That way you still have your original as a backup.

I'm curious to know what the basic "stripper" v8s weigh.

I have manual windows and I am absolutely totally incompetent with wiring lol, but I will absolutely 100% be going through the current wiring harness and stripping it to bare essentials.

It actually really needs to happen. I feel as if I have electrical ghosts I am chasing in my car with the voltage issues etc and it just has to stop. The car is getting old and as a result wires are getting corroded and cracking and causing poor connections. Everything needs a thorough look over.

I have a ton of wires such as the ABS, and all sorts of emissions stuff that is just hanging around unused that needs to be chased out. I haven't figure out what/how I want to do that yet. I am not sure if there are repercussions to cutting those wires just yet either.

I remember when I went to eliminate the manual light switch to the left of the dash in favour of installing a gauge, I chopped the wires and tied em up...well the damn lights wouldn't come on then even through the DRL sensor, something in that wiring to the switch is a relay or something. I had to reattach everything to the switch and tuck it under the dash in order for my lights to work. So that is of concern to me, is that I cut something like the ABS wires and something stops working and I can't figure it out.

The stripper v8's on ls1tech are getting these things down to 2700-2800 lbs with ease. Except no one really spills the beans how, all you get is, pull panels off, lighten, replace panels.

If v8s can get that light, no reason why we shouldn't be able to, especially when some of these guys are that light with full cages (granted these guys are also eliminating some safety features like door bars now because of the cages, still 20lbs in door bars is less than 75lbs of cage.

[thebeewantsboost]

Re: Extreme Weight Reduction

not sure you can make a lighter radiator support. personally i wouldn't want to remove it completely because it acts as a shroud. i'm intirested in seeing how low you can get the weight down 2.