Ways to reduce weight

[pontiacgp]

Here are some ways to remove weight and keep the car looking stockish.

Remove the fender to core support braces.
Remove the three braces from the core support to the front clip.
Remove one horn.
Remove the front clip. There are metal brackets on it. Remove those.

Remove the wheel wells.
Remove the large washers from the wheel wheels. Use smaller washers.
Reinstall using fewest bolts to stay rigid.

remove spare and jack. remove the bracket that holds the spare and jack.

Remove carbon canister and associated emissions bits.
Remove air cleaner.

Remove the front plate brace thingy that supports the steering wheel. it is not required. I rmoved it, noticed no difference.

Remove defrost circuitry and rear defrost.

Run with less water in the radiator.
Run with less oil in the oil pan.

Remove the front and rear bumper covers.
Remove the metal clips behind the bumper covers.
They supposedly add "rigidity" or osmething. I never noticed and "rigidity" removeing them. just add zip ties.

Remove heater box and AC stuff.

Switch the stock glass lights for plastic lights. Take a large hole saw and remove material on the light brackets.

Remove any cage nuts that are not required.

Removed fuel tank vent and line.

Remove park brake (maybe. depends how you feel lol. thats pretty major).

If you have bench seats, remove the rear bench and unbolt the center seatbelt. I never used it... I cut the front middle seatbelt out too.

Disassembled the dash and removed all the vent stuff behind the dash.

Removed the rear seat and scraped all the seam sealer. Also there is a large black mat there for sound damping. Removed that, too.

Remove radio and front/rear speakers and associated wiring. Radio wire also makes a decent spot to hook up some gauges.

Wash out the frame, seriously. If you drive or have ever driven on gravel roads, there is likely some dirt or rocks in the frame.

Remove the hood and front fenders. Reassmeble without the shims (if possible).

Remove the front sway bar and hardware.

I removed 8 lbs per door by removing the jute, inner liner, and using a nibbler on the inner door skin. Did not remove crash bar. you could rmove 10lbs per door by removing the crash bar (im not personally willing to do that though).

You can rmove the wiper fluid resovier and wipers altogether, if required. After spring is over I remove my wiper resovoiur. Wipers themselves stay though 🙂

If youre going to be putting in a non-stock exhaust, you can remove the factory exhaust hangers. I mean unbolt them from the body. they are heavy cast peices.

if you are keeping stock manifolds you can remove the heat shields and hardware.

you can remove part of the brackets for mounting power steering and still keep the PS system in place securely.

I unbolted part of the throttle cable bracket where the stock brake booster line connected. the peice sticks up, easy to see.

if you have a long oil filter, use a shorter oil filter that holds less oil.

remove some fluid from the PS pump.

remove your radiator overflow container and bolts and replace witha pop can or something (depending on your tracks rules)

There are often heavy steel shim plates between the bumpers and the bumper shocks. You can unbolt the bumpers and remove those plates.

Run skinner tires up front (keep them inflated to max psi)



i've done all the above weight reduction. i'm pretty picky about it, but you can't argue with the results...my car weighs 3200 lbs, with driver and a full tank of fuel and a toolbox in the trunk. The only weight reduction parts I've bought are a ironman chromeoly crossmember and a aluminum intake manifold. The ironman crossmember is one of the best bang-for-buck weight reductino parts you can buy...since you're probably buying a dual exhaust crossmember anyways. its a great peice, highly recommended.

I can easily get the car under 3000 lbs for next summer w/ just a couple hundred dollars in parts. And there is still lots I could do to lose weight on the car without spending money. I still have a full interior and the split bench seat, stock hood and trunk, with stock rally rims. Being creative with weight reduction pays off with these cars, people are always amazed when I tell them the race weight of my car.

Check out the sponsers. There are tons of great and super cheap weight reducing parts that keep the car looking stock...like bumper shocks, for example.

I followed your instructions....so what do I do now?

 

[84cutlass383]

aluminum drums too!! 10lbs ea, i have three sets for sale rite nw viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33115

 

[pontiacgp]

I looked up Shotgun's spreadsheets and there is some very useful info there so you know what your gaining in weight saving. With our circle track car we had a min weight of 3250 so it wasn't hard to get down to the that, the problem was the heavy front weight bias with the engine sitting so far forward in relation to the front spindles and the high placement of the engine...

 

[gp02a0083]

Here are some ways to remove weight and keep the car looking stockish.

Remove the fender to core support braces.
Remove the three braces from the core support to the front clip.
Remove one horn.
Remove the front clip. There are metal brackets on it. Remove those.

Remove the wheel wells.
Remove the large washers from the wheel wheels. Use smaller washers.
Reinstall using fewest bolts to stay rigid.

remove spare and jack. remove the bracket that holds the spare and jack.

Remove carbon canister and associated emissions bits.
Remove air cleaner.

Remove the front plate brace thingy that supports the steering wheel. it is not required. I rmoved it, noticed no difference.

Remove defrost circuitry and rear defrost.

Run with less water in the radiator.
Run with less oil in the oil pan.

Remove the front and rear bumper covers.
Remove the metal clips behind the bumper covers.
They supposedly add "rigidity" or osmething. I never noticed and "rigidity" removeing them. just add zip ties.

Remove heater box and AC stuff.

Switch the stock glass lights for plastic lights. Take a large hole saw and remove material on the light brackets.

Remove any cage nuts that are not required.

Removed fuel tank vent and line.

Remove park brake (maybe. depends how you feel lol. thats pretty major).

If you have bench seats, remove the rear bench and unbolt the center seatbelt. I never used it... I cut the front middle seatbelt out too.

Disassembled the dash and removed all the vent stuff behind the dash.

Removed the rear seat and scraped all the seam sealer. Also there is a large black mat there for sound damping. Removed that, too.

Remove radio and front/rear speakers and associated wiring. Radio wire also makes a decent spot to hook up some gauges.

Wash out the frame, seriously. If you drive or have ever driven on gravel roads, there is likely some dirt or rocks in the frame.

Remove the hood and front fenders. Reassmeble without the shims (if possible).

Remove the front sway bar and hardware.

I removed 8 lbs per door by removing the jute, inner liner, and using a nibbler on the inner door skin. Did not remove crash bar. you could rmove 10lbs per door by removing the crash bar (im not personally willing to do that though).

You can rmove the wiper fluid resovier and wipers altogether, if required. After spring is over I remove my wiper resovoiur. Wipers themselves stay though 🙂

If youre going to be putting in a non-stock exhaust, you can remove the factory exhaust hangers. I mean unbolt them from the body. they are heavy cast peices.

if you are keeping stock manifolds you can remove the heat shields and hardware.

you can remove part of the brackets for mounting power steering and still keep the PS system in place securely.

I unbolted part of the throttle cable bracket where the stock brake booster line connected. the peice sticks up, easy to see.

if you have a long oil filter, use a shorter oil filter that holds less oil.

remove some fluid from the PS pump.

remove your radiator overflow container and bolts and replace witha pop can or something (depending on your tracks rules)

There are often heavy steel shim plates between the bumpers and the bumper shocks. You can unbolt the bumpers and remove those plates.

Run skinner tires up front (keep them inflated to max psi)



i've done all the above weight reduction. i'm pretty picky about it, but you can't argue with the results...my car weighs 3200 lbs, with driver and a full tank of fuel and a toolbox in the trunk. The only weight reduction parts I've bought are a ironman chromeoly crossmember and a aluminum intake manifold. The ironman crossmember is one of the best bang-for-buck weight reductino parts you can buy...since you're probably buying a dual exhaust crossmember anyways. its a great peice, highly recommended.

I can easily get the car under 3000 lbs for next summer w/ just a couple hundred dollars in parts. And there is still lots I could do to lose weight on the car without spending money. I still have a full interior and the split bench seat, stock hood and trunk, with stock rally rims. Being creative with weight reduction pays off with these cars, people are always amazed when I tell them the race weight of my car.

Check out the sponsers. There are tons of great and super cheap weight reducing parts that keep the car looking stock...like bumper shocks, for example.

I followed your instructions....so what do I do now?

ah ha ha ha ha now for the ultimate weight reduction.... remove the driver and add a few servo's, make the car into a giant RC car

I see validity in some of this, there is a lot of 'junk' that can be removed to lighten the car. Having the car look stock without removing all the interior, ect is a tough task. I bet you can save some weight for sure here and there, but id be concerned about structural integrity ( removing the joust bars ect.). I have seen/heard of individuals who will take a hole saw to the frame as well, giving it the Swiss cheese look. Again, structural integrity is comprised.

IMO the best areas to start with would be removing the whole emission system from the car, HVAC parts ( but i would keep the heater core IMO we had a lot of problems with the imports over heating when we removed it), the interior sound deadening. As far as the body try to find an Aluminum hood or fiber glass, bumper supports and other Aluminum body panels.

I really like Shotgun's spread sheet, its put together very well and clearly shows net improvements overall. Im really surprised that the rear trunk like weighs that much on a GP, i wonder what the specs would be for an olds.
Im not knocking you for reducing the weight in the cars, hell mine weighs 3767 (1/2 tank of gas + me in it and nothing removed) and any shaved weight will improve the performance little by little. Unless you making a dedicated drag car i believe a lot of the weight reduction mentioned is fairly impractical trying to keep the original appearance.

 

[tc1959]

Leave your old lady at home

 

[GhettoRacingKid]

it is a drag and street car. trying to keep it looking a certain way.

I dont think mine weighs that much. trying to lose weight before the spring. should help out a lot.