How many pounds of crap can you remove when gutting a car

[Beagle]

Electric windows, locks, airbags, carpet (and years of dirt), passenger stuff, undercoating, creature comforts (a/c , heater), emissions crap, etc.

How much weight have you been able to pull out of a late 80's / early 90's style car?

[tedly]

Race car or street car?

[Beagle]

Race car - minimal lights, pushbutton starter, remove the bumper and leave the bumper shell, that kind of thing.

[tedly]

One of the guys on the TCCOA forum is gutting his Tbird and keeping track of how much weight is coming off. As soon as I find the thread I'll post the link. If I'm remembering right he got 50lbs +/- in sound deadener, took out about 20 or 30 pounds by gutting the dash, and quite a few other things. Don't hold me to those numbers though, my rememberer doesn't always work correctly.

[tedly]

Here's one of the threads, I think he's got others and I know he's posted in other threads about whittling the weight down. If I find them I'll put them up.

http://forums.tccoa.com/showthread.php?t=116661

[Beagle]

Thanks Tedly! Good lord but they are ban happy over there!! I made it through about 12 pages, sounded like 70 pounds of foam and sound deadener on his MN12, better much faster gains from bigger items like the dash and wiring. I doubt that I will get that dedicated (sound deadener removal is a PITA, done that before), but the bigger stuff (30-40 pounds for heater core / fan) is what I was looking for.

MN12 is a big bird, probably not too far from the LSC. I'm wanting to see if it can go under 3000.

[Stich496]

my 82 t/a fully loaded
heater box and vents/hoses 56.75
carpet (main 32 lb, rear cargo area 18lb
side and rear plastic trim(interior) 19.5
spare/jack 41
cargo plastic lid 16
rear seat 14
gut dash and wire'n 56
rear bumper renforcement 63
front bumber renforcement 65
a/c system 97
power window motor/relays/wire/switches & powerdoor locks 38
pass seat 42
power drivers seat 71
radio and speakers.. 24
rearview merror 4

[A/Fuel]

My camaro is a 2nd gen so thats problably not what you're looking for, it weighed around 3600 when I got it and it's a little over 2800 now. On the dragsters I look for any way possible to shave a pound, fuel lines and wires that are too long, bolts that extend through the nuts more than a thread or two and when ever possible the nuts and bolts are replaced with titanium. I even cut down on the ammount of zip ties I use. That way when we do have to add weight, you can put it where ever you want. There are a few other tricks, but thats the mind set I use when something is going togather.

[DanStokes]

The Buzz Bomb ('78 Camaro) lost about 150 lbs. but I didn't go to extremes. The factory wiring harness is intact but I pulled the heat/air system, exhaust system, seats, carpet, etc. It still has the dash and door panels (class requirements). I thought it would have been more but that's what the scale said.

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

Hmm, I wonder what happened to Amir's FatCad updates? Nothing like stripping a new car.

My Skylark is 3650lb with a full tank and no driver. I don't want to really strip it down but I would like to shave 350lbs off, but don't really want to pull the A/C, seats, etc.

[64casteel]

when it comes to bolts holding things on such as an msd box. Drill out the center of the bolts.

[Barry Donovan]

target the real weight..
body stuff is pretentious.
keeping all structure stiff is the "light weight", ignore the numbers.

you wanna target weight?

just take apart the engine...with a bench grinder, take off all the counter balancers fromt the crank, and there you have deciphered the retarded desire to take 2000 pounds out of the body.

[1970camaroRS]

target the real weight..
body stuff is pretentious.
keeping all structure stiff is the "light weight", ignore the numbers.

you wanna target weight?

just take apart the engine...with a bench grinder, take off all the counter balancers fromt the crank, and there you have deciphered the retarded desire to take 2000 pounds out of the body.

WTF are you smoking?

[Mater]

no idea lol

i was able to get 300lbs from my 01 GP in race trim by gutting the interior

[Beagle]

target the real weight..
body stuff is pretentious.
keeping all structure stiff is the "light weight", ignore the numbers.

you wanna target weight?

just take apart the engine...with a bench grinder, take off all the counter balancers fromt the crank, and there you have deciphered the retarded desire to take 2000 pounds out of the body.

2000? HAHAHAHA... 500 would thrill me. 800 and I would probably wet myself... Do you remember Caddyhack?

I know, these 5 main 3 times the 1.8 liters engines are scary and heavy, but the crank is only about 60 pounds, and I prefer those counterweights so the body panels won't shake off at half track. With a bench grinder. Hahahahaha. omg. Seriously, have you ever tried to grind / cut a crank? It'd take 20 years to grind all the weights off, but I'd lose 30 pounds of fat. Then again, after grinding all the counterweights off a crank with a bench grinder, I'd probably put on 40 pounds of muscle.

I think pulling the 60 pound passenger seat would be easier. lol.

Mater, that's kind of what I'm thinking, thanks for the input. There is a lot of weight in the front end of a Lincoln: air bag compressor junk, electronic everything, power everything. I was even considering pulling the junk out of the doors and putting lexan windows in it. I have a bunch of lexan from some server rack doors. I'm not sure if it's thick enough to keep the tech guys happy though. Heck, the copper out of it alone might pay for the car. lol.