WEIGHT Debate... (not debats).. augh....
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I CAN'T spell.... aughh... its supposed to read: "Itching"
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I'm in a yappy mood today. I'm itching for a weight topic. Brad threw out a bone regarding the fuel cell and debate over weight being low or weight being forward...

Along those same lines: I was going to move my new car's battery to the passenger cockpit instead of front trunk like my last car. Same reason= a) not as far forward shorter (lighter weight) battery cables.

somebody pick this up and run with it.

any great ideas to lighten a car, or conserve weight out there?

I have to keep mine all metal so here are a few things I'm doing:
-no dash structure
-no glass: lexan (something front and rear are required for me)
-drill holes in everything not structural (within reason)
-drilling out spot welds on all tabs, fixtures, and unneccesaries (for example: no headlight buckets)
- removing all trunk/motor lid hinges
-removing all trunk frames or structural supports (just sheet metal on my legal metal lids)
-no stock wiring harness (smaller wiring/less wiring)
-rear inverted shocks for unsprung weight.
-stick with torsion bars to keep more of front suspension unsprung
-skinning my top. (I've seen this and it works... )
-replacing non-structural steel bolts with aluminum where possible
-gutted door frames
-aluminum outer rocker pannels
-removing engine shelf and as much engine tin as possible.


Brad, these are some of my projects in process to get my new car down to 2000lbs in steel... (p.s. brad, I'm cutting my front trunk firewall and pushing the floor mounted cell back against the anti-sway bar.)

anybody have other ideas?

give me some more.....
brant

make sure you get all the sound dampening tar out as well as all the seam sealer.
plus, if your car has any protective undercoating, scratch that off too.

i got some 25+ pounds of tar & sealer out of my car :-)

Andy

Well, if you don't need the door windows...
gut the doors completely down to bare outer skins
ditch the outer handles as well an use a simple latch
(Chris Foley recently posted pictures of his doors, either here or on pelican)

cheers,

Jeroen

here's the thread...

Some of the things I've done are:

- removed brake backing plates
- 10 lb mini starter
- removed muffler heat shield
- removed dash, gages etc
- replaced gas tank with 3 gallon aluminum tank
- removed headlight structure
- removed all trunk latches, springs, torsion bars etc
- removed engine lid
- removed seat frames and mounts.
- Kirkey race seat mounted directly to floor.
- battery in passenger footwell
- removed targa bar
- gut doors out to just outer shell, hole saw bottoms
- removed door beams (13lbs each!)
- remove dust covers on struts and shocks
- cut off all unused brackets and mounts
- hole sawed rear apron and valance panel between tail lights.

Mike T

I've been planning on moving my battery to the front trunk. We even bought the cable. But after looking at these small dry cell batteries that are out now that only weigh 15# I'm starting to think it's a waste of time and may end up putting it in the center of the rear trunk. The weight savings on the cable may be worth the less than ideal placement of the battery.