i just got a 84 camaro and im looking for ways to drop weight. any suggestions?
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i just got a 84 camaro and im looking for ways to drop weight. any suggestions?
is this gonna be a strip only car? if so, cut out everything that looks useless. remove the bumpers just leaving the urethane nose and bumper cover. remove the crash bars from the doors. get 'glass hood, lexan, gut the interior (of course) theres plenty of ways to lighten a car
right now ill work on the light exterior stuff and interior. what would you suggest as far as stripping the interior?
Not to be a smartass, but would it help if the driver lost some weight?
Friend of mine with a strip only car got into the lightweight bit and came to the realization that him losing weight was cheaper than more unobtainium....
AMEN! My car has lost 35 lbs since last July without me turning a wrench or screwdriver :D .Quote:
Originally posted by C9x
Not to be a smartass, but would it help if the driver lost some weight?
Friend of mine with a strip only car got into the lightweight bit and came to the realization that him losing weight was cheaper than more unobtainium....
I cant help with the specifics on your Camaro, but I have been reducing weight in my truck and myself. The truck (1946 Ford) is down to 2740 lbs now (rear fenders and hood not mounted though). Replaced everything possible in motor with aluminum, aluminum hubs and calipers, lightened bumpers, aluminum fuel cell, aluminum steering wheel, lighter seat configuration, alum bell housing, etc. Someday will put in an aluminum flywheel. Aluminum replacements are expensive. Something like $40 per pound saving and above.
I found a torch is a good tool for lightening up a Camaro. :LOL:
Replace sheet metal with fiberglass.
Use aluminum where ever possible.
If you want to really drain your pocketbook, replace parts with exotic materials like carbon fiber/titanium, etc.
Didnt Lance Armstrong use the body parts removal method to remove weight? It sure worked for him.
Muteboy, I used to have an '84 Camaro that weighted 2800 pounds the last time I weighted it. And I removed a lot more after I weighted it last. I'll give you a brief run down of what I did but the best thing to do is go to www.camaroz28.com & search under 'weight loss'. My user name over their is billsbird [just one less L than here}. They have lists of what every part on your car weights so you can just figure what you want to weight before you start cutting. Anyway, I cut off all of the collapable safety bumper stuff {front & rear}, an aluminum radiator, aluminum heads, sway bars removed, I made a cold air intake by removing the inside headlight on each side and made a set up out of Home Depot ducking {pictures over at Camaroz28, not of mine but others}, Wagner plastic headlights on the outside lights {the wiring is simple to do this}, removed; air conditioning, power steering, no smog stuff. Totally gutted the doors, including side safety beams {I made aluminum door panels for it}, Plexiglass side & rear windows {just manually pulled them up/down}, never got around to Plexiglass windshield { but, it was on the 'removal list'}, Jaz bucket seats, no heater, no radio, no cruise, no horn, ALL interior panels out, I cut off all of the extra bolt length on the front of the car {meaning; if a bolt had 1/2 inch sticking out past the nut {after it was tight} I cut in down to 1/4 inch. No back seat, center councel, all carpet & pad removed, heater out & removed all of the undercarrage sound deadener, headers with light mufflers, I had a jaz light weight fuel cell but never got it in. It had drum brakes & I got some aluminum brake stuff from Wilwood, also light weight front end parts {springs & ?} from a place in Washington State. Fiberglass hood {Unlimited Fiberglass, only $219} with 4 hood pins holding it on. replaced some of the metal brackets on the front end with aluminum.Quote:
Originally posted by muteboy49
i just got a 84 camaro and im looking for ways to drop weight. any suggestions?
So go buy a torch and go nuts with it! When I blew up the 305 that it came with {to much nitrous ;).... I put a 415 small block in it that made 499 Tq & 438 HP {flywheel dyno}. Of course this made a HUGE difference. But I didn't start removing any weight until AFTER I had this motor & the weight removal also made a HUGE difference! Every 100 Pounds is equal to 10 HP. I don't know how much weight I finally removed but I wouldn't be supprised it it wasn't 900 pounds, so that's 90 HP!!! I drove on the street all the time {I didn't take the windshield wipers off}..... So basically if it didn't make my car go faster, I cut it off..... hope this helps ya, Bill
ps, believe it or not there are examples over at camaroz28.com that are even more extreem!!!
I would stay away from the pumpkin and pecan pie.
NO WAY. I HAVE TO HAVE MY PECAN PIE . JUST BUY A DONOVAN BLOCK .THAT IS WHAT I DID 460 POUNDS FOR OVER 630 CID AND I STILL CAN HAVE MY PECAN PIE:)Quote:
Originally posted by Corvette64
I would stay away from the pumpkin and pecan pie.
"I cut off all of the collapable safety bumper stuff " ive heard of these but have no idea what or where they are. can anyone tell me where their at and how to remove them. and how do i get to/remove the door safety beams?
....starting right behind the plastic bumpers just remove EVERYTHING. It's been a while since I did this but I believe that there is this foam stuff, and metal brackets and such. Just take it all out, don't worry about ruining it, just cut & rip it out. I used a torch, a little Makitta grinder and a sawzall. I put aluminum braces from the plastic bumbers to the car body to keep them from bouncing around. The door safety beams are right up against the outside of the door but they are in the inside. I took the door panel off, then cut out the metal that the door panel was covering. You'll see the door safety beams, they are metal braces that run horizonally, half way up the door & are attached to the door. Just cut them out. I then made an aluminum panel to cover the door. Installed the stock door handle & lock in the aluminum. Took out the windows and cut Lexan to fit. I either left the windows all the way down or all the way to the top. Make sure your serious about totally gutting your car before you go to all this trouble. You could probably save more weight doing something else. Unless of course your doing everything else also ;) .... Also keep in mind that your car isn't going to be worth much when you finish. Oh take the spare, jack, lug wrench & tools out {I signed up for AAA so I just let THEM tow me home when i broke or had a flat;). Oh, 4 x 15 in drag racing wheels in front with skinny tires help.... I've still got some of the stuff that I bought to lighten mine. Let me know if your interested, but you can take off a whole bunch of weight for NO money ;).... Yeah, I went nuts, a light weight starter cost me almost $200bucks and saved 3 pounds or so. The Wagner plastic headlights were $50 bucks and they saved a pound...... But then 1 pound is worth 1/10 of a HP, isn't it??? {I'm just proving that I'm nuts;).... billQuote:
Originally posted by muteboy49
"I cut off all of the collapable safety bumper stuff " ive heard of these but have no idea what or where they are. can anyone tell me where their at and how to remove them. and how do i get to/remove the door safety beams?
Its surprising how much weight can be removed after u remove all that stuff that has been talked about.Go get a cheap set of metal hole saws and u would be real surprized as to how much 1500 little round disks ranging from 1/2 to 1 1/2 add up to!!!:eek:
billsbird, a couple questions on the plexiglass, as I have been thinking of replacing the door glass with such. What is the best way to cut it? Do you have satisfactory visibility through it? Seems like it would easily accumulate scratches. When I last looked at plexiglass stock, there were two grades as I recall. Which did you use? Thickness of .22 inches?
Mike
i had a 66 gto i got down to 2900 with a tall deck big block in it all steel but hood and stock front glass and rear some thing are easy to go at. there is a lot of weight in the front cowl and hole saw like said works good and like said use aluminum i would keep away from plex glass or poly carbon it is nice to roll down the windows and you will not drop to much here :whacked:
thanks guys
Hello Shawnlee, Yeah, I just recently saw a reprint of an article that I had seen when it originaly came out years ago. I believe itQuote:
Originally posted by shawnlee28
Its surprising how much weight can be removed after u remove all that stuff that has been talked about.Go get a cheap set of metal hole saws and u would be real surprized as to how much 1500 little round disks ranging from 1/2 to 1 1/2 add up to!!!:eek:
was an Oldsmoble & almost the entire car had holes from a sawzall. The frame had so many holes in it that I'm suprised that the car didn't bend in half! hummm, may be it did? Anyway, I guess this was before 'our sport' figured out that a stiff chasis helped out??? Bill
46yblock, It's been so long since I cut it that I don't remember what I used to cut it with but I believe it was my Makitta Grinder with a cut off wheel. I just used the glass window as a templet. I used the tented color. And yes it scratches easily. You can see through it just fine although if it did get scratched up it would be hard to see through {mine didn't scratch up}. I used Lexan which is the strongest. In fact you can't break. I believe it's what they make bullet proof glass out of. It's expensive though. Hummm, thickness? As I recall I used the 1/16" stuff which was thinner than was recommened to me, but then I never have followed direction well. There is a company that makes replacement windows out of Lexan, and I believe they use 1/8" for the sides. But what Pat said it true, it is nice to roll your windows up/down. To make a long story short the car that I did all this to I had NO intension of EVER selling it. Plus I had another car for daily transportion. Although I did drive this car daily, the point I'm trying to make is that I didn't HAVE to drive it. If I had a date, it was raining or whatever I drove another car. Although I live in Calif. where it never rains & it seems as if it rains more than I have dates.....This just reminded me of the time when I had wrinkle wall slicks {the real ones, illegal on the street}, I was 25 miles away from home and it started to RAIN! Whew, don't drive in the rain with wrinkle wall slicks!!! Oh, I believe that the NHRA requires Lexan and remember that Lexan is illegal for a windshield. I think T-tops are already Lexan??? BillQuote:
Originally posted by 46yblock
billsbird, a couple questions on the plexiglass, as I have been thinking of replacing the door glass with such. What is the best way to cut it? Do you have satisfactory visibility through it? Seems like it would easily accumulate scratches. When I last looked at plexiglass stock, there were two grades as I recall. Which did you use? Thickness of .22 inches?
Mike
...oh yeah, put the battery in the trunk.... bill
they make a hard face lexan and i have used a jig saw and i put a lot of 2 inch tape were the foot of the saw rode on when cutting them out .and i sand the edge with sand paper on a small hand block the last thing you want to do is to take off the paper on the lexan
Yeah ,but the body flex makes nice pictures!!!:LOL:
weight removal will make you go faster the more hp you have the more difference it will make but be carefull on your floor board and firewall , these are what gives your car its strength . unless you have a chassis car .a pretty good rule is srip your car down to the bare minimum by unbolting ie doors fenders trunk lid ,without cutting anything and when you have a car there that wold still run . and a pile of parts next to it..... go after the parts and do what you can to lighten them up but remember you can spend thousands taking off weight ,when a few parts could cover that up with power... my car is a 800 hp 2400 lb 64 falcon...
im pretty much done stripping it down for now i got alot of stuff out and got my fuel pump shutoff switch mounted in the back, i think the only thing left for me body wise is probaly a new hood
One thing about lightening cars is, if you take too much weight out of the ass, then you are SOL and will be stuck making the passes with cinder blocks in what used to be your trunk. NO weight=no traction available. Something you acn do to rectify this is scooting the motor back. Saw it in an article entitled "Streetable Funny Cars".
That's effin shweet!:cool:Quote:
Originally posted by shawnlee28
Yeah ,but the body flex makes nice pictures!!!:LOL:
Increasing the engine setback and good suspension with a lot of weight transfer will compensate for shedding the extra rear end weight....Motor weight is weight you have to have, might as well move it back a bit so the weight will work for you.Quote:
Originally posted by RJ & CJ
One thing about lightening cars is, if you take too much weight out of the ass, then you are SOL and will be stuck making the passes with cinder blocks in what used to be your trunk. NO weight=no traction available. Something you acn do to rectify this is scooting the motor back. Saw it in an article entitled "Streetable Funny Cars".
Making the frame rigid enough that it doesn't twist like that pretzel would probably take a tenth off the time.....Quote:
Originally posted by shawnlee28
Yeah ,but the body flex makes nice pictures!!!:LOL:
Slid mine back about 4".
Mine's a bit more than 4" back, the dampner is behind the crossmember!!!! Sometimes I just get carried away, I guess!!!
I had to stop at 4'' or cut the blower into the windshield. Had it not been for that I wooda' gone further. Had the BBC in the panel back a full 12''. Firewall was up against the back of the dash, I sat behind the door . ''Panel truck'', so going down the road from the side it looked like nobudie' wuz' drivin'. :whacked:
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
thats badass