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losing weight

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Old 02-10-2008, 09:21 PM
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losing weight

i need to put the camaro on a diet it weights 3880 with me in it. i want to shed some of the unnessary weight off of it. i heard you can remove the honeycomb bumper supports, any idea what that weighs? i no its not alot and yes i am crazy i will do the little odds and ends to gain a .001 of a second here and there. but i also want to keep my ac and stereo. what can i strip off the car to lose some weight. and i did read the sheding pounds section looking for more.
Old 02-11-2008, 02:10 PM
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Re: losing weight

Are you wanting to just remove parts for weight reduction, or wanting to replace with lighter weight items? Also is this still a DD, and what "comforts" are you willing to give up to loose some weight?

I removed the honeycomb from my car, if I remember right it was around 15 lbs, but then you need to go back in and do some reinforcement.

Currently my car weighs 2980 with me in it, however it is nearly stripped out, I'm wanting to get around 2750 with me in it.

Good Luck!
Old 02-11-2008, 05:37 PM
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Re: losing weight

i wanted to take stuff away and then change parts out. do what i can that wont cost me money.
Old 02-11-2008, 05:50 PM
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Re: losing weight

How did you come up with 3880 lbs thats one heavy car its right up there with an iron headed big block all steal 70 chevelle.There is a tread in tech and fab titled my quest for 2800 lbs. try over there you will get a lot of good advice.
Old 02-11-2008, 05:50 PM
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Re: losing weight

Originally Posted by xx11seczxx
i need to put the camaro on a diet it weights 3880 with me in it. i want to shed some of the unnessary weight off of it. i heard you can remove the honeycomb bumper supports, any idea what that weighs? i no its not alot and yes i am crazy i will do the little odds and ends to gain a .001 of a second here and there. but i also want to keep my ac and stereo. what can i strip off the car to lose some weight. and i did read the sheding pounds section looking for more.
3880? Damn, that is a FAT F-body are you sure?
Old 02-11-2008, 06:10 PM
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Re: losing weight

sounds about right... ihave a 90 vert im at 3725
Old 02-11-2008, 07:13 PM
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Re: losing weight

drove it to the dump it weighed 3880 with me in it. almost out of fuel with a full bottle of juice basically that was race weight. i weigh about 240 and yes im going on a diet too. lol
Old 02-11-2008, 07:28 PM
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Re: losing weight

Sorry it in fabrication
Old 02-11-2008, 07:37 PM
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Re: losing weight

wow your a big dude!
im 100lbs lighter then you! man dont hurt me!

im also making my car lighter.
i just gutted my car down to the frame. i even took the dash and got rid of unnessesary wires behind the dash and what not. its going to be a strip car anyways so i didnt really car to much. i took all the vents and everything out from behind the dash.
you could remove the rear seats and get some lightwight racing seats upfront. fiberglass hood would also help. you can get rid of the carpet if you dont mind looking at bar metal on the ground.
or you could cover it up with thin sheet of fabric to cover it up. thats what im planning on doing make it look somewhat like a street car inside :P
Old 02-11-2008, 07:51 PM
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Re: losing weight

You can gut out your interior pretty quick ( i did it in about 2 hours yesterday) when you wanna race. Definatley get a FG hood, lose the spare and jack, take out sound system, go into your engine and take out everything you don't need.
Old 02-11-2008, 08:48 PM
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Re: losing weight

i can gut my interior in a very short time. but i like to have my car looking like a car and not a go cart. i guess i cant really strip weight the way i wanted.
Old 02-11-2008, 09:31 PM
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Re: losing weight

I donno what the hell you did to get that car so heavy. I thought mine was tubby at 3600 w/me, full tank, my tools and system. I know the 12 bolt is a pig, but damn!

1. YOU need to knock off 40lbs. Granted, so do I.

2. I put in a SW stg 2 pump. Required slight modification to fit the factory brackets, but hey. Probably 15lbs.

3. Aluminum heads. I figure I knocked 40lbs off the nose of the car from that.

4. FG hood should help dramatically.

5. Relocate battery to back.

6. Mini-starter.

Those are all things that you can do to reduce a good bit of weight and not reduce comfort or reliability.
Old 02-11-2008, 10:13 PM
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Re: losing weight

3880 lbs is really not that much... dodge neons weigh 3800 lbs lol. The only way to lose weight and keep a DD is either dropping stuff or buying new lightweight stuff, it's either going to cost alot or your going to lose appearance and parts and you wont be able to hear anything inside your car while driving.
Old 02-11-2008, 11:07 PM
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Re: losing weight

I'd love to get my race weight down to 2800 pounds. It's currently around 3100 pounds and there isn't much else to strip out of the car. It does have a full roll cage and a BBC which adds a bit of weight. Taking 300 pounds off a street car isn't hard. Taking another 300 pounds off a race car is difficult and/or expensive.

For a weight reduction race car, remove everything not required for speed or safety. For a street car, you really limit yourself as to what you can remove for comfort and safety.
Old 02-12-2008, 02:18 AM
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Re: losing weight

I believe ya, but that weight seems excessive to me..Did they throw some scrap metal on to mess with ya lol? lol j/k

Good luck with the diet!
Old 02-12-2008, 06:50 PM
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Re: losing weight

got the mini starter, and relocated the battery but its a steel cowl hood. and it is rediculously heavy. but i dont want to swap it because it is already painted to match the car.
Old 02-12-2008, 07:06 PM
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Re: losing weight

If you wanna lose weight ditch the hood, sell it and use the money for a FG hood!
Old 02-12-2008, 07:12 PM
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Re: losing weight

How much weight would you save going to a mini start btw?
Old 02-12-2008, 09:19 PM
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Re: losing weight

Originally Posted by creepingdeath
How much weight would you save going to a mini start btw?
A little bit. Got to start somewhere. That factory starter is heavy as hell.
Old 02-12-2008, 09:27 PM
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Re: losing weight

get rid of the crash bars!!!!!! I replaced mine with some Aluminum ones that I made myself. Those things are PIG heavy.My car right now is about 2890 without me in it and I weigh about 185.
Old 02-12-2008, 10:46 PM
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Re: losing weight

Just keep telling yourself: "There are 16 ounces in a pound."

Replace bumper supports with thin wall tubing, all unused interior brackets go, remove all the seam filler (over 15lbs in my '85), ditch the smog pump, headers are lighter then exhaust manifolds, dump the exhaust out the pass. side of the car, blow air/pressure washer in all the holes in the frame rails and K-member to wash debris out (my '85 had tons of sand packed in).

If you're putting a cage in, you can cut out a majority of the inner panels of the roof as long as you weld what's left to the cage. That's worth 15lbs.

If your windshield is cracked, replace it with Chinese glass, it's lighter by up to 5lbs. Optics aren't as good, but you can still see through it. Lexan is lighter but more money.

Let me know how crazy you want to get. My car is going to race under 2900lbs this year with 225lb driver and 10 gallons of fuel
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