Weight Reduction suggestions, tips. Did a search, little tu

[tire]

As stated, I did different searches and came up with very little. I would like tips and suggestions from people that have done the stripping. I think it would be a good tech thread to archive if we can get a bunch of good suggestions and how-tos to remove various unneccessary parts on our cars.

Funds are "low" to say the least. A new K-member is not exactly what I'm looking at. I'm looking for both easy and serious way to reduce weight. I'm toying around with driving around looking like a m4d l33t st33t r4c3h (aka a gutted car that is still slow). Just want some ideas.

And if any of you say, "well, go on a weight loss program!" then I'll have you know I'm only 5'6" and wieght about 150lbs. images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[ December 02, 2002: Message edited by: V6PowerStang ]</p>

[majorbta]

have you done any reduction yet?

Here is som estuff you can do, remove the stock amplifier under the dash if you no longer use it, gut the trunk(spare, jack, wrench, carpet), take out the rear seat and the brackets, yuo can remove the a/c.. thats a lot of weight right there after the lines and compressor are out... You can relocate the battery, ditch the spoiler(it actually hurts when racing)...

[majorbta]

oh yea remove any and all carpet in the back, just get in the back seatand start taking out interior pieces

[gitman]

http://www.v6power.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=20&t=015553

[tire]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by gitman:
http://www.v6power.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=20&t=015553<hr></blockquote>

I've read that one, but it isn't very good.

What about all of our accessories and 'luxury' (dare I say) options?

[tire]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by majorbta:
have you done any reduction yet?<hr></blockquote>
No, the only 'reduction' is my gutted trunk interior that weighs all of 2lbs because I forgot to put it back in after rewiring for my Cobra taillights. images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

Ok, let's delve into the A/C. I live in Texas and wish to keep mine, but what all is involved to safely remove the A/C and keep it intact to replace it into the car if need be?

Same for power steering, etc. under the hood.

[matthewneuharth]

you can remove your front sway bar. if you have power seats you can put in manuel seats. remove the passenger seat. if no one rides with you. there is alot of other things that you can do. but most cost soem cash. or you have to sacrifice some drivability. like you wipers and the wiper motor. also all you have to do to by pass the ac when you take it off is reroute the belt and get a shorter one too. thats what i did when i removed my ac.

[Stone]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by V6PowerStang:
I've read that one, but it isn't very good.

What about all of our accessories and 'luxury' (dare I say) options?<hr></blockquote>

Its in there, read it again.

[V6Sprout]

I just recently shaved 100lbs from my front end, I swapped in a tubular k-member (still in progress) as well as coil over struts, removed sway bar, removed AC, battery to the trunk.
I made a recent post about what I removed or changed and the weight of the stock parts.

http://www.v6power.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=20&t=015594

[ December 02, 2002: Message edited by: V6Sprout ]</p>

[RGR]

Here's one I saved from another old post:


How to lose weight:

I got my 98 5spd down to 2980 without me in the car. I removed all of the carpeting and insulation below the carpet, back seat top and bottom, trunk carpeting and moldings, and kept the passenger seat in for daily driving reasons. You can get even more weight off of the car by removing the center console, door panels, rear panels, going with a good set of fixed racing buckets (not reclineable), griggs K-member (griggs said another 70lbs... but requires coilovers), light weight wheels that are in the 10-17lbs range (Volk and Advan are the ones I know of off the top of my head), and if you have the time... taking the tar off of the inside of the body. It was a riot one time when I browsed through a car lot and the guy said, "Are you looking to trade your car in?" I said, "Go take a look at the
inside of my car..." The guy was like "oh." This is when I had a turbo out of a Volvo and an intercooler from a 4th gen Supra...


DELETE POWER STEERING
DELETE A/C


not the best list I had, but I think the old one is long gone images/smiles/icon_redface.gif

[tire]

Thank you for the suggestions. What would you estimate the total weight of the entire interior to be anyways?

When you say removing the tar from the undercarriage, do you mean simply cleaning the bottom side? My belly has no coat on it that could even be considered tar-ish. Just metal.

EDIT - On second thought, maybe I do remember something on the inside of the body panels. Or maybe it's the fenderwells that I'm thinking of. How would you remove it anyways? (I will not remove my fenderwells fo' sho')

[ December 03, 2002: Message edited by: V6PowerStang ]</p>

[BlackStang95]

It all seems like a waste if its going to be a daily driver. Is it worth giving up a/c for 15 pounds? Or power steering? It takes a full hundred pounds to get any real gains in speed, and you'd have to do both of the above and probably trunk/back seat as well to get that.

I would just swap out power seat for manual and keep fuel level low.

[ December 03, 2002: Message edited by: Nathan ]</p>

[pb_milan]

the a/c compressor is probably 15-20lbs.
the condensor is another 15 or so, the a/c lines, and canister is another 10lbs

my next move is to remove my compressor and to get a shorter belt

[SpectorV]

well you can take out the spare, and carpet in the trunk, then the back seats and passenger seat for 120-130lbs. You can get ride of the center consol easily also, like 4 screws. Front sway bar also. The driver seat, power seat, is heavier than a non power seat by like 40lbs you can possible swap the passenger for the driver seat adn save a few, possible never tried it. Then the carpet its self if you wish to go that far, probably looking at nearly 200lbs total weight from all this, or 1.5 tenths, maybe not that much but close.

[Yellow1999Stang]

I don't care if you lost 350 pounds from weight reduction....on you're daily driver there are just somethings I'm not willing to give up. I'd rather spend 1 or 2 hundred on mods to compensate from losing all that stuff! Like your spare tire, are you crazy? What happens when you pop a tire, nobody plans on that happening afterall? A nice long walk? Phone call to everybody you know to bring you a spare?

All in all MY OPINION is that I'd rather spend a little money in mods to compensate for the 'free' (assuming you don't think its a down side to drive a stang without passengers, AC, Spares, or any hint of an interior other than your steering wheel and drivers seat) weight reduction.

[ December 03, 2002: Message edited by: Yellow1999Stang ]</p>

[BlackStang95]

And who said front sway bar? I heard you only do that on drag only cars, as it severely affects driveability. Sounds like a good way to end up off the road in an effort to save 5 lbs.

[pb_milan]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Nathan:
And who said front sway bar? I heard you only do that on drag only cars, as it severely affects driveability. Sounds like a good way to end up off the road in an effort to save 5 lbs.<hr></blockquote>

i wouldn't recommend removing the sway bar for street use.
it may only be 5lbs.. but at the track, the removal of the sway bar benefit's the launch by softening up the front end a bit.

[gitman]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by pb_milan:


i wouldn't recommend removing the sway bar for street use.
it may only be 5lbs.. but at the track, the removal of the sway bar benefit's the launch by softening up the front end a bit.<hr></blockquote>

bah thats bs, the sway bar does NOT make a huge handling difference on the street. i went w/o it for like 2 weeks and d99stang hasn't had his in for months, its not that big a deal. its like having softer springs in the front.

[RGR]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by pb_milan:


i wouldn't recommend removing the sway bar for street use.
it may only be 5lbs.. but at the track, the removal of the sway bar benefit's the launch by softening up the front end a bit.<hr></blockquote>

bah thats bs, the sway bar does NOT make a huge handling difference on the street. i went w/o it for like 2 weeks and d99stang hasn't had his in for months, its not that big a deal. its like having softer springs in the front.

You guys are lightweights in the no-sway bar arena...
my 89 GT NEVER had one from the day I bought it,
and I owned/drove it for over 5 years :D

Never missed it either! Mine handled quite well, thank you.

[V6Sprout]

Remove the sway bar at the track, thats what I did, it takes all of 5-10 minutes to remove. Leave it on fro daily driving if your worried.

[fobrastang]

you can get a fiberglass hood, drag star wheels with 3.5 up front. as for the no front sway bar idea, i have no front swaybar with drag springs, 90/10 shocks and 15x3.5 pro stars on the front. it is my daily driver and it handles fine. i will sometime this summer get a man. rack because it take no effort to turn the wheel with 3.5's up front.

[tire]

i think i have amnesia or something. i don't remember making this thread at all. :uhh:

anywho, the link that i went to above doesn't work (anymore), is it just this computer?

my goal:

lowest track weight and permanent removal of stuff if i can do without

what i have done now is:

tons of stuff in my trunk but when i go to the track there isn't anything there, not even carpeting (i think it ran away one day). i replaced my power drivers seat for a manual rack, that was a good one, fyi, and not much else. i mean... 3,150 lbs! (w/ 8.8 diff and removal of the weight on it, and the driver seat rack turned manual). that's heavy! :cry:

[tire]

this thread wasn't made last week like i thought.. it was made a year ago and a week!

i am glad i am not senile. :headbang: :D

[Matt00V6]

there is a really good weight removal thread if you search the corral.net forum. gives the weight of alot of parts that can be removed. its in the sohc forum i think, and if not its in the dohc.

[tire]

looking for it now, thanks. ;)

found it:

http://www.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=166177&highlight=weight+reduction

[RGR]

glad I brought this one back :D

[Jared]

you can get a fiberglass hood, drag star wheels with 3.5 up front. as for the no front sway bar idea, i have no front swaybar with drag springs, 90/10 shocks and 15x3.5 pro stars on the front. it is my daily driver and it handles fine. i will sometime this summer get a man. rack because it take no effort to turn the wheel with 3.5's up front.

94+ stock hoods ARE fiberglass.

:banghead:

[tire]

you can get a fiberglass hood, drag star wheels with 3.5 up front. as for the no front sway bar idea, i have no front swaybar with drag springs, 90/10 shocks and 15x3.5 pro stars on the front. it is my daily driver and it handles fine. i will sometime this summer get a man. rack because it take no effort to turn the wheel with 3.5's up front.

94+ stock hoods ARE fiberglass.

:banghead:
Hey now, be nice, honest mistake on Brad's end. :p

Hey want to go to Houston and race Brad? Lonestarstangs won't let me on. :( (fobrastang's a 12 sec car) :headbang:

[Stone]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by pb_milan:


i wouldn't recommend removing the sway bar for street use.
it may only be 5lbs.. but at the track, the removal of the sway bar benefit's the launch by softening up the front end a bit.<hr></blockquote>

bah thats bs, the sway bar does NOT make a huge handling difference on the street. i went w/o it for like 2 weeks and d99stang hasn't had his in for months, its not that big a deal. its like having softer springs in the front.

Gitman and RoGeR are right, both my Mustangs have had not their sway bars for a long time, they drive just fine

[RGR]

slightly more body roll in cornering...

[Matt00V6]

you can get a fiberglass hood, drag star wheels with 3.5 up front. as for the no front sway bar idea, i have no front swaybar with drag springs, 90/10 shocks and 15x3.5 pro stars on the front. it is my daily driver and it handles fine. i will sometime this summer get a man. rack because it take no effort to turn the wheel with 3.5's up front.

94+ stock hoods ARE fiberglass.

:banghead:
Hey now, be nice, honest mistake on Brad's end. :p

Hey want to go to Houston and race Brad? Lonestarstangs won't let me on. :( (fobrastang's a 12 sec car) :headbang:

well the stock hood still weighs at least 30-40 lbs, and a cowl weighs less than 20lbs. my hood feels so heavy compared to brads.

[V6stanger]

I removed:

Front Sway Bar
Installed Rear Seat Delete
Spare/Jack/Trunk Carpet/Board
Coil-Overs Front and Rear
PI Torque Converter Shaves some weight
Corbeau Forza w/ Manual Bracket
Metal Plate underneath the steering wheel

As soon as it gets nice out again I will go weight my car.

So far it weighs 3140 with me in it. I weigh 135lbs.

[D99stang]

I had no swaybars for well over a yr. I'm not a corner carver so it was no big deal. I put the front back on recently so teh women feels safer driving it. :disgust:
I def. miss my front end "poping up" every time I got on it a little bit at a light.

Other small things to take off. Belt loops-, black box's, rear speakers, wing, washer fluid res., and other small crap.

[fobrastang]

you can get a fiberglass hood, drag star wheels with 3.5 up front. as for the no front sway bar idea, i have no front swaybar with drag springs, 90/10 shocks and 15x3.5 pro stars on the front. it is my daily driver and it handles fine. i will sometime this summer get a man. rack because it take no effort to turn the wheel with 3.5's up front.

94+ stock hoods ARE fiberglass.

:banghead:

i was refering to a cowl hood which is very light compared to a oem hood :kick:

[fobrastang]

also if you look in the corral thread you will see that the eom hood weighs 46 lbs and a light weight hood is 18 lbs

[tire]

brad your car has rubbed off on me in a bad way and i've been trying to swap my 17's for welds or centerlines for a week now. i've had a few draglite offers but, well, they aren't so hot looking so i'll wait. centerline telstars and weld prostars are great looking though. :headbang:

also, when you patch up your spoiler holes let me see the end result so i know what to do.

god my gf is going to kill me... those 17's were my anniversary present. :cry: