Thread: weight

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We are building an ' 84 Capri Drag Car, and stripped of everything, using glass parts and tubular front crossmember, it will come in at about 2800. When you strip stuff off, you have to put some reinforcement back in (subframe connectors, roll cage, etc) so it is really hard to get a doorslammer to come in much under that weight.

Ya i mean we are switching to a set of summit racing seat rear delete and also take off the stock carpet and the stuff makes it quite in the car and put new carpet in it that 30lbs total so far we have taken out 60lbs also fiberglass doors and trunk and front clip will be perchased later also my friends on a diet haha.

Then soon after that when we go crazy with it we will backhalf it!LOL

I read something in a magazine one time, and it always stuck with me.

They said "when lightening a car, rather than looking for for one place to remove 1000 lbs, look for 1000 places to remove one pound."

Pretty smart, I thought. If you sit inside the typical car, there are a lot of places where you can save one pound each. (Like, is this bracket REALLY needed, or can I do without this item in the dash?)

The secret to losing weight is to remove everything you don't (safely) need, then starting to look over every inch of the car. And yes, it helps to not have the driver eating too many Big Macs.

WIth things that will be left, holes can be drilled in it to shed a pound or two. Get rid of anything related to the windows. Drill holes/trim in brackets that don't affect safety.Use composites where available. Remember though, while a light car is wonderful, if you dont have weight in the ass-end, then you won't have any available traction, and without that, you won't have a nice ET.

Very very true this mustang does not catch traction at all by any means but right now we are running a street tire, i mean we have a built rearend just no slicks.

i figure instead of starting a new thread ill just continue on this one.

I'm looking to start lightening the elky up a little bit. I'm not looking to go quite as light.

It's my understanding that the el camino weighed ABOUT 3600 LBS from the factory. I'd like to get it down to about 3000 LBS dry (no driver, empty gas tank). How much weight can I lose by using glass fenders/hood, taking the ac stuff off. and a few other things. What are some other big things i can drop off of it? I'm also in the process of going from bench to bucket.

All depends on how you want to use the car. If you are going to just race it or don't mind a lot of road noise on the street, you can lose 600 lbs pretty easy.

All that A/C stuff weighs a ton, just by itself, if you figure in the compressor, condenser, evaporator assembly (with heater) hoses, etc. Then if you start with aluminum pieces like radiator, intake, light tube headers, simple exhaust, you are well on your way.

Where the road noise comes in is when you start scraping off sound deadening undercoat, carpeting and backing, door panels, etc.

I had a '68 Mustang with 351 Cleveland that finally got too radical to drive on the street, but we got it down to 2800 lbs., but it was like riding in a garbage can with people beating on it with hammers. Toward the end, even short trips wore you out, just from the noise and vibration levels.

But for every 100 lbs you lose, you also drop your et's proportionately.

There was an article in one of the Hot Rod magazines a few years back, called " Caddy Hack" (obviously a play on Caddy Shack) They took a bone stock 1970 Cadillac and ran it down the quarter mile. Then they systematically started chopping stuff off the car, and the et's started to drop. Finally, they took the entire body off, and ran just a racing seat on the bare frame. I think it ran in the low 12's, but traction was a real problem, even with slicks.

Just goes to show you how a little weight reduction helps.

Well, my 72 elky is bone stock with only 84,000 miles on the original motor. It still runs, drives, and handles like a dream.
I paid 2,000 for it and drove it home.

It needs a radiator anyways, so i'll be replacing that soon with aluminum, it also needs headers to replace the factory manifolds. it needs floorpans so there goes some weight when i put aftermarket sheetmetal in there. I won't be using sound deadener, just stop rust stuff. I want to go with a glass frontend. The fenderwells are already plastic so i can't lose any weight there.

I'm mainly looking to drop some fat from the front end. It still being a truck, i can use all the weight on the rear that i can.

Anyone recommend how to go about stopping the rust from happening again after i replace the floor? Also can someone recommend a good aluminum radiator?

My goal for this is a 383 stroker, cast steel crank/rods, domed pistons, lightweight balancer/flywheel, about 500 lift worth of camshaft. I'd like to use the 72 cc heads that are on the motor now with a good 3 angle valve job. I'm only curious as to with the factory cast heads, will the domed pistons clear. and if not what can i do to make them clear. I can't say exactly the spec on the domed piston though. I'd like to put out about 350 horses with this motor and run about 10:1 compression (just enough that i can run race gas or 93 octane pump gas) I know opinions are like assholes but I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on this.

Sorry for such a long post but im a long winded person. Also my exhaust man is wanting to put 3 inch from headers to mufflers (40 series flows) and then use turndowns in front of the rearend. What do you guys think? 3 inch too big?

Is 350hp a pretty reasonable goal for this setup? would it be higher or lower do you think from what i have/can tell you? I'm not interested in buying a crate motor because i already have a 4bolt 350 block and I can order parts at shop price because I'm dating the boss's daughter (and because i work there)

Originally posted by Hopper111
Anyone recommend how to go about stopping the rust from happening again after i replace the floor?

I have heard that Rust Bullet or Silver Bullet can't remember which, works pretty well. As I understand it, it goes on like POR-15. Mind you, I have never used it so it is simply a suggestion of something to check into and research.

Good Luck,
Dutch

Hopper111,
The reason your floor rotted out most likely is because of that rear window leaking water to the inside. Don't know the condition of your elky but mine had some not so good fiberglass patched around the bottom of the rear window. I ended up grinding all of that out and put new metal in there and treated it well before painting. I do like those rust inhibitors, have used many brands with sucess. Any of them that convert the rust to a black what ever it is seem to work great, Por 15 is just one of the brands out there. I have used some stuff called rustite and it worked well for me.

There are two products sold in Marine stores, like Boat U/S, West Marine, and others. It is the same product, packaged for two different purposes. One is called "trailer coat", and is made to paint boat trailers. The other one is called "metal prep' and is made to coat underwater metals on boats.

It is a VERY tough urathane coating, silver in color, and it stands up to salt water like crazy. I coated the underside of my Capri with it about 4 years ago, and it is holding up great. I've never seen a better product.

HOWEVER, here is a big warning. DON'T GET ANY ON YOUR SKIN.
It doesn't come off. I didn't read the instructions on the can that tell you that, so I am laying under the car dripping this stuff all over me. I had just shorts on, so I was coated. When I was done, I took laquer thinner, acetone, you name it, nothing would touch it.

I went to work for 3 weeks with this stuff all over my head and body. Everybody kept laughing at me. It finally wore off.

I also painted the bed of my pickup before I put the bedliner in it, and it still looks great under there.

I will use it again, but with plastic gloves and a full paper suit and face mask. It is really great stuff, and only about $25-$30 a quart.

Originally posted by Itoldyouso
But for every 100 lbs you lose, you also drop your et's proportionately.

There was an article in one of the Hot Rod magazines a few years back, called " Caddy Hack" (obviously a play on Caddy Shack) They took a bone stock 1970 Cadillac and ran it down the quarter mile. Then they systematically started chopping stuff off the car, and the et's started to drop. Finally, they took the entire body off, and ran just a racing seat on the bare frame. I think it ran in the low 12's, but traction was a real problem, even with slicks.

Just goes to show you how a little weight reduction helps.

I don't know your name, so I will call you Itoldyouso for now :P

I think that the weight reduction actually serves no purpose past a certain point when you do not introduce certain suspension and weight transfer remedies. Such as Ladder Bars or 4-Link in the rear along with scooting the motor back. We can look at it this way, F=MA, and when we isolate A, we have F/M=A, and we know now that a smaller denominator with a constant numerator, A will become larger. We just need to ensure the coefficient of friction remains the same on the rear tires when the mass is reduced.

My thoughts could be completely wrong, but I think that weight decrease works just as long as you continue to retain that traction in the rear.

My name is Don, I just can't change that stupid user name I picked when I couldn't get logged on.

As for the traction, sure, the car has to hook up, or it is just like being on ice, but there is no cheaper/better way to make a car quicker than to lose some weight.

I had this conversation with a guy in a 5.0 Mustang at a traffic light one day. I was in my '27 roadster that also has a 5.0 in it, two-fours, good heads, hot cam, stick, etc. He was revving up his 5.0 like he was going to prove something.

I yelled over to him, you aren't very good at math, are you? He said "what do you mean?" I told him, "well, I weigh 1/2 as much as you, and am probably putting out a little more HP.......do the math."

He evidently took home economics in school, because when the light changed, I taught him a little algebra. He probably liked my '47 Chevy taillights, because he got to look at them for such a long time.

Think about this. Put any engine in a 2000 lb car, then put the same engine in a 5000 lb car. Which one do you think will be faster? Extreme example, but you get the point.

By the way, I see you and your Dad are building your car. Cool. He must have done a good job raising you, because I have read your posts, and you have your head screwed on pretty straight, and are always polite in your answers.

Thanks, Don

I dont know if this has been answered yet, but according to the registration on my old 89 Mustang LX with a 2.3L, that car weighed 3018lbs. I dont know if it will be that much more with a 5.0L, but I would say add 200lbs to that for the small-block. Its kind of odd too, cause my 82 cutlass only weighed 3200lbs itself. Someone care to fill me in here?