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Dude, that's frickin' sweet lookin'! Good idea using the S10 bumper. I can't believe I missed that post in April. Very cool. I dig the asymmetrical hood cutouts.

I'm a bit obsessed with the weight reduction too. I've looked for a bunch of ways to remove weight. I'm thinking the rack conversion you made (Bill) reduced some weight. Do you have any idea how much? I think it added up to a 4 lbs. reduction on my car. I'm removing my front bumper too. I'm planning on fabricating a fiberglass bumper that connects to the metal pinch connections of the fenders/fascia/lower valence. Does that make any sense? I guess it doesn't really apply to the Monza though.

I'm not sure you're in for this but I'll suggest it anyway. I spent about a month removing all the sprayon sound diffuser from under the carpet and the undercoating. Just the sound diffuser added up to 17 lbs. Here's a pic of the shop vac. I tried to collect every piece I could remove so I could get an accurate weight.



I know you're probably looking for most weight to come off the front but as for farther back I bet you could get a couple pounds with new seats. Do you love your radio? Couple pounds to be had there. More for the speakers.

The battery makes a HUGE difference. The stock batteries are around 40ish pounds. Just going to an Optima red top will bring that down by 8lbs. hanging out over the front wheels. So what do we have:

I have also been able to loose some weight this past year. I'm down to 176lbs. from 195lbs. earlier this year. That's almost 20lbs. The likelihood is I'll end up around 180lbs. though as I level off. SO that's 15lbs.

I almost forgot: Thanks for the thread, Bro. It really could be in a couple of the forums. How about a sticky for weight saving ideas??

Well I didn't do anything too radical but I did figure I removed a fair amount of weight with my changes.
Aluminum intake replaced the very heavy iron one
tube headers are much lighter than the cast manifolds
Aluminum radiator
no catalytic converter (very heavy)
aluminum wheels
removal of many emission parts including the air pump and all the stuff that goes with that

Along with that I have a manual trans which is lighter than a automatic and I have no AC. I am not sure what the car weighs but it should certainly be lighter than stock. Some mods are great for a drag car which can surely reduce it even more. I suppose aluminum heads would be a good weight saving change if I ever needed replacements.

I bought an Odyssey Drycell Battery. Granted mine is a drag only application but in the ls1tech forums people have used these all summer in DD application. When its cold the small ones don't work to well. They have many diffrent sizes so search summit. I bought a Odyssey Battery PC545 and it weights less then 11 pounds total and starts my 12.5 SBC no problem at all. I must have shaved 20-30 off my car with that mod alone last week.

There ya go you weight whores!


http://store.summitracing.com/partdetai ... toview=sku

This should be a sticky post for weight deruction. Lots of good info from good guys. I wish now that I weighed everything I've done so far:

LS1 instead of cast iron 355 - approx. 90 - 100 lbs?
Manual brakes instead of power - 7 - 10 lbs?
Manual rack & pinion instead of power steering box, pump, hoses, linkage etc. - 25-30 lbs?
No front sway bar - 15 lbs?
Summit 15x4 aluminum wheels with 145sr15 tires instead of 225/50-15 radials with 15x6 steel rally wheels - 20-40 lbs?
All A/C brackets, condensor, hoses, compressor removed - (before I bought the car) - 100 lbs?

This all should be between 250 lbs and 300 lbs.

What do you guys think?

Bill

bill1978v8 wrote:This should be a sticky post for weight deruction. Lots of good info from good guys. I wish now that I weighed everything I've done so far:

LS1 instead of cast iron 355 - approx. 90 - 100 lbs?
Manual brakes instead of power - 7 - 10 lbs?
Manual rack & pinion instead of power steering box, pump, hoses, linkage etc. - 25-30 lbs?
No front sway bar - 15 lbs?
Summit 15x4 aluminum wheels with 145sr15 tires instead of 225/50-15 radials with 15x6 steel rally wheels - 20-40 lbs?
All A/C brackets, condensor, hoses, compressor removed - (before I bought the car) - 100 lbs?

This all should be between 250 lbs and 300 lbs.

What do you guys think?

Bill

I can say the LS motor will be just shy of 100 lighter then an all iron sbc. And all off the nose to boot!
yeah I like this thread. I have a few things I can use in this thread on mine still for sure.

Some other easy things would be the spare tire and jack and an aluminum driveshaft. I suppose it would be fun to to keep throwing stuff on a big scale as you go along and see how all the little stuff could add up. I remember Hot Rod magazine did a article on stripping down an old Cadillac. I forget the numbers but they started with maybe a 18 second car and got it down into the 13's just by removing weight. Of course it got a bit crazy at the end, there was basically a shell of a car but their purpose was showing how weight and ET were related. I think there are practical limits as to what you would want to remove, especially for safety's sake but it is a interesting thread. I suppose you could also reduce the weight on the drivers seat too

I remember the Cadillac article.

spyder_xlch wrote:I remember the Cadillac article.

Caddy Hack!!
I still get the giggles when I think of it. Those dudes were having way too much fun .

Ken

Caddy hack! I remember that! Great article. I wonder what the aluminium driveshaft would be worth?

Bill

Here is another post with some good info
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74

The lighter aluminum driveshaft would also reduce the rotational weight not just the static weight. Same as going with lighter wheels. It's probably worth it if you need a driveshaft. Not sure I would just run out and do it for no other reason.

I heard a racer once say. . . ."Don't look for one piece that weighs 100lbs, but rather look for 100 pieces that weigh 1 lb"

Makes sense !!

Stivan wrote:Just some info I found out for myself, and thought I'd pass it on.

I went on a "weight hunt" on my '80 H/B, and found the following:

1) Took side crash bar out of door, and trimmed the skin a little, and cut the bottom, and re-welded it to get it out. Window still rolls up fine. Weight - 45lbs. . . times 2 = 90lbs

2) Replaced Door glass w/Lexan window. Weight - Glass 28lbs, Lexan - 2.25 lbs. . . times 2 = 52 lbs

3) Replaced Rear Side Windows w/Lexan. Weight - Glass 8 lbs, Lexan - 1.1 lbs. . . .times 2 = 14 lbs

4) Replaced Rear Hatch Glass w/Lexan. Weight - Glass 68 lbs, Lexan - 6.8 lbs . . . . . 51 lbs

5) Trimmed reinforment out of front/rear bumpers. Weight Trimmed
52 lbs


Just something to think about !!!!

My hatchback door windows weigh 13.5 each on a digital shipping scale.

Can anyone confirm the hatch glass weight?