Lets talk weight reduction

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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby megavega » Mon Nov 04, 2013 11:40 am

A vega station wagon and a monza station wagon are exactly the same car from 74-78, they still used a vega station wagon for the monza, the only differance is the front nose/header panel plastic .

So on the first chart the wagon weighs 2571 lbs, and a monza station wagon weighs 2754 lbs, theres 183 lb differance in weights???

On the 73 vega, the bumper brackets were extended out to meet the 5mph impact standards, rest of the car remained the same from the 71-72 models. Those brackets and tiny sheetmetal filler panel on the front didnt weigh 71 lbs differance....... maybe 1-2 lbs max differance as I have taken off the 73's brackets to put on 71-72's shorter brackets on cars.

now from 74-on up, sure, the vegas got heavier due to the new body style and the leaf spring type metal brackets that supported those big aluminum bumpers, thicker crash bars in the doors, thicker k members,etc.
1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby megavega » Mon Nov 04, 2013 12:15 pm

just for comparison, my 1972 silver car in the avatar weighed 2640 lbs without me in it ready to race. It was a all steel car/street driven and raced, fully street equipped with wipers,stock turnsignals,etc. except for the heater system.
Stock glass windows,stock chrome steel bumpers ,removed front inner fenders, converted to chevette- then- to pinto rack n pinion steering, front disc brakes from strange with wilwood single piston calipers on stock vega spindles,holesawed doors/quarter panels inside under the plastic door panels, tubbed rear end with steel wheel tubs, 4 link, narrowed 9 inch rear with factory lincoln disc brakes(heavy), std rear heavy cast pig section in rearend but alum pinion support. 15x10 rear rims with 31x13 rear slicks. 12 point mild steel 1 3/4" rollcage, 2x3 mild steel rear frame with dropped crossmember.

427 BBC with alum heads,alum electric w/p,alum intake with dominator, glide with trans brake.

so add a 170lb driver to it and it would have been 2810 lb. I know now I could have easily dropped 375-500lb off the car going to all lexan windows,removal of window regulators, fiberglass bumpers, holesawed brackets then since no weight for the bumper to support, or make aluminum ones. Would have removed all the rest of the street items like windshield wiper motor/linkage, most of the wiring harness,etc. Aluminum rear center section and rid of those factory ford disc brakes and went to a wilwood set up. aluminum wheel tubs. Likely would have redone the cage set up with 1 5/8" moly.
1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby anorexicvega » Mon Nov 04, 2013 2:13 pm

mega I thought the same thing about the 72-73 weights. I'm hoping to have a finished weight of 2400lbs minus me. '73 hatch with an all aluminum ls, m22, glass front end, chromoly k-member, with all control arms chromoly with heims. I have aerospace front s10 brakes, and a 2wd s10 8.5 with aluminum calipers.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby Fasterthansome » Sun Mar 02, 2014 10:34 am

Finally making a little progress...Had the rear bars done a bit differently than old cage. The few extra feet of tubing weight is worth the stiffness and safety. Still lacking a few bars but coming along nicely. Have a rack and crossmember coming from justin and going to motor plate so might lose a few more lbs off the nose between steering and motor plates/mounts. Also found several places in the car that can be trimmed of un needed metal. Might be only a couple lbs but a few here and a few there should add up.

[
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby cjbiagi » Sun Mar 02, 2014 10:47 am

On the later cars don't forget to add in the weight of the catalytic converter. Those early ones were pretty heavy.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby megavega » Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:04 pm

Looks like your makin some head way, nice cage so far!
1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby Fasterthansome » Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:56 am

Image ImageImage Got some paint on the cage finally. I was able to tie the cage directly to the LCA mount area. Yes had to cut the floor up a bit and now need to finish it.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby Fasterthansome » Sun Jul 27, 2014 6:49 pm

Looks to be 62 lbs off the front end so far.
Has anyone found plastic replacement Headlights?
Running out of places to trip weight in the front and the glass headlights could be lighter.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby anorexicvega » Fri Nov 21, 2014 10:16 pm

The inner wheel tub on the Monza looks different than the vega one.
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby Fasterthansome » Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:47 am

Anorexic do you have pics of difference?
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby anorexicvega » Sat Nov 29, 2014 1:14 pm

Fasterthansome wrote:Anorexic do you have pics of difference?

well...I have a pic of mine, but its not the same angle as yours, so it kinda messes with my eyes, I can post the pics up, and ill measure the width from the flat surface where the round looking plug is to the flat surface of the tub(how wide the tub is) and ill measure the distance between the two tubs from flat surface.

Image
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby anorexicvega » Sat Nov 29, 2014 7:49 pm

From the flat surface directly above the round body plug to the same on the other side of the car I measured 48 3/4. I measured 43" in between the tubs on the flat surface close to where the bend in the floorboard is. that would make each inner tub 2.875" wide on the vega. post up some measurements when you get a chance on the monza
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby NixVegaGT » Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:15 am

I'm a little late to this thread but this is a bit of an obsession for me. To be frank, our cars are pretty damn light. (Especially the early cars) Here's a couple ideas with weights based on my car BEFORE I cut the floor/firewall, etc. out:

Swap the saginaw; Mine weighed in at 115 lbs. (The T5 I built is 73 lbs. wet)
Scrapping out the sound insulation: I got 17 lbs. from my car. (WOW!)
Swapped the Appleton Rack (alluminum, 8lbs.) for the gear box. (Stock ≈16 lbs.)
Hollow sway bars. The solid 1 1/4 front bar weighs a SHIT-TON. Like 30 lbs. or some crazy number like that. I'll pull it down and weigh it. The hollow bar I got was only 7 lbs.

These mods yielded the following numbers:

My grand total: 2616 lbs.
Dry total (less driver): 2356 lbs.

LF: 712 RF: 688 Front: 1400

LR: 608 RR: 608 Rear: 1216

Final distribution: 53.5% front, 46.5% rear.

These numbers could be improved by swapping glass. That rear hatch weighs a ton (50-60 lbs. with glass); It's weight in the rear but also adds to yaw… 6 o' 1… Probably worth ditching the glass at least. The side-impact beams in the door are probably worth some. I'm building in side-impact into the cage so not needed for me... The window cranks are pretty damn light already but I guess you could pull them and do that Hemi Dart, seatbelt strap clip-on-the-bottom-of-the-door trick. Not sure it's worth it.

Then I cut the floor/firewall… pretty much front fenders back; Weighed 273 lbs. (this includes the rear inner fender wells). Removing bumpers, especially on the later cars is worth a LOT. The early bumpers aren't very heavy. I'm planning on keeping a bunch of them. I'll have to weigh them with brackets again. I can't find the reference in my notes.

I was going to list drivetrain and suspension components but I found that upgrades tend to be a lateral move, if you're careful with what components you buy. For me, every component I wanted to upgrade was bigger, lighter for the size but basically the same weight in the end.

Then I built the roll cage and frame rail supports; Added 200 lbs. back on.

vegaCage01.JPG


OK. the next thing is going to sound douchey but loosing driver weight can yield a shit ton of weight. I lost 20 lbs. off the car that way! Nice. Means a lot for those guys who are working really hard to get a few pounds here and there off the car.


The obsessive part for me has been weight distribution. That was the main reason for cutting the firewall to move the engine back 6". That moved everything (ME) back too. The rear IRS added about 80lbs. Mostly in that massive Rx7 center section. What a tank. I also built a mount for the alternator off the diff to move that back. Since I'm using a manual rack and a remote electric water pump, that officially removed all the accessories off the engine. It looks weird with just the harmonic balancer hanging off the front. LOL! I figured I could use aluminum for the floors and such since I've built support extrinsic from it.

I'm really hoping I can get the car under 2500 lbs. with me in it... With the stock Corvette LS1 making 350hp/350tq (based on stock flywheel numbers); That should run pretty well!
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby Monza Harry » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:17 pm

Nick if you swap out those heads and cam to an upgraded aftermarket variety (LS6) you can add 60HP (maybe more) without any weight penalty, and then find a crashed Vette with a stick, rear transaxle type and you will move more weight yet from the front to the rear. You are closing in on the point where that 200#'s is nearly 10% of your total and that would net you real close to 50/50 or better yet 50+% rear. I am only suggesting this as your car is closer to completion than mine! :lol: With a set back of 6" are you at the "Mid-Engine" point or is #1 at least even with the front Susp. C/L? Harry
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Re: Lets talk weight reduction

Postby Monza Harry » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:17 pm

Sorry about the double post. The board won't let me delete it this time(?) Marco can you pull it if you see this? Thanx Harry
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