Dodge D100 project "Grim Sleeper"

I have the front end off of my '72 at the moment. The fenders aren't very heavy. The hood would be worth doing.

I don't know that I'd shave weight from the bed. That will hurt traction. If I had the intention to make the front of the truck lighter, I'd put the battery by the right at the rear of the bed, build an aluminum radiator support, use a glass hood and retrofit some plastic splash shields for the wheels or just leave them out, find a fiberglass bumper and paint it with some aluminum brackets. Maybe put an aluminum floor in the truck cab, remove any metal that isn't being used, remove the original wiring, go bare minimum and swiss cheese the door frames.

The benefit to a small block would be weight saving. If you wanted to get super crazy, you could find a crappy aluminum topper and put the engine in the front of the bed...

You could also ditch the engine crossmember and go tubular, or subframe it with a Fat Man front end and use the different coils that it comes with.

I don't know how much you want to fabricate, though.

That 400 sounds nice with a stick shift. That will get you into the speed you're going for with some 4.10's, without hurting anything.

When you start stripping things from this truck, anything at all, you should weigh it on a scale for a total weight loss measurement. I'd be very interested to see how much you can take off.