The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
Hey Greg. What is your beast weighing in at?
(A guesstimate is OK.)
Hi Rob.
I'm not sure right now. I weighed it at a recycling place (certified scale) by my house in Huntington before I took it apart however many years ago now - 3,060 without me (185), full interior (front buckets and rear seat) and a half tank of gas so I guess 3,200 "race ready". Lot of stuff has changed since then though - 6 pt. CM roll bar, electric water pump, HHR electric fan, wipers gone, larger headers and exhaust which is heavy AF. Still has iron heads but from handling them they are a tad lighter than the old battleship W2s. Have considered switching to TF's if only for the weight savings.
Since then it's been treated to 10" drum brake spindle Wilwood front brakes, (that was a lot, like 35 lbs. total over the SSBC aluminum caliper/KH style brakes - not kidding!) aluminum strut rods, QA1 K frame, lower and upper control arms... QA1 claims an 18 lb. weight savings using their whole tubular front end but I'm not seeing it. Whatever the mount is it's mostly in the strut rods.
I have a pin-on fiberglass hood going on at some point which will shave a lot off the front for sure. Usually it's at least 50-60 lbs. between the hood itself and hinges.
Inside - I'm rewiring the car and have eliminated any and all extra wiring. Also looking at a Kirkey seat though configuring a mount for it may be more trouble than it's worth. Problem is while the existing '80's Jeep Scrambler bucket seats I have are cool looking and pretty light (22 lbs. each) I've concluded that they might not fare well if things get out of shape. Even though these are OE production parts, the actual seat frames are kinda thin, slightly rusty and are held to the brackets with 5/16" bolts. Does not inspire a whole lot of confidence!
Also on the fence about whether to re-install the back seat. It's currently out of the car to ease the wiring. Frankly, it's a huge pain wrestling that thing through the main hoop. It also needs to be recovered, the original material is all brittle and crumbles when you look at it. Besides, my kids are getting bigger, my 13 y.o. is bigger than his mother now so I don't see him or anyone else riding back there anymore, especially with the roll bar, fixed front seats. and now no undercoating to dull the sound and heat of 3" Ultra flow mufflers directly under their butts. If I leave it out that's another 40-50 lbs. though I would have to come up with some sort of trunk firewall.
Putting an S-60/Dana in this car would likely add some weight over the aluminum 8 3/4. It's also unsprung weight but at least it's in the rear. In the market for an aluminum driveshaft now as well.
I would like to know where it's at when it's all back together, I will definitely be weighing it. My goal is 3,000lbs or under but more importantly the weight bias needs to be better over the rear.