What Are You Doing/Have You Done To Shed Weight?

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Topless69

Topless69

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I’m trying to drop as many lbs. as possible (from my A body) and still be comfortable, streetable and look stock. Already have some aluminum parts and headers and looking for more to take weight off the K member, but looking to lighten the car wherever I can.
What have you guys done to slim down your street or race car?
 
Some will do some crazy stuff. Uncle Tony drilled hundreds of holes in his '67 Dart. Screw that...I want a rigid chassis for better cornering.
Undercoating can be worth between 50-100 lbs. Scraping it off with a needle scaler is the fastest way that I have seen to remove it.
If this is a drag race car, remove the under dash heater or A/C box, rear seat, spare tire and jack.
The K member isn't all that heavy when you consider what it must deal with....the weight of the engine, suspension and steering all rely on the stiffness and rigidity of the K member. I don't trust the aftermarket to build an equally durable K member. Every one that I have seen has drawbacks compared to a stock K member with some minor gussets to the steering box mounts.
 
Kern Dog said:
Some will do some crazy stuff. Uncle Tony drilled hundreds of holes in his '67 Dart. Screw that...I want a rigid chassis for better cornering.
Undercoating can be worth between 50-100 lbs. Scraping it off with a needle scaler is the fastest way that I have seen to remove it.
If this is a drag race car, remove the under dash heater or A/C box, rear seat, spare tire and jack.
Click to expand...
I did a job for Neil Sutton Racing. He had a 10 sec N/a Honda... that cat drilled all kinda ****.. cat set records. That said, Not My Dam Car!
 
Wheels and tires are heavy and slow the car down. So instead of fitting the largest wheel and tire, get a tire compound that will aid traction, but keep the size smaller.

get rid of the 11” rear drum brakes if you have them, no need on most of our cars. 10” is plenty.

get a smaller radiator that holds less coolant, all that liquid adds weight. Same with a big oil pan and hi volume pump. Most folks cars don’t need it.

aluminum master cylinder

Stamped Aluminum valve covers, or stock steel. Those cast aluminum mopar performance covers are heavy.
 
Kern Dog said:
Some will do some crazy stuff. Uncle Tony drilled hundreds of holes in his '67 Dart. Screw that...I want a rigid chassis for better cornering.
Undercoating can be worth between 50-100 lbs. Scraping it off with a needle scaler is the fastest way that I have seen to remove it.
If this is a drag race car, remove the under dash heater or A/C box, rear seat, spare tire and jack.
The K member isn't all that heavy when you consider what it must deal with....the weight of the engine, suspension and steering all rely on the stiffness and rigidity of the K member. I don't trust the aftermarket to build an equally durable K member. Every one that I have seen has drawbacks compared to a stock K member with some minor gussets to the steering box mounts.
Click to expand...
I’m not planning to replace the K frame, just lighten the front end and anything else I can. It’s a street car so I’m keeping convenience stuff like AC, back seat, etc.
 
Topless69 said:
I’m not planning to replace the K frame, just lighten the front end and anything else I can. It’s a street car so I’m keeping convenience stuff like AC, back seat, etc.
Click to expand...
Those Tube control arms are lightweight, and give you much better adjustment than stock, but not cheap..on the rims, my Brother gave me the old Billet Specialties wheels off his car, but I still have the old school hollow Cragers forward. Priced the fronts to match? Almost 700... " I'm living, with mismatched Rims: I'm hearing a Country/ Blues song there, lol. Fiberglass parts diet Her out, but I would only base that choice on your traffic demographics
 
Fiberglass front lower splash pan, & one or both bumpers.
 
Slackin off on bread, more fish and chicken. Watchin my portions. lol
 
Most recently I bought lightweight bumper brackets from ligenfelter. Major cut in weight.
 
Don't know what trans you are running or rearend.
904 transmission and an 8 1/4 rear much lighter then 8 3/4 and 727 . Aluminum drives haft.
 
72Dart6pack said:
Dumped the Girl Friend. Saved 350 lbs.
Click to expand...
upload_2022-1-31_8-13-0.jpeg
 
Changed from drum brakes to Wilwoods,changed from p.s. to a Flaming River manual box(this alone took 35 pounds off) removed the heater box, aluminum heads and intake fibreglass hood '70 duster weights 3120 now..
 
memike said:
Don't know what trans you are running or rearend.
904 transmission and an 8 1/4 rear much lighter then 8 3/4 and 727 . Aluminum drives haft.
Click to expand...
Running a 904, took out the 7 1/4 and put in a ‘75 Imperial 8 3/4 rear end with factory disc setup (good lord it’s heavy) had the driveshaft out - doesn’t seem very heavy, gonna look into aluminum heads when I upgrade engine.
I have a complete 8 1/4 F body(?) I could cut down. How much weight would it save?
 
Let me see it i can find the info, but it also eats up hp compared to 8 1/4
 
200 pounds is reasonably easy to shed, but is the equivalent of 48ftlbs torque at 2200 stall; But only 37 at 2800. You can cover that with cylinder pressure and;
keep your heater (~37pounds),
your fold-down rear seat (~70 pounds),
your bumpers (~30 pounds each in my 68 Barracuda) ..
My dual 3" exhaust system is IIRC ~70/75pounds

If you go with alloy heads, you can run the cylinder pressure up to at least 185psi and I still burn 87E10.; then you won't care how heavy she gets. Put 4 fatboys in mine and still scared the hale-marys right outta them.
 
I’m also getting aluminum pulleys and accessory brackets, aluminum rad, and eventually aluminum bumper brackets.
Still brainstorming ways to shed weight although I really don’t want to use fiberglass parts.
 
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