NICE! they are freaking CHEAP too! To bad I cannot afford those right now, lol. I have an entire ENGINE REBUILD to take care of right now

 

I have a set of Lexan T-tops. They shave about 5 pounds off the car compared to the glass ones. I managed to swap my glass ones for them 50/50. I even swapped the locks so I can still lock the T-tops.

Fiberglass doors are nice and light but to my knowledge they're a race only item with no provisions for roll down windows.

As for the fenders, very little weight saving since the third gen fenders weight next to nothing as it is.

A fiberglass deck lid would be nice. That steel deck lid is about 20 pounds (without the glass). I have a sheet of aluminum for a deck lid and a solid mounted sheet of Lexan for a rear window.

 

the 3-gen fenders are light? i though that they would weigh quite a bit. I figure that, w/ all the fenders on the car, 100-150 lbs total. I am pretty far off?

 

Third gen front fenders are only the outer skin and is only single layer sheet metal. The inner fender can't be removed because it provides the shock tower support and is part of the frame structure. The underside of the fender is a piece of plastic to keep the dirt out. Each fender can't be more than 10 pounds. 20 at the most. A fiberglass replacement won't be much of a weight saving.

 

I removed alot of stuff, the list below. I shaved about 600 lbs off my car. I can drive it on the street, its street legal except for the slicks and exhaust if the cop wanted to be a ********. I usually trailer it to wherever, and then drive it. . I took off the following meaningless **** off the car.

wheelwells-plastic ones
front and rear crash gaurds
all unneeded wires
shaved all tabs off metal where things were removed
light weight glass and t tops
one seat, no carpet, gutted dash with after market gauges
shave door frames, requires custom fabbing
i have a cd player with 2 speakers
seat, shifter and wheel only inside
no carpet at all
no interior at all
no HVAC (heater ventalation air controls)
No ac or heat
full drag suspension
tubular k member
lightwight everything
fiberglass hood, if u cant pony up for one remove the hinges and shave supports then pin it on, Basically a piece of sheetmetal when your done.
remove all unecessary plastic underhood, in car, etc.
remove stock fuel system, replace with fuel cell.

My car looks like a stock third gen except for the slicks and skinnies, cowl hood, and limo tint all around.

 

I have glass in my 84 and lexan in my 91. Im not sure on the weight of either, but I can tell you that the lexan weigh about half as much as the glass.

 

No need to tub it. Besides, that would require backhalving the car. With a properly setup stock-style suspension, you can go well into the single digits....

From http://www.bmrfabrication.com/ :

7.66 @ 186 mph!

Once again Rick Head from Innovative Turbo just blew away the record for fastest torque arm car and fastest Drag Radial car. This is not a 4 link, back halved race car. It has a full interior, weighs 3465 lbs, and uses BMR off-the-shelf Xtreme Duty suspension products with Mickey Thompson Drag Radials. Congratulations Rick!

- Justin

 

Lexan is nice not not recommended in a street car. My windshield is 3/16" Lexan. The glass was 20 pounds. The lexan is 10 pounds. The drawback to Lexan in a street car is that if you still have windshield wipers, they will scratch the Lexan. High end Lexan called Marguard doesn't scratch or yellow as easily but is about 4 times the cost of regular Lexan. Since the factory windshield is glued in, there's no real seal for the Lexan. Mine is secured with a bunch of self tapping screws. When the car is sitting in the pits and gets caught in the rain, the Lexan leaks.

Rear glass is extremely heavy. I use 1/8" Lexan, have it rivited to the body, and use rods for supports to keep it from collapsing in the center. Converting the rear hatch to something lighter in a street car is highly not recommended. The closest thing you can do for that is find a fiberglass rear hatch.

 

WOW.. 600 lbs? That is freaking crazy! Even if my car was stock; 600lbs lighter I would be in the freaking 13's! Why is converting the rear hatch to lighter when used in a street driven car not a good idea?

 

The rear glass alone weighs 150lbs in itself not to mention the decklid and spoiler. Get a lexan piece that weighs less than half of that. Shaving weight is just removing all unnescissary items and comfort stuff. All crash bars and other things are removed. My cage and harness are the only thing protecting me if i crash or get hit. When your done stripping your car of the bull**** you dont need, the pile will be about the size of your car.

 

The rear hatch doesn't have a framework so the stiffness of the glass keeps it in position. A Lexan rear window could never be lifted up without making some sort of framework to keep it in place and in shape.

If I realized how much work it was to cut out the entire seal area to slide the Lexan under the outer skin for a smooth transition, I would have never converted my hatch to Lexan. You want the Lexan under the sheet metal to prevent a blowoff. I rivited the Lexan to the underside of the outer shell then painted the rivit heads black to match the car. You'll never notice it in pictures or going down the track but it would never win any car shows. I fabricated a rear framework to support the Lexan at the rear and to provide a place to attach the deck lid. My deck lid is simply a sheet of aluminum that's attached with a bunch of Dzus fasteners. To complete the illusion. the original spoiler was bolted to the aluminum sheet.

http://www.hardtail.com/pics/temp/decklid.jpg
http://www.hardtail.com/pics/temp/backwindow.jpg

 

Another problem with lexan is that is illegal for street use in many states (NJ is one of them).

It is pretty easy to lose 400lbs out of your car and still have a stock-appearing interior with the exception of your rear seat.

I'll have a list of weight reduction posted up for you later.

- Justin

 

How much do the rear seats weigh? I wanna keep what I can.. but the things that weigh a ton, and serve really no purpose are what i am after. Thanx everybody! I will be looking for that list, Justin

 

IIRC, 3rd gen rear seats and belts weigh 27lbs.

Some people say that it isn't worth it to be very thorough when doing weight reduction, but you gotta think of it this way.....sure an un-needed part may only weigh .5 lb, but how many .5 lb un-needed parts are in the car? Lots....and they all add up. I haven't taken my car to any extremes so far with weight reduction, and I've gotten 120lbs out, not including the swap to aluminum heads, which saved another 70ish lbs.

If you want to talk to someone who is referred to as the "Weight ****", check out the board linked in my sig, and ask for some advice from NJSPEEDER. He and I are the site admins, and he'll get back to you pretty quickly.

- Justin

 

Would 100 lbs be noticeable if I could reduce my weight that much?