| How to get the weight off your car |
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- Lose the carpet in the trunk; then use a heat gun and scraper, and lose the tar like crap in there, it is everywhere!
- pull up the interior carpet. Lose the jute padding under it. It is a waste of space and wieght.
- While you are under the carpet, plan on another couple of hours scraping more of the tar-like sound deadener. Now, above the headliner is more of that crap! Also, under the back seat.
- Remove the v-shaped brace behind the back seat. It serves no known purpose, kinda like your cars appendix. You will find more soundproofing there too, lose it.
- Remove the all the interior trim panels, and lose the sound deadener/insulation behind there. You will, naturally be putting all the interoir panels and carpet back, but no soundproofing anymore.
- While the carpet is up, along the firewall is this heavy, almost roofing like material, pull it down, and toss it.
- Also, when you remove your door's inner panels, you will find, guess what? MORE soundproofing! Toss it, remove evrything, but save the plastic stuff, the stuff that looks like a garbage bag; glue it back on, it keeps moisture away; and re-install the inner door panels.
- If you have a power passenger seat, go to a junkyard and replace it with manual. If you have driver power, do the same. Also, mount lightwieght seats onto the frames.
- You will find more soundproofing under the real package shelf.
- You are now done inside the car, put the interior panels
back in place.
- Leave the trunk carpet in the track, paint the trunk flat black or spatter if you want to.
- Now, under the hood. Most of the V8 MN12s have this group 65 series battery. That thing alone weighs in at 74 lbs! Why the hell do we need anything that heavy? Move it to the trunk, and while you are at it, get an Optima Battery, which is less than half that, with the same CCA, with room to spare.
- Remove your front bumper cover. It is not hard at all, just pay attention to what you are doing. It is now time for either A, if you are REALLY brave, lose the steel bumper bar..or B..take out the holesaw collection, and drill the daylights out of that bar. It
will still serve it's putpose if ever called upon (hopefully, it
wont be!), and you are removing a significant portion of it's mass.
Then, when you are done there, put the cover back on, and
no-one will ever know what you have done
- Do you really need a killer stereo?
- Between the battery and the bumper, you have removed a good 100 or so pounds from the front end, and moved around 30 to the rear.
- In the interioir and trunk padding, you lost probaby aorund
150-200lbs. Now, there is more to do.
- A fiberglass hood will lose you another 60-75lbs. While at it with the hood, an aluminum prop rod (easy as hell to make) wieghs less, and is more reliable than the hydraulic shocks they use on these..you know, the ones that always stop holding the hood up!
- Toss out the inner plastic fenders. Not much, but everything counts.
- If you are really getting nuts (I am starting to get there), holesaw the rad support. DO NOT HOLESAW THE INNER STEEL FENDERS, they are structural.
- Of course it would be nice to replace that ultra heavy engine cradle; that damn thing (I KNOW this for a fact) is over 250lbs and if you can get a tubular one in Cromemoly, not only will you gain space, and be able to lower and set the engine rearward, but you will probably lose 150lbs from the nose of the car, get better handleing, something alot stiffer.
- Aluminum driveshaft is another 10-20lbs, the aluminum FRPP
carrier is around 50 lbs saving. But this is not as cheap
as everything above.
- Dont forget the AC Condensor and all the lines!! That gets another 40-50 lbs out of the car too
I know 300 can be pulled with almost no sacrifice in the cars
comfort although, I do admit, the car is a bit louder, you actually
can hear creaks and ratles here and there, and there is more heat in the car, but the AC more than makes up for it. But, do you want to go fast, or drive a living room?
Weight is fairly cheap to lose, and look at every 100 lbs as 10 HP. With the exceptoin of the cradle, you should spend less than $600 for EVERYTHING in the 1st paragraph, and lose a good 300 lbs. Where else can you get 30HP, a couple of MPG, better handling, AND save wear and tear (not hauling 300 lbs IS easier on the car), for under $600? Not to mention, the hood will look awesome, and the battery will not only save wieght, but by relocating it, you are putting it where it will do some good - over the rear wheels.
V8 Thunder
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