Team Evil

My '74 is getting a resurrection and a conversion to chrome bumpers front and rear, since I'm going in and modifying things beyond returning to stock I was hoping that someone might know of the areas that could be cut away or reduced in size to make some significant weight gains without having everything look like Swiss Cheese. I'm prepared to drill the doors and jams with 1.5 inch holes to remove the excess weight, same with either drilling or removing sections of the hood under structure. I'm grafting in the mid-section of an aftermarket stinger hood anyway, so modifying the hood inner structure would be all that much more work. In the end, the air conditioning pieces will need to go along with the emissions bits and bobs. In Massachusetts these years don't get smogged at all, nobody cares. Also thought that I would either drill out or mostly remove the body fiberglass beneath the aluminum door sill plates or remove the plates as well. I would imagine that there is quite a bit of fiberglass in the rear storage area that can be modified as well. Just wondering if/hoping that someone has already taken this road and might have some advice as to where to look at for lightening things up significantly.

Thanks—

Alan 71

Hi TE,
I was curious so I drilled a 2" diameter hole in a fender and weighed the piece of fiberglass that came out.... a little less than 1/2 ounce.
So 32 holes equals about 1 pound.
320 holes equal about 10 pounds.
Regards,
Alan

Gold Dragon

Always been a big fan of the power to weight ratio. In steel bodied cars significant weight drops can be obtained by removing metal. The Vette is a different animal. Corvettes are HEAVY, and structural integrity is important. Think your efforts would be better spent to increase the HP rather than dropping weight.

billcarson

seems so foolish to gamble with your life.

John 65

Lots of great info to remove weight in this thread.

Hope it help's.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...loss-mods.html

Last thing I would do is remove fiberglass.

Good luck.

Team Evil

So, I could probably pull around ten pounds per panel with a whole TON of drilling. If I could get one hundred pounds off of the doors and hood, another hundred off of the rear bulkhead and such. Lose those heavy bumpers/inner bumper crash bars and lighten things like the radiator support and under hood brackets. Lost the air conditioning and emissions equipment, take some weight off of those INSANELY heavy seats and lighten the spare tire well and such, I might just make some real difference. The engine is just a basic L82 and will eventually be replaced, but I'd like to get a baseline with some weight reduction before installing the new crate stroker. Any other imperial info would be very much appreciated here, looking to hear from others who have tried this successfully. Thanks—

Oh, and THANK YOU John for that link ! ! !

John 65

The search is a wonderful feature on the forum.

You can usually find what you're looking for in no time flat.

Someone's already been there, done that.

Good luck with your "diet".

Mod75

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You will lose close to 100 pounds by eliminating the stuff from the front end. The Top big cross bar and the right hand big block are the heavy ones.

PainfullySlow

Buy a lithium battery and drop 30 lbs. Seems like a no brainer for those trying to put the C3 on a diet.

terrys6t8roadster

Don't know why you are trying to shed weight, but I was told that removing unsprung weight is the best way. Cast caliphers to Aluminum, same as engine components. Suspension parts swapping; steel spring to fiber glass, lighter weight control arms. There are also hollow sway bars if your rich. Lighter weight wheel and tire package. Standard suspension to coil overs. I'm sure there is more that I've forgotten. T

Rescue Rogers

Unsprung weight is best for acceleration but you would need to lighten the whole load to get performance. I used to race mountain bikes and getting a 28 pound bike down to a 21.5 lb bike was a big deal and it involved every little piece so a few pounds here doesnt seem like much until its a few pounds here, afew pounds there, etc. Then it all adds up and becomes a racing machine. Then you add in lighter wheels and it feels like you added an extra shot of nitrous if your tires hook up. That same bike went from a 24 speed to a single speed and ended up at 18 lbs.

If your serious and are using this to race you can go to tubed front A arms as well, bigger aluminum wheels. get rid of your power steering setup. gut the interior and just keep the drivers seat with no carpet. Get rid of the glass (not windshield)and go to a saftey plexi glass on the rear and side windows. Get rid of the T Top glass and make thin plexi shields or fjust leave them out. You could drill the bejesus out of the interior and just patch the holes thinly to keep out fumes and add a roll cage to stiffen it up. You already talked about the spare.

Good luck. let us know how it ends up

PS

Our saying for parts went

" you can have light , strong and cheap (inexpensive)......pick 2. "

thats how it is

Dynra Rockets

The link above states most of the things you can take off/replace so no need to rehash, but I will add that removing the pop-up headlight assembly will save a ton of weight.

To most people that is blasphemy as the pop-ups are a big part of the C3 identity and removing them "ruins" the car. There are several options to accomplish this such as the Ecklers fixed inserts or glassing in flush with headlights relocated to the grill.

Here is a thread from about a month ago. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ightening.html

R

69427

I disagree. All the horsepower in the world won't get an overweight Corvette to slow down quickly for a corner, or get it through a corner quickly. And a heavy car needs heavier brakes and bigger/wider (heavier) tires to help it slow down or corner acceptably.

Reducing weight makes a car faster everywhere.

My '69 is 2760#. Full factory interior, ps/pb, and no swiss cheese holes in the bodywork. No rocket science, just lighter weight components and aluminum replacing a fair amount of Chevrolet's typical overweight cheap iron and steel components.

L-46man

When I originally bought my 69....the car had been lightened. It was a 'gymkhana car'.

one seat
No carpet
radio delete
ps delete
pb delete
Heater delete
alloy wheels (-40 lbs)
I 'added' a fiberglas spring -32 lbs
Bumpers and brackets off.
Spare and carrier off
side exhausts with no covers
Ign shielding and brackets out (no radio) ALL
Windshield washer bottle out (wipers and arms gone but the motor was retained)
Convertible top out
pass seatbelts out
No tilt & telescope wheel

Futhermore : convert to tubular A arms
Put a transverse front fiberglas spring
Eng compt dust shields gone
Aluminum radiator.
Overflow tank gone....the old 'dribble hose
Electric Fan
Headlights remove
alum intake manifold
Fiberglas t-tops with no padding
Pass side dash out.

aaaannd you end up driving a 'carcass' LOL

ps don't drill holes....not worth it.

You can get down to 2500lbs or so (small block)

Team Evil

Thank you L-46—


one seat—done
No carpet—done
radio delete—done
ps delete—planned
pb delete—planned
Heater delete—done
alloy wheels (-40 lbs)—done
I 'added' a fiberglas spring -32 lbs—maybe later
Bumpers and brackets off—can't do
Spare and carrier off—done
side exhausts with no covers—can't do
Ign shielding and brackets out (no radio) ALL—done
Windshield washer bottle out (wipers and arms gone but the motor was retained)—can't do
Convertible top out—T-top—
pass seatbelts out—done
No tilt & telescope wheel—almost done

Futhermore : convert to tubular A arms—planned
Put a transverse front fiberglas spring—probably not
Eng compt dust shields—done
Aluminum radiator.—planned
Overflow tank gone....the old 'dribble hose—done
Electric Fan—done
Headlights remove—can't do
alum intake manifold—almost done
Fiberglas t-tops with no padding—inner panels on T-Tops removed
Pass side dash out.—done, but might be returned

aaaannd you end up driving a 'carcass' LOL—hopefully !

ps don't drill holes....not worth it.—probably will anyway for the cool factor

You can get down to 25500lbs or so (small block)—not quite there, but better than stock I hope.

mrvette

Pay attention to 69427 Mike knows about dieting.....knocked ~500 lbs off his racer....

I switched to plastic rear spring, Billy stein sport shocks, custom aluminum grill, hollowed out hood under the bulge, L98 heads on the 350 truck 4 bolt block, LT1 like a '94 vette, serp drive that retained the a/c lately the radiator was replaced with an all aluminum unit, and the old a/c condenser too, headlights were lost 20 years ago by a damn deer, which forced the Ecklers sugar scoops, and they later modified with shorter rectangular bulbs off later Camaro, and openings reduced by 50%, custom one piece aluminum grill....the brakes are unfortunately stock as no $$$$ for lighter weight calipers, maybe should look at later cars in a junkyard....but at age 73 now, my body is not up for that.....

I gave up on the old muncie 4 speed stick, and put in my own 200 4r auto, which I suspect was a weight gain, but here in Florida it was overdrive or die, as 80 is the upshift point on our freeways.....

see pix below,

Team Evil

Thanks for more tips ! I have an aftermarket stinger-style hood for the car which won't have any inner structure or hinges, just hood pins. As it's a chrome bumper conversion, the early stock plastic grills will work great, they weight about as much as a grapefruit. Just using the side grills, no center section. Wouldn't mind running center grill but they cost around fifty bucks plus shipping which can be better put towards the aluminum radiator. I just stumbled over the Sugar Scoop-style head light replacements and those are on the list now. The rear spring replacement will have to wait until I have the skills to install it. I know that I can't do something like that yet. I'm 63 so there's just a smidge more time left, although after 60 you just never know if there will be another Christmas or not. It's a genuine crap shoot after a certain age . . .

v2racing

I've shaved a few pounds off, although I didn't weigh it before I started, so exactly how much I won't know when i'm done. This was a highly optioned L48 Auto AC Convertible.

L88 hood, very light, stock hood was incredibly heavy.
Removed front 5 mph junk. Cut mount for it off air tank
Removed rear 5 mph junk
Aluminum heads
Aluminum intake
Aluminum water pump
Mini starter
Headers and 3" exhaust, lighter than manifolds, cat and stock exhaust
Fiberglass spring
Removed all AC parts.
Rack and Pinion Steering
Aluminum radiator
Tubular upper A-arms
9.5" torque converter
BTO trans crossmember

Mike