you can take most of the front bumper out if you want to. i took a plasma cutter to mine. i left in the section that bolts the front to the body and cut out the rest. you will loose close to 75lbs with all that stuff gone. this is what i did with mine. its not close to being done yet but you can get an idea of what you can do if you want to.

 

Wow! Looks good. Don't ever bump into anything. What are you going to do grill wise. I wonder if I can find a way to mount my factory grill/turn signal without the metal brackets that are on the metal cross member?
Bee Jay

 

I eliminated the honeycomb and brace also.


I have to admit I kept the vacuum tank and the triangular front bumper brace. I wasn't really after shaving a bunch of weight, just making it a little easier to work on the lights and such in the nose.

Up untill two days ago I had the grill opening covered by black screening backed by a piece if 1/8" open cell foam. The outside temps have been in the low 90's and the car got hot (220) I pulled into a parking lot and cut the screen and foam out. The engine temp immediately dropped to 180. Now all I've got is the 1/4" chicken wire I was using to back the foam up and hold it in place.



I reckon I'll shoot a little matte black on that shiney wire and try to make it a little less noticeable. I need to put my valence back on and buy a stock air deflector to put back underneath. It'd probably help with the heat too.

John

 

I think that when I get my car back, I will take this crossmember and lighten it as much as possible and open up the liscence plate area. Then I will run the stock grills to each side, and some kind of mesh grill in the middle. That cross brace ties the two fenders together and the bumper to the radiator support. I already dumped the vacuum reservoir/battering ram.

Your water temp would not have shot up if you had the valence and spoiler in place. I ran aluminum block off plates behind the grill and the temps stayed fine. I can't find the link, my old posts aren't so easy to find.

 

You might be able to use a center grill piece like this one I got off e-bay awhile back. I was going to use it when I was just bobbing the bumperettes off. Just a thought.



John

 

i am building a custom aluminum grill. i have a steel tube frame built behind the bumper now and that is used for the headlight mounts and to add support to the body. the headlights are in the center of the nose now. i need to get some pics of it to post sometime soon. they will be hidden behind the grill also.

fiberglass your own brackets to the inside of the bumper and you can mount the stock grills with no problem.

 

I got the bumper and spoilers today. I get the car back tomorow. Check out the plate area. My next task is to cut this area out. Then I will cut out the same area on the front crossmember when I get the car back. I will need to make some kind of grill.
Bee Jay

 

This is what the front bumper looks like tonight. Much use of my hole saw, dremmel tool, and scroll saw.
Bee Jay

 

as i always say, slowly but shirley

 

I did not get the car back this week. Long story, but when I get it back, the repair will be perfect and the paint will blend perfectly. I can't be too mad that it wasn't ready, I'm just a picky pain in the a$$, besides, they gave me rental car for the weekend. I took the wife and a few nieces and nephews to the beach in it today.
I went shopping this morning for a few materials. I bought a metal license plate frame at Kragen's for $5, and a black metal screen waste basket and in box tray from Staples for $11 and $6. The in basket will go back because it wasn't needed. The wire screen is really easy to cut. This is what I ended up with. I can easily remove this grill and replace with a genuine license plate if needed. What do you guys think? Should I used a different grill material? Should I bid a few hundred dollars for a 73 middle grill? I'm sure that trimming that metal cross member will be more challenging. I've been watching a cooling thread really closely. I guess big block 68-74s really cool better when they remove the license plate. So maybe this is a cosmetic, weight saving, and functional cooling improvement. The beauty of this is that it can easily be removed, like a license plate, and replaced with a license plate. I will prolly switch between the two to gather some comparison temp data.
Bee Jay

 

One of my co-workers just gave me a great idea. He drives a C4 and they use the license plate area for cold air induction to their tuned port injection system. The C3 is limited here because of the limited space between the radiator and hood. But wouldn't a high rise hood solve that problem. Hmmm, something to think about.
Bee Jay

 

I got the car back on Friday. Over the weekend I worked on the crossmember/brace. This sucker weighed 18 lbs. I used my hole saw and saber saw and hacked on it untill it only weighed 10 lbs. I prolly could have gotten another 2-3 lbs with another 2-3 hours of drilling and hacking, but I got tired. Check it out. Norvall would be proud. Hey, where is he? The coragated plastic/rubber support only weighs 6 lbs, so it can stay.
Also, here is a picture of 20+ lbs of trash that is not going back in. I think I am saving about 25 lbs with this mod.
Bee Jay

 

I got the bumper and grills installed. Putting that bumper on is just as big a PITA as taking it off. I only have to reinstall the front spoiler. What do you guys think? I lost 25lbs and made the center grill area functional. I think it would look better with a 73 Vette type middle grill. Maybe I can make a duplicate, or find a used one cheap. I wonder if the engine will run cooler with the increased air intake. I'll find out this weekend.
Bee Jay

 

That looks really good. I like it.

Don't get too carried away with discarding parts. A lot of those actually support the front end fiberglass. The vacuum reservoir holds the radiator support and ties in the farthest forward parts on the car back into the frame. If all that is removed and nothing is put in its place you are going to have the entire nose unsupported and it will crack off the firewall or it will break at the tops of the fenders (top of the wheel arch where it is the thinnest section width).

 

If it matters, I think this thing is called an "energy absorber". However, being a fan of word clanging, I really like seventysixvette's "Bumper Lumps"

I removed most of the stuff you're talking about an installed a glass bumper front and rear. I'm also smoothing out the seam line so the bumper and body appear as one. Yours went back on looking great!

 

The front end is supported. Check out this thread:http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...questions.html
I lost 45lbs with that mod and 25 lbs with this mod, so thats 70 lbs off of the front end. And additional cooling from the open plate area and no air reservoir in the air stream either.
Bee Jay

 

I've been driving the car for about a week now, and the water temp has yet to get over 180 degrees. I used to run 190-195 no matter what, but now the oil temp and water temp are way down. And this is without the spoiler. I put the spoiler back on last night and I'll drive it today. The spoiler usually lowers the temp even more. I'm ready for my hot 396 ci small block.
Bee Jay

 

The spoiler is back on and this repair/project is done. Check it out:


Bee Jay

 

Today was the hottest in this area all summer. 95 degrees here on the coast, and prolly 15 degrees hotter inland. I drove the car to Santa Maria at lunch, about 20 miles away. I did my normal hyper cruise, and with the road surface approaching 100 degrees the water temp never got above 180 degrees. When I got into Santa Maria in stop and go traffic and traffic lights, the temperture appoached 195 degrees, but came down quickly when I got up to hiway speeds again. This mod really cools the car down. I would have been 210-220 degrees before easily. The oil temp never went above 180 degrees either.
Once while doing double the speed limit last week, one of the headlights popped up on me, but as soon as I backed off, it went back down. I don't have a air reservoir up front, so at wot, the vacuum approached zero, and at high speeds the air pressure in front of the radiator, which is sealed quite well, popped the headlight up momentarily.
Bee Jay

 

You might fancy something like this?