What can do I to shave weight????

well you could lose the rear seats. depending on your stereo needs rear speakersrace with half tank or less track fuel can save ya if needed, well im sure someone can help ya as im also in the same boat as my car is about 3438lb with me in it and stock int. im a heavy weight.

anything from getting some cold forged wheels (draglites) to getting a tubular k member. The diet options are endless bro. Hell, i just got done replacing my steering column with an aluminum one, i probably saved 10 pounds but hey it all adds up. if you can think it up im sure it can be done. good luck.

Drew

Removing the seats will save a few pounds, as would removing the spare tire. Not sure if you want to do this for the track, or for everyday driving. You could also remove the front sway bar. I think that takes off about 25 lbs. Things like tubular k-member, drag wheels, fiberglass hood, and all those sorts of things will help out too. You could also take off your gt body kit if you wanted to. Just a thought though.

Chris

p.s. One thing that is always overlooked is the weight of the driver. If you lose weight, you will have the same added effects to the car.

p.s. One thing that is always overlooked is the weight of the driver. If you lose weight, you will have the same added effects to the car.

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Fat guy story

Lab Rat said:

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Lol, I know a guy who lost 60lbs one winter so he could run faster the next season.

You could also go to manual brakes and steering. That's a lot of weight savings too.

Its easier to put the car on a diet than the driver.

Take out all of your interior, the seats, panels, and carpet. You'll [should] notice black tarry sound deadener under the rear seats, and going upwards on the firewall. The stuff going upwards on the firewall.. cut away as much as you can with an exacto knife [cause I think it helps the heater box seal tight - so dont just go tearing it out like I did ] When you look at the floor you'll notice that from front to back these cars have this weird covering of tarry stuff. You will need a heat gun but if you are extremly persistant [buy a case of beer to help] and a have a scraper [like a drywall scraper or whatevs] use the heat gun and just kinda go behind the heat gun with the scraper under the tar until its all gone, front to back. It's pain staking and you will want to quit half way through, if they used lotsa glue to put it on, but its worth it. Sometimes it comes right off sometimes you chip away bit by bit [i've gutted prolly 10 Stangs so far ] Then peel the insulation from under the carpet - prolly wet or damp anyway. If you remove the rear panels where the seatbelts and speakers are [specially in a hatch] there is rubberized [in the 86 & older ones - newer ones have plastic backing with SHARP staples that are out to get you ] coating sound deadening stuff in there. Basically underneath and behind every panel in the car you will find insulation.

This insulation, along with that funny strips of tar Ford put on the floor in my buddies 86 GT hatch was worth 97 LBs in total. We had him get on a bathroom scale then I would hand him a box and mark the diff... Wont get quite as much out of a Coupe. We were VERY anal about getting every and any bit out that we could though and for some reason his had a ton... wheras my Coupe didn't have as much.

I'm sure everyones mentioned sway bar, dog bone on the rear end, alum driveshaft, front bumper insert - if 4 eyed car you will have to unbolt the brace then cut away the big middle part so you can retain your signal lights...

Funny, I just found the paper from what we got out of my car:

Front sway bar - 22 LBs
Dogbone on rear - 8 LB
Smog pump and hardware - 8 LB
Spare tire and jack etc - 40 LB
Mufflers [Dyno max turbos] - 22 LBs [put straight pipes in cause I have the cats]
Sound deadener and tar:
Bag 1 - 10 LB
Bag 2 - 10 LB
Bag 3 - 32 LB
stock to alum driveshaft - 8 LBs
Rims: from 10 holes with street tires to Weld Draglites w/ street tires and skinnies:
Both rear Welds saved 16 LB
Both frotn skinnies saved 30 LB.
I have Convo Pros now so prolly same.
87 - newer fiberglass Front bumper insert/reinforcement and struts - 24 LBs [have yet to do it to this car but was written on there - I thought it was 27 LBs in another post I started].

Funny I never could find the paper with this stuff written down and today i find it here under some stuff

*edit - noticed you want to keep the sound deadener but figure someone else might get some usage out of my babbling above
Sound deadener after all these years... whenever we've removed it, its always damp and and filled with moisture, and the tar that is glued to the floor - whenever we remove that there's almost always water or condensation under it in the drain channels in the floor pans... sometimes even little holes and rust. i'd ditch it. But you will get more interior noise - the loudest being the ring and pinion at 45-55 MPH cruise believe it or not. I turn the radio up
The way I see it, the lighter the car is?? The faster it is, better on fuel it is, and easier on brake pads it is.

Depends on what you feel is "streetable". One of the previous owners pulled the heater box, controls, etc. out of mine along with the a/c. At this point I kind of wish I had the manual windows & locks
All good suggestions so far; if you want a fiberglass hood anyway, it is one of the best places to shave weight.

what does that steel rear bumper beam weigh in an lx? i pulled one out of a GT it was at least 25lbs. you might want to keep that on a street car but drag racing at the track i doubt anyone will hit you in the back.

or instead of ripping out everything in your car..only do a few things like draglites and an aluminum driveshaft..and add a bolt on instead of tearing everything out..its a little easier.

NKau

Depends on the hood.

I was disappointed to find out that my Cervinis 2 1/2" cowl hood weighed the exact same as my stock LX hood... they were both around 41 LBs. Cervini hood blows the stocker away in the looks dept though and is a NICE fit, and finished well on the underside.

If your main goal is wieght removal dont buy a Cervini... quality on the other hand... Yes.

AXIStang - I have no clue - never removed that rear brace yer talking about, because we always looked at it as ballast over the rear of the car which = traction...

What does the rear axel dampner do? Why is it there?

Schlodes said:

NKau

Depends on the hood.

I was disappointed to find out that my Cervinis 2 1/2" cowl hood weighed the exact same as my stock LX hood... they were both around 41 LBs. Cervini hood blows the stocker away in the looks dept though and is a NICE fit, and finished well on the underside.

If your main goal is wieght removal dont buy a Cervini... quality on the other hand... Yes.

AXIStang - I have no clue - never removed that rear brace yer talking about, because we always looked at it as ballast over the rear of the car which = traction...

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Not sure of the brand of my hood, but I can tell by lifting the hood; even on the hinges that it is a fair amount lighter than the stocker. It fits well, but at the top of the cowl you can see the fiberglass starting to sag by the way the paint looks, and the bottom is unfinished (doesn't bother me), probably not nearly the same quality as the cervinis.

fiber glass hood, k-member kit, take out the electrical windows, smog, a/c, power steering.. right there its like 80-90 lbs.. then do the ZONE and ur good :o)

man i drove to my father-in-law's yesterday to swap my crappy cowl hood with my stocker, only to find (duh) that the bolts for the cowl are a different size than the the stock bolts, and i didnt have any stock size bolts handy and he lives in the middle of nowhere...by then it was freezing and raining so i bolted the cowl back on and did some donuts in anger....but anyways, my cowl is amazingly light, i can pick it up with one hand with complete ease, and it's fully lined on the underside. The stock hood actually doesnt weigh all that much but it's a good 20 pounds heavier if i had to guess. I think when i go to buy a hood i'm either getting Cervini's new 1.5 inch cowl so that it's not very noticeable but still light, or i'm gonna try to find a stock style fiberglass hood, although i've never seen one.

Remove the backseat I did it wasnt that hard.

What will be affected by removing the front sway bar? Cornering? Does anyone know how much I might gain in the 1/4 if I get a short belt(Full accesories) I want to bypass the smog and A/C and whatever else anyone thinks I can. And what size belt is it?

i'm going to say cornering as uni bodys like to flex.

Schlodes said:

NKau

Depends on the hood.

I was disappointed to find out that my Cervinis 2 1/2" cowl hood weighed the exact same as my stock LX hood... they were both around 41 LBs. Cervini hood blows the stocker away in the looks dept though and is a NICE fit, and finished well on the underside.

If your main goal is wieght removal dont buy a Cervini... quality on the other hand... Yes.

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That right there is

I have a 2.5 cowl Cervini hood and it is a TON lighter than stock. You can easily tell by lifting it up. Maybe you had an aftermarket one already on your car dude, you can def tell the difference.