Weight reduction: Running out of ideas.

[Motivational]

3/16 Lexan windshield weighs 9 lbs. Stock was 21 lbs. So another 12 lbs. saved.

 

[GT6Steve]

Do you know about this stuff? I get it at the local airfield for my windshield. Really great stuff....

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Plexus-Plastic-Cleaner-Protectant-13-Ounce/dp/B00092CKN4[/ame]

 

[84rzv500r]

what happened to the aluminum dash????????????

 

[84rzv500r]

Do you know about this stuff? I get it at the local airfield for my windshield. Really great stuff....

http://www.amazon.com/Plexus-Plastic-Cleaner-Protectant-13-Ounce/dp/B00092CKN4

Yeah when I had my 182 cessna Permatex makes some killer plexi cleaner polish

 

[Motivational]

what happened to the aluminum dash????????????

I took that out 10 years ago and threw it away then put a stock dash back in.

 

[Motivational]

Do you know about this stuff? I get it at the local airfield for my windshield. Really great stuff....

http://www.amazon.com/Plexus-Plastic-Cleaner-Protectant-13-Ounce/dp/B00092CKN4

Yes I am going to get some.

 

[69427]

Kicking around modifying a C5 or C6 front suspension crossmember to fit under my car. One thing that has me curious is the weight of that part. I don't know what that number is, but it does have to be fairly light to make all the cut and re-weld work worthwhile. The price for these things usually isn't cheap either, which I find a bit odd as there can't be that much demand for these things. If anyone knows the weight of these things I'd sure appreciate the information.

Thanks.

 

[69427]

Haven't had any luck finding out the weight of a C5 front cradle yet, but have been amusing myself with other stuff in the mean time. Did a test fit of the new trans crossmember with the exhaust plugged in.
The crossmember so far has made my weight target of ten pounds less than the stock 22#piece (11.4#). I've hung on it a couple times and it feels pretty sturdy. I'm trying to figure out a convenient way to attach a dial indicator to the tunnel area and measure the crossmember deflection when I hang some weight off the center of it.



I still need to grind a couple areas for additional clearance for the termination box. I screwed up somewhere while I was first measuring stuff. I still need to make a small bracket that bolts between the crossmember and the transmission mount.

Got the shifter mount built. I'm mounting the stock Muncie shifter on the transmission rather than to a bracket on the crossmember.



Earlier test fit.




I've got the replacement (tubular) shifter linkage almost finished. The swapout from the 5 speed to the Muncie should pull about 40 pounds off the car (trans: -30#, crossmember: -10#, lighter weight pressure plate: -3.5#, new shift linkage: -1#, trans mount bracket: +3#?).

 

[69427]

Kicking around modifying a C5 or C6 front suspension crossmember to fit under my car. One thing that has me curious is the weight of that part. I don't know what that number is, but it does have to be fairly light to make all the cut and re-weld work worthwhile. The price for these things usually isn't cheap either, which I find a bit odd as there can't be that much demand for these things. If anyone knows the weight of these things I'd sure appreciate the information.

Thanks.

Well, an ebay vendor was kind enough to answer my question regarding the weight of the C5 cradle that he's selling. He says 44 pounds. I'm disappointed at the weight number because his price is very reasonable, and the steel crossmember I welded up for my car is 35 pounds. I'd have to take 20 pounds off the C5 part to make it worth my time (and expense).

The C6 Z06 cradle is magnesium and lighter (I don't know how much). I can't weld magnesium and I certainly can't justify the price that another vendor is asking for that part.

 

[vette427sbc]

Hydraulic clutch could be a few lbs worth: "Composite" (plastic?) master cylinder, small plastic reservoir and an aluminum hydro TB. The stock Z-bar, clutch fork and frame bracket have to weigh a decent amount.

 

[69427]

Hydraulic clutch could be a few lbs worth: "Composite" (plastic?) master cylinder, small plastic reservoir and an aluminum hydro TB. The stock Z-bar, clutch fork and frame bracket have to weigh a decent amount.

Interesting. I've got a few spare clutch linkage parts laying around. I'll have to weigh them and get an idea what my present clutch linkage weight baseline is.

 

[69427]

Still trying to figure out how to get some more weight off the front end. Not having a whole lot of luck figuring out what I can replace, so it looks like I'll try my hand at welding up an aluminum front crossmember. Given the weight of a C5 aluminum crossmember (44#) and the time and expense to modify that, and my present steel crossmember (35#), I think I'll start rounding up some material to weld up a substitute. Here's an ancient picture when I had the present crossmember first tacked together.




I'm painfully slow welding bigger aluminum projects, so I'm hoping I can do a decent amount of the construction before I have to take the car apart to do the final test fitting of things. I don't like having the car apart too long if it means missing an available track day.

 

[enkeivette]

Aluminum frame. Just do it, dont cry about it. Make 2 while youre at it

 

[69427]

Aluminum frame. Just do it, dont cry about it. Make 2 while youre at it

Well, I guess I'm getting there, piece by piece.

So far I've been getting my material at a local scrapyard, which is fine for small projects, but I need to find a source (and pricing!) for bigger pieces.

 

[mrvette]

Aluminum frame. Just do it, dont cry about it. Make 2 while youre at it

Well, I guess I'm getting there, piece by piece.

So far I've been getting my material at a local scrapyard, which is fine for small projects, but I need to find a source (and pricing!) for bigger pieces.

As you may know, we have a Nav Air base here, and so on the other side of rt17 was a scrap metal dealer.....I ASSume it's still there....I bought some stuff from them years ago....anyway.....check around your local area if you have a .mil base, and I BET there is a scrap metal dealer...

if not, lemme know some specs' and maybe I breeze on by and see what's what....easy do man.....:smash::smash::thumbs:

 

[rtj]

Why not make a chrome-moly tube cross member? There is a reason why there are so many companies making them for fox mustangs and f bodies. Tig welding it is pretty much like steel, but with matching rod material.

http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/chassis-suspension/mmfp-0704-fox-body-drag-racing-suspension/

"Total weight savings was also impressive, with a total drop of 56.9 pounds, mostly in the all-important end of the car, the front."

 

[69427]

Why not make a chrome-moly tube cross member? There is a reason why there are so many companies making them for fox mustangs and f bodies. Tig welding it is pretty much like steel, but with matching rod material.

http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/chassis-suspension/mmfp-0704-fox-body-drag-racing-suspension/

"Total weight savings was also impressive, with a total drop of 56.9 pounds, mostly in the all-important end of the car, the front."

I'll confess I don't have any experience welding chrome moly. I used to hear a lot about heat treating issues when welding that material. Right now I just feel more comfortable welding aluminum.

 

[69427]

Was at a track day in Topeka today. With me in the car, along with my helmet and a 1/8th tank of fuel, the scales read 3061 pounds. I'm 205-207 pounds, so about 210# with the helmet. That gets me a car weight of about 2850 pounds.

 

[vette427sbc]

:thumbs: ...Jealous

 

[rtj]

Why not make a chrome-moly tube cross member? There is a reason why there are so many companies making them for fox mustangs and f bodies. Tig welding it is pretty much like steel, but with matching rod material.

http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/chassis-suspension/mmfp-0704-fox-body-drag-racing-suspension/

"Total weight savings was also impressive, with a total drop of 56.9 pounds, mostly in the all-important end of the car, the front."

I'll confess I don't have any experience welding chrome moly. I used to hear a lot about heat treating issues when welding that material. Right now I just feel more comfortable welding aluminum.

Lots of myths about heat treating the welds on chrome moly according to the books I've read. Aluminum fatigues, so as always there are trade-offs.

Interesting work keep posting you developments.

 

[68/70Vette]

The frame weighs about 300 pounds. Knocking down this weight is good, but it's at the lowest center of gravity of all the other weights.

At this stage, after all your weight reducing activities, I'd guess there are no remaining cheap things to do.

Did you ever get rid of that gross cast iron piece that attaches the steering column to the lower windshield frame? It can be replaced by a stamped steel unit much lighter for the 82's. Replaced mine.

We'd wish that somewhere a Corvette enthusiast had made millions on Silicon Valley stock options and would fund your weight reduction activities. Titanium, carbon fiber, and $$$ will make the weight go down.

 

[69427]

The frame weighs about 300 pounds. Knocking down this weight is good, but it's at the lowest center of gravity of all the other weights. You are correct. I'm at the point where I have to just take the weight reduction wherever I can find it. But, regardless of position, the weight still has to be accelerated and decelerated. I do wish I could find some ways to take some weight off the top part of the car, but until I learn how to make a set of carbon fiber T-tops I'm just kinda stuck with the 'lesser efficient" places to pull out the weight.

At this stage, after all your weight reducing activities, I'd guess there are no remaining cheap things to do.

Did you ever get rid of that gross cast iron piece that attaches the steering column to the lower windshield frame? It can be replaced by a stamped steel unit much lighter for the 82's. Replaced mine. Yeah, got it out last year. I dreaded doing it, but I lucked out and it actually came out without causing me too much cussing or headache.




We'd wish that somewhere a Corvette enthusiast had made millions on Silicon Valley stock options and would fund your weight reduction activities. Titanium, carbon fiber, and $$$ will make the weight go down.

Yeah, the money factor always comes into play. Given a decent amount of funds (which I'm unlikely to have) I would have loved to have replaced half the bolts on the car with titanium bolts, titanium exhaust, doing a bunch of the bodywork in CF, and the frame in aluminum. A few years ago at the PRI show I saw a vendor selling a magnesium housing for the Nash/Richmond 5 spd transmission I just took out and replaced with the lighter original M-21.
Oh well, I can keep dreaming. :amused:

 

[Kid Vette]

You need to become best buds with this guy, Ultra-Carbon They have a lot more products than what's on the web site. Their Facebook shows a lot more of their products.

 

[69427]

You need to become best buds with this guy, Ultra-Carbon They have a lot more products than what's on the web site. Their Facebook shows a lot more of their products.

Hey, looks pretty interesting. I'll have to see what all they've got. I'm not on Facebook, but perhaps I can get the wife to take a detour there next time she's logged onto it. Thanks. :thumbs:

 

[69427]

Wiper motor weight?

Anybody know how much that thing weighs? I see quite a few smaller looking setups on newer cars in the junkyard and I always get curious if it's possible to put a later model unit on the car. Also, does anyone know if there's any Corvette specific issues/capabilities with the present motor that would prevent swapping in a newer part?

Thanks for any help or information.

 

[rtj]

I forget his screen name, but he has a hill climb/race car and I think it was around 2400lbs. Need him to chime in. And, that had a cage.

 

[69427]

Haven't had any luck finding out the weight of a C5 front cradle yet, but have been amusing myself with other stuff in the mean time. Did a test fit of the new trans crossmember with the exhaust plugged in.
The crossmember so far has made my weight target of ten pounds less than the stock 22#piece (11.4#). I've hung on it a couple times and it feels pretty sturdy. I'm trying to figure out a convenient way to attach a dial indicator to the tunnel area and measure the crossmember deflection when I hang some weight off the center of it.



.......

I got to thinking I might just try to duplicate the exhaust termination box in aluminum. The scrap yard I go to has a lot of different sizes of aluminum tubing to choose from. What they don't have is tubing elbows, so I might have to figure out how many different bends I'm going to have to (somehow) fabricate that will still flow decently. IIRC, the box and the 4" tubing outlet that feeds the Y pipe behind the rear spring weighs about 26#. I think I could probably get the aluminum replacement down to about 16 pounds.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

you should be able to get at least a 10# savings if you rewire your car with can-bus cables

this
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/general/hrdp_1001_multiplexing_wiring_kit/

bonus is your lights will tend to be brighter.

 

[69427]

Starting on aluminum front crossmember.

Got some material the other week to use on the crossmember, and during a few episodes of not having the answers to some other issues, I've taken a couple breaks to make some upfront progress on the crossmember. Got a few pieces cut, and a couple others marked off for later cutting. The basic crossmember should go pretty quick, as I'm copying a good portion of the present steel crossmember. Depending on how some of the steering geometry (steering rack position) data turns out, that will tell me if I have to make some shape changes to the crossmember. Right now the rack bolts to a bracket, which then bolts to the crossmember. I did it that way in case I made a major error in the rack's positioning (and then I can just make up a new positioning bracket to correct the error), or if I wanted to just make a small geometry change.
I still need to get a spool gun MIG welder to do this next project. As I mentioned earlier, I'm damn slow when it comes to TIG work (which then seems to cause me to use up shielding gas at a higher rate than I like, which costs me extra expense) so a MIG should speed up the process. I just need to look around the garage and see what parts and stuff I'm not using anymore that I can sell to help offset the cost of the new welder.

 

[69427]

Just amusing myself during the slow times. While I was getting the shifter linkage fabricated for the Muncie I noticed how damn heavy the shifter ball was. I had always assumed it was aluminum, but I hadn't bothered to think about it too much thirty years ago when I took the Muncie stuff out. The material is hard like steel but isn't magnetic. Given its weight I'm assuming it's either stainless steel or depleted uranium.
The shifter ball is 1 3/4" diameter, so I got some aluminum bar stock of the same diameter to carve out a replacement.



The shifter ball weighs 8 ounces. I cut a simple 1 3/4 inch length of bar to start the work on it, and it's already under 8 ounces.

The annoying part is the internal threads that connect it to the shifter. They appear to be 9/16" fine thread. I've got a darn good collection of taps from damn small on up to about an inch in diameter. I'm only missing one size, and you can probably guess which one that is. Oh well, this project will just force me to complete my tap collection.