Weight reduction: Running out of ideas.

[phantomjock]

Caught my interest.
Best I could find (short search) was for C6 Corvette. Had to zip. Just about 100 items. Might be vaguely interesting/useful.
Maybe more out there. I used to have an uprights list from the Locost Build sites, etc.

Cheers - Jim

 

[69427]

C5 had two tanks, maybe use one.

We're on a similar wavelength. I looked at several C5 tanks on ebay yesterday to see if that would be a workable option. Lots of availability, but I need to still get some packaging info. The shape is certainly odd, so I still would need to get some dimensions and internal capacity, and the tank weight. Do I assume correctly that it's plastic, as the C3 obviously packages the fuel tank behind the rear axle, versus ahead of the axle in a C5. (I don't know, steel versus plastic may be academic in the event of a rear impact to a C3.)

 

[rtj]

I put in a small square fuel cell that sits on the factory supports and the fill port lines up with the factory opening. You can’t see it from behind. My car had the crash container shield thing so the fuel cell saved a lot of weight.

 

[69427]

Still keeping my eye out for a smaller (packageable) fuel tank, but in the mean time I've found another place to pull a few more ounces off the car. I have the left rear suspension apart to find where the noise/slop is coming from. While pulling things apart I noticed I can probably replace the rear caliper steel brackets with aluminum substitutes. The braking force paths are pretty straight and short, and the 6061 material is probably comparable to the aluminum mounting tabs on the calipers. As I've said before, not a large weight reduction, as I'm scraping for ounces these days.

 

[BBShark]

Are you using the C4 setup?

 

[69427]

Are you using the C4 setup?

I'm using most of the varied vintage C4 suspension pieces, but running Wilwood four piston calipers all around. They're compact and lightweight, but they don't bolt up easily with the C4 knuckles when I went to 11.75" rotors to retain my stock 15" wheels. The caliper mounting tabs competed with the same space and plane as the C4 original anchor/spacer tabs. In the rear I had to come up with a replacement setup for the anchor/spacer, along with a small offset plane bracket to attach the caliper to the anchor. In my first iteration of the C4 suspension transplant I made most of the parts out of steel, as I wanted to make sure everything was strong enough, and I didn't know how to weld aluminum at the time. Since then I've learned to weld aluminum, and I've been replacing several of my previous fabricated steel parts with aluminum substitutes (after doing some material tensile strength calculations).

 

[69427]

Did some maintenance and some minor mass reduction while I was in there. My rear rotors (stock C4 type) are worn out, which is a new experience, as the old stock C3 system never put much stress on the rear brakes. While I had the calipers and rotors off I cut/ground/filed the non-productive areas off the caliper anchor/spacers, and then replaced the steel bolt pattern adapter for the left caliper with an aluminum version (didn't have sufficient aluminum plate to make the second bracket yet). All in all I took about a pound and a half off each side while I was in there. Not much I admit, but I'll take the reduction when I can, and this is unsprung weight.

Got by cheap with the "new" rear rotors (actually low mileage front originals off my '84 when I put the J55 (?) bigger parts on it). While looking at parts I had sitting around, I weighed and measured those early C4 front rotors (currently on my perpetually under construction street rod truck). These have the same diameter and offset as the rear rotors (just not the same hat shape due to the rear drum parking brakes on the early C4s). I don't have a rear parking brake on my '69 setup, so I found that C4 front rotors will fit perfectly on the rear of my '69. I then installed the old minimal thickness rear rotors on the front of the truck for now.

Yes, I'm tight with a dollar.

 

[redvetracr]

I wonder what will be worse, crashing at a high rate of speed with no roll cage or crashing at a high rate of speed with a cheapo gas tank instead of a fuel cell and you and/or your car burning up in the fire??

 

[phantomjock]

I don't often crash, But when I do-I thank the GCR...