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I want to put my car on a diet. Who has done this, starting weight? Ending weight?

4K views 21 replies 18 participants last post by  Jon 
#1 ·
I'm deciding to put my Monte Carlo on a diet. Recently took a trip to local landfill to borrow there scale for a minute. My car weighed 3800lbs with me in it. I'm a buck-75. That puts the car @ 3625lbs. Still heavy I'd say. I never considered how much exrta stuff I had in the car. I mean cargo. The trunk is used for storing old parts and unused stuff, broken posi, new kyb's, another battery, factory starter, and so on. Well, I had 325lbs of cargo. I had no idea that stuff weighed that much. Once removed, the gross weight is 3300lbs. That is better that I thought. Up until now,it was believed by me that these cars are heavy, and there is nothing that can be done about it. I am now wanting to removing more weight from the car. Fiber glass hood to replace metal one, get rid of the power bench seat, I'm sure it weighs at least 125lbs.
What is solid hotrod gross weight? Is lighter better?
What have some of you done to shed weight? Would love to hear some stories and advice. :D :D :D
 
#3 ·
You can chuck the creature comforts;

A/c ducting, compressor, belts & brackets.
Power steering gearbox, pump, tank, hoses & brackets.
Power brakes booster.
radio, antenna & cable.
Carpets & floor mats.
Spare tire, Jack & handle.
Smaller battery.
Smaller radiator.
Lighter rims.
Shaved bumpers on some models.
Custom exhaust.
Remove chrome trim.
 
#4 ·
You need to consider what the intended use is, is it worth dumping the creature comforts if it is a daily driver?

Power windows, locks, seats, sound deadener, insulation, cast iron heads, manifolds (intake and exhaust), go to lighter wheels. Depending on the year of Monte, the 73 and newer have a lot of extra weight in the bumper assembly's, some of the 80 Monte's came with aluminum hoods and deck lids, they will work on the 78 to 80 cars.
 
#5 ·
re: I want to put my car on a diet. Who has done this, starting weight? Ending weight

All thats left of the ac is whats on the firewall and condenser. The wheel wells have been removed. lots more room! I'll start by removing the ac blower motor heater core area first. I just saw a cover that uses the same bolt holes on the firewall. I've been wanting to do this for a while. Same with parting out the bench seat and interior. Once I do it, I've made that commitment to the car, though. No more getting the wife and baby in it!
 
#8 ·
Replacing the bumpers with fiberglass replicas is worth at least 100 pds. Getting all the tar sound deadener out of the car is worth another 150 pds usually. Factory seats weigh another 100pds, you may be surprised to find the carpet weighs another 50pds too.

One of the heaviest thing on a car is the glass, kind of need the front windshield as a minimum though. To give you an idea how much you can lighten a car, I brought my 81 Mazda RX7 from 2400pds factory to 1900 pds just by doing the items listed above...and that was a small car!
 
#10 ·
I have always wanted to remove the shock absorbing mounts for the bumpers and replace them with something lighter and simpler - there's got to be significant weight to lose there.

A power bench seat you say? Gawd, that's got to be heavy. Helped a friend pull the power seats out of a '70 Lincoln and we thought we'd missed some bolts. Nope - it's THAT heavy!

Nothing will go as fast & easy as your first 325 lbs...
 
#11 ·
It just depends on how crazy you want to get an how "un-user friendly" you are willing to deal with.

Tubular upper control arms are lighter then stock. You could also ditch the sway bar if you aren't concerned with cornering (or crutch it with stiffer springs). Yank the entire dash all the way to the firewall and make a barebones aluminum dash panel. Seats would be a biggy. Also get rid of your hood pivot / spring assemblies and make it a lift off fiberglass piece. Aluminum water pump is a few pounds and cheap, mini-starter also takes weight off the nose and is a good bang for the buck. Biggest weight saver off the front would be aluminum heads and intake - also dump cast iron manifolds if you have them and go to headers. Calipers can be purchased that are aluminum instead of cast iron. Replace the bumper with an aluminum one if possible. If it's a metric car some of them were built with aluminum core supports - you could find one of those and also go to an aluminum radiator.

I'd be more concerned with nose weight then tail weight - most rear wheel drive cars are already pretty front weight biased.

Good luck with your project and think twice before making any "weight reductions" you can't easily put back if you miss them!
 
#14 ·
re:

Never heard of aluminum core supports, what years were they used? i am also thinking of removing the heavy inner front bumper. It's a lot of bumper. It seems the only significance is for front impact. Will removing this jeopardize the integrity of the frame? Has anyone dealt with this? What significance would a replacement aluminum bumper have?....Just there to bolt the nose up, or needs to be as strong as the steel piece. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
#17 ·
One of the first things I did when i got my Camino home was remove the windshield washer bottle from the engine bay...It just looked bad anyway...

The next day I took out the windshield wiper motor. It was ugly as a mud fence to begin with! Except the deern thing weighed like 15 pounds!

Aluminum heads, intake, waterpump, and ditching the cast iron log manifold will be huge.

you could move the battery rearward.

Your car isnt familiar to me but see if there is a way to lighten the radiator core support/from bumper area. On A-bodies at least I know there is a lotta metal going on around there... :spank:
 
#18 · (Edited)
Jeff The Ruler said:
you could move the battery rearward.
Excellent. This is one of the first things I would do. Place it in the extreme rear corner on the passenger side. There are others who will suggest larger cable, but I have used #4 welding cable for the line to run to the starter. Welding cable has many more small strands than standard electrical cable and will carry the amps. Any Ace Hardware will have insulated line clamps that will allow you to attach the cable to the frame. Use a clamp about every 18 inches. Ground the battery at the back on the frame, then pick up the ground at the frame on the front of the car to go to the starter housing. Requires 2 short pieces for ground and 1 long cable to starter.
 
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