The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Weight Question - How much can you take out by stripping it down?
Hey guys,
And no I am not building a 1960 Chevy Parkwood Wagon for Lemons.
I was wondering how much weight can you lose by stripping the typical mid-sized sedan from the early 1990s? And then, how much does the roll cage add? Just trying to do some rough calculations as I am scanning the want ads for cars.
Is it possible to take 500lbs out of a car?
Woody
3-400 pounds is easy. Glass and typical interior removal. 500 pounds might require more dedicated effort to removing sound deadening material, gutting the doors, removing all of those pesky brackets and other hardware associated with things removed, such as the AC, etc.
I think a typical cage will put 150 pounds back in.
But, it's a Lemons car... don't over-think it! Reliability is going to be far, far, far more important than a few hundred pounds.
....Reliability ....
Rel ? Real ? Reel ? real ability ? I'm a Lemons racer ... what is this word?
I would just flat out expect to take out enough weight to offset the amount the cage will put back in. as Loren said, there's some easy ways to go beyond this, but, such as in our case, we have a heavier car to start which requires longer lengths of thicker tubing to cover. This is a safe and reasonable bet, and will keep you surprised if the end result is actually lighter. (it's easier to estimate safety requirements like the cage size off the curb weight anyway, and you might be taking it too seriously if you think the 10lbs you shaved from removing your wheel well liners will make a lick of difference regardless)
You can get a lot of the weight out of the car. Lemme put it this way. My MR2 is a freaking small car and in Lemons trim it weighs about 1950#, caged and wet. Curb weight on it was 2350# from the factory. We've gutted the doors, removed all the glass (replaced the windshield with Lexan when it broke due to ratchet handle negligence), removed the A/C, etc. I'm sure there's probably another 50# of extra weight still in the car (I know there's at least 40 in unused wiring alone) but this is good enough for me.
If I can get 400+ out if this car before putting the cage back in, you should be able to get at least 500# out of anything bigger than that. IMHO. YMMV.
Very astute answers above... cage weighs from 120 to 180 lbs, you can remove 300 to 700 lbs depending on car
Example: Our 1990 745 Volvo. Curb weight stock about 3200 lbs Cage weighs 132lbs
Car now weighs 2590lbs with 1/2 a tank of fuel. Pics:
Our BMW was 2800 lbs stock. Completely gutted and with cage it weighed in around 2400.
I'm fairly sure that the Sgt Schultz Merc was down about a ton at Summit Point.
Of course, they started with an S600 and ended with single-ply body panels.
I bet that the Super Snipe will drop 5-10 pounds just from the application of degreaser and a pressure washer this weekend. 
I vacuumed several pounds of rat turds out of it last weekend. I'm tempted to give a small jar of them to the judges as part of our documentation package.
I'm expecting that it will shed an additional 20-30 pounds of rust as soon as we hit the first bump.
A super snipe needs a documentation package?
A super snipe needs a documentation package?
Would you want anyone to think that you paid more than $500 for a Super Snipe?
...Example: Our 1990 745 Volvo...
What I've heard from the SCCA guys is that the 740 carries about 50 lbs of wire, and if you strip the harnesses down to the critical ones it goes down to about 10 lbs. Could just be an urban legend, though.
Also, wow, that looks just like the 740 that I had to abandon in Bakersfield:
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24/update_2_sept_08.htm
Thanks, Bob K.
I'm fairly sure that the Sgt Schultz Merc was down about a ton at Summit Point.
Of course, they started with an S600 and ended with single-ply body panels.
We could shed another 150lbs in the big merc if we could loose the wiring harness which is thick as my forearm when taped up. But none of us has the courage to try to undo that mess! I did muster the courage to remove the dash, but that was mainly so we could relocate the gauges that were blocked by the dash bar. Oh, and it is a measly S500, not the S600.
There's a Jag that Erik had at MAM last year. He says, "I've taken 900lbs out of this car and guess what it weighs now?" .................... "4100lbs!!!"
You can get lots of weight out of these big old cars.
I guesstimated 900 lbs, but I think it's pretty close. I scrapped a completely bare RX-7 shell, a couple scrap alternators and starters I had, and all the metal crap we yanked out of the Jag and it was 1900lbs.
It's even lighter now, but that's not saying much. We cut the hood, cut everything out of the doors, and are now removing the wiring. We also yanked a bunch of shielding off the underside, and if we have time we'll gut the trunklid.
Everything is insanely heavy on a mid-80s Jag. The inner door handles were about a pound each!
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Weight Question - How much can you take out by stripping it down?