1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Not sure what I'm doing here....





Oh, that's right...I'm stripping out the old ratty interior. Not going to put it back in either. This is step one of the diet the Camaro is getting this winter. It's going to get a little extreme.

Here is a box-o-interior parts. Not much in there is salvageable, but I will sort it out later.



Oh yeah, yanked this sucker out too.


I will be weighing everything I take out and everything I put back in.

The plan:
Steel wheels to aluminum (prostars maybe...3.5" front, 8" rear)
doors from power lock/window to manual with crash beam removed
door glass to lexan
door panels remove
Windshield to lexan...maybe
Rear window to lexan
fiberglass trunk replace stock
Passenger seat remove
Drivers seat to race seat
Rear Seats remove
Front sway bar remove
Complete wiper assy remove...maybe
Radio and speakers remove
Charcoal Canister remove
Carpet remove
5-Leaf Springs to split monos

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Weighed some things tonight that I yanked out.

(all weight rounded to the nearest pound)
Big giant 1-5/16" Hellawig swaybar and hardware - 26lbs
Rear seat back - 19lbs
Rear seat bottom - 6lbs (each) 12lbs total
Passenger seat- 38lbs
Misc headliner hardware and interior trim (lots still left in car!) - 6lbs
Door panels - 6lbs (each) 12lbs total

Total weight removed from car - 113lbs!

Still to do:
replace driver's seat with race seat - est 26lbs savings
replace power window doors with manual doors with no crash beam - who knows, lots?!?!
replace rear glass and side glass with lexan - 53lbs - weight of lexan (keeping windshield glass)
seat belts - 15lbs
trunk lid to fiberglass - 25lbs - weight of glass lid
remove wipers - unknown
5-leaf to split mono - est 15lbs, but could be more
Steel wheels to aluminum - 64lbs + (but this one aint cheap!)
Radio and speakers - maybe 6lbs?
Plus whatever else I find, carpet, trim, pieces of the dash, etc. More than 200lbs more for sure...if not closer to 300lbs. I will try to remember to weigh everything I pull out and weigh everything I put back in.

Please stop me before I pull the hole saw out!

79-mailbu

I just read this thread from start to finish love the way you detailed every step of your build

randomninels1nova

Great thread!! I should do the same with my nova! Diet time!

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Ok, so tonight out came the driver's seat, all the stock seat belts, misc trim (sill plates, headliner anchor, etc) and passenger area plastics. Obviously the driver's seat and a set of belts are going back in, but they will be much lighter.

Driver's seat - 36lbs (2lbs light than the passenger seat...go figure. It was missing a bunch of foam though)
Passenger side panels - 8lbs
Stock Seat belts - 8lbs
Misc trim - 6lbs

total - 58lbs
previous total - 113 lbs
new total - 171 lbs

Tomorrow the carpet, sound deadener, stereo speakers and whatever else I have time to yank out will be on the floor of my garage. Should be over 200 lbs lost by tomorrow.

Jimbo1367

1970camaroRS

Another easy way to knock down some weight is to have your wife drag race it ~ instead~ of you. This holds true for most couples. LOL just trying to help

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

If you could only see what she has done to her Toyota daily driver, you would understand why that would not be an option!

LSCustoms

iTrader: (20)

beautiful car, great work...

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Pulled the carpets the other night and then had my workout tonight scraping the sound deadener out of the car! Also pulled the speakers out.

Carpet (front and rear) - 13lbs
Sound Deadener - 30lbs (left a bunch behind too!)
Rear Speakers - 7lbs.

Tonight's total - 50lbs
Previous total- 171lbs
New Total- 221lbs

Still have a few more bits of this and that in the interior to come out.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Something came in the mail today:



It's a Kwik Performance alternator only bracket for truck waterpump and pulley. Very nice piece...not the cheapest in the world, so definitely not 'budget', but I plan on replacing anything that fails or doesn't meet expectations with a better part on a case by case basis.







Also, where in the heck did my interior go?



Nope not here...


Oh there it is.


Weighed some more knick-knacks and lost 3 more lbs today. Also, the new alternator bracket is 1 lb light than the old one. It all counts!

Total Loss- 225lbs

00BlackSS

iTrader: (7)

very nice thread, and build, getting ready to do the same this winter!

love that bracket! now from what i take is that you use ur tension pulley, water pulley, crank pulley, and the alt? thats a nice setup and i will def go that route!

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Finally got some work done on the car today. Buddy came over and helped liberate a few items I won't need anymore. Like the wipers and some trim here and there. Also yanked the doors off and weighed them. Also weighed the doors I will be putting on after I gut them for a good before and after measure.

So here is the weight-loss list.
Current total- 225 lbs
Charcoal canister - 3 lbs
Wiper assembly - 3 lbs
Wiper motor - 6 lbs
Misc door and rear window trim and rocker wire covers - 6 lbs
Upper dash - 7 lbs
Lower dash - 5 lbs
Gauge cluster - 3 lbs
New total - 258 lbs

Now the fun part.
1978 Type LT power window and lock doors - 105 lbs
1970 Manual crank doors - 95 lbs
10 lbs per door, 20 lbs total brings the weight loss up to 278 lbs. But I won't count this because even more weight will be coming out of the doors soon.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Cleaned out the garage today (boxes that stuff for christmas stuff, why do you end up on top of my Camaro?). Also picked up a set of plastic race seats, some aluminum stock to make brackets and a 160 degree t-stat. I've been working a TON of over-time for Boeing the last few weeks, so more parts are on their way to help me on my quest to lose weight.

Things to do:
1. Make an aluminum dash to hold autometer gauges. (oil press, water temp, fuel level, fuel PSI, volts...no speedo...) and switch panel (ignition, fuel pump, cooling fan, lights, heater fan, nitrous).
2. Fab brackets and install seats.
3. Gut doors and install them.
4. Remove rear glass and replace with lexan (actually going to be poly).
5. Install lexan door windows
6. New fuel pump brackets
7. R&R t-stat
8. Install 4.30 gears
9. Install new alternator and manual tensioner
10. Metco breather?

Also...maybe...
1. Calvert split mono springs
2. Weld prostars...skinnies up front. Looking to get over that 300lb weight loss mark

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Cleaned out the garage today (boxes that stuff for christmas stuff, why do you end up on top of my Camaro?). Also picked up a set of plastic race seats, some aluminum stock to make brackets and a 160 degree t-stat. I've been working a TON of over-time for Boeing the last few weeks, so more parts are on their way to help me on my quest to lose weight.

Things to do:
1. Make an aluminum dash to hold autometer gauges. (oil press, water temp, fuel level, fuel PSI, volts...no speedo...) and switch panel (ignition, fuel pump, cooling fan, lights, heater fan, nitrous).
2. Fab brackets and install seats.
3. Gut doors and install them.
4. Remove rear glass and replace with lexan (actually going to be poly).
5. Install lexan door windows
6. New fuel pump brackets
7. R&R t-stat
8. Install 4.30 gears
9. Install new alternator and manual tensioner
10. Metco breather?

Also...maybe...
1. Calvert split mono springs
2. Weld prostars...skinnies up front. Looking to get over that 300lb weight loss mark
3. Revise exhaust- remove spintech side exit power-killing setup and replace with dynomax race mufflers out the side.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Here's the Katech manual tensioner pulley that I got in the mail the other day. Awesome piece. Only thing is that I wish they included some new nicer looking bolts. You have to reuse your old ones or pick up a new set yourself. Now, some of you may be asking...what the hell happened to this being a budget build? This and the KWIK bracket aren't cheap. No, they aren't...but the only thing that almost left me stranded TWICE while shaking the car down this summer was the accessory drive system. So, it was decided to invest in what is basically the killer solution.





Alternator is on it's way next. Along with a set of used Drag Star 15x3.75" front runners. Grabbing some tires next week and maybe the gauges and switch panel needed to complete my dash. Working on mounting the driver's seat back in the car. Also grabbing a set of bullet style race mufflers to replace the nice quiet Spintech setup that I believe is robbing me of more than it's fair share of HP. Pace of the project should be ramping up here as we get closer to spring.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Started working on the doors last night. Found out how much I need to upgrade my drill. I've been putting it off for too long. Guess I will stop by the tool store soon. Anyway, so far I've found some new things to weigh.

Door Glass: 15 lbs
Regulators: 12 lbs
Difference from power doors: 10 lbs
Total: 37lbs
x2 74 lbs

Added to the previous balance of 258lbs and I've taken 332 lbs out of the car.
I have a set of 15" x 3.75" aluminum race stars sitting in my office, so I need to weigh those and the steel wheels that are coming off. And I'm busy cutting the door beams out. Still planning on replacing the rear glass, deck lid and springs as money become available. Plus I now need matching rear aluminum tires.

Only stuff going back in that I need to weigh is the race seat, aluminum dash and gauges, lexan and deck lid. Wonder if I can push the net weight loss to 400lbs. My goal was 300lbs!

There are also a pair of Schoendfeld race mufflers coming to replace the restrictive yet very pleasant Spintech system.

Pictures of the progress to come later tonight.

CptAwesome

subscribed

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Here we go, some more boring work in progress pictures. BTW, the glass weighed in at 15lbs and the regulators and associated hardware are 12lbs. If the beam is 24 lbs...that's 51 lbs per door. 102 lbs total on both doors. That's frigging amazing.







Hard to see here, but I'm trying to point out the spot-welds. This end (latch end) proved to be difficult. Holes didn't look so neat, no pictures of that. If I end up giving up on cutting the beam in half, the latch end might get opened up. I'll cover the hole with fiberglass most likely. Or rivet in some sheet metal I have laying around.


Here I am cutting the door beam in half. My 3" wheel isn't deep enough to reach the channel on the skin side. Might cut a notch out that will let me get at that channel. Or I'll just cut a hole in the door as mentioned before. I will also be cutting out some structure of the door since I won't be using regulators anymore.



Also, you will notice I changed to using my Iphone 4 for pictures. Not going to use my $5,000 setup anymore. Especially with metal shavings flying about.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

After messing with trying to cut the beam in half for way too long, I gave up and cut a hole in on the latch side of the door.



Beam came right now, no problem!



This thing is BIG!


Now the big news. They only weigh about 16 lbs! From what others have found, the bars in later cars are much heavier! Lets add up what the doors weigh and what can be removed from them.

Doors (with interior panels) - 111 lbs
Interior panel - 6 lbs (counted earlier)
Glass - 15 lbs
Regulators - 12 lbs
Crash Beam - 16 lbs
Total removed - 49 lbs
New door weight - 62 lbs

I bet the hinges are going to be much happier. I'm going to carve a few more lbs out of the inner structure, make and aluminum inner panel (VERY thin gauge) and install lexan. I bet it won't add too much weight back into them.

Running total-
332 + 32 (crash beams) = 364 lbs out of the car. More to come.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Here's some new stuff. Here's what I currently have for front wheels/tires. They are Cragar soft 8 steel wheels and yokohama 235/60r15 tires. Cheap and effective for when the car was a daily driver.



BUT, insanely heavy! 50 lbs per wheel/tire!


Replacing it with these tires. M/T SR 165 radials. 18 lbs per tire.


And these wheels. Race Star 15" x 3.75" aluminum. 12 lbs.


So, that's 30lbs per wheel/tire. 20lbs less than the previous setup. So, 40lbs total coming off the car!
Added to the previous 364 lbs, that's 404 lbs!

Still going to remove misc metal here and there. I expect 10-15 lbs per wheel in the back, but I'm keeping the 255 M/T radials. Then there's the rear glass and decklid. And the springs.

Oh, and here are my new "mufflers". Schoenfeld bullets. Need to replace the spintech setup I have with its crazy 2 180 degree bends. Will run 3" from the x-pipe out the side. Should also pull another 15 lbs or more out of the car. Don't think I will get away with this on the street...but we will find out. Also going to stock up on ear-plugs.


If this cuts down 10 db of noise, I will be shocked.