mcalus

iTrader: (14)

I read every page on this thread. You are doing exactly what I want to do, just trying to find a cheap LT1. I didn't come across anyone answering your headliner question, I had to do mine in my old 93 Z28 and I ended up going to a Arts and Crafts place that had a bunch of cloth material and what not they ended up having some headliner pretty much I just took off the whole headliner (alot easier to work with) and used some 3M spray glue, works wonders then layed my new material on and bam new headliner. I dont know if they have these arts and craft stores down there but up here (Michigan) the stores are called Michael's or Jo-Ann fabrics....As for the antenna just get a 20 guage piece of sheet metal and spot weld it on and mud over it.

Hope that helps!!!

M

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

Thanks.

Thanks for the answers. There was a thread in here not too long ago that detailed the headliner thing. I'm going to check mine out soon. I think it will probably still smell like smoke even if I change the material so I might just throw it out and get a new one. I'm trying to avoid welding the antenna hole shut temporarily. I'm going to go to some hardware shops up here where I know they'll have the stuff I need and find a bunch of potential plugs. Then, drive down there and test them out. I might paint the whole thing. My friend just painted his himself and it looks good. I'm going to talk to him about it and see what we can come up with.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I got a decent amount of work done today. I had a quiz in my second class that only took about 15 minutes. Then she let us leave early. The only bad part is my dad has the camera hidden some where yet again so all the pictures are off of my phone.

I started by finishing trimming out all the extra tabs that were left over from my initial bracket removal. I tried cutting around the spot welds as best as I could to minimize the amount of material left behind.

Before:


After:

In looking at this picture I realize I forgot one.

Here's all the extra metal I removed just by trimming up my initial rough cuts:

Next time I'm down there I'll get some weights on everything I removed. I know it will only weigh a few ounces, but every little bit adds up.

After I finished trimming everything I started on the emergency brake removal. This whole process was an amazing pain in the *** for me. Despite the many smashed and dirty fingers it was worth it as I can tell all this stuff is heavy.

The first step is raising the handle and taking the spring off of the left side of it. Then, you have to lift the locking mechanism and roll the wheel with the cable attached forward. After that you pry open a little retainer clip on the bottom of the wheel that holds the cable in place. Next, you just pop the cable off.

Handle removed (and a before picture):


Once I got the handle off I pulled the grommet out that holds the cable and pushed it underneath the car. After that I went to the rear and took the back two wheels off. First, I pried the emergency brake cable off of it's bracket and moved it out of the way. I then cut the large spring on the emergency brake. Next, I took the nut off the back part of the bracket that is the actuator arm. I then used a T45 torx bit and a 17mm open ended wrench to back the bolt out that holds the bracket to the caliper. After that I just put the bolt back in. I then moved to the other side and did the same thing. The last thing I did was push the cables through the holes in the rear end so they were just hanging.

Here's what they looked like before with everything attached to them:


Here's what they look like with everything related to the emergency brake removed:


I got underneath the car and moved onto removing the middle part that Y s the handle cable off to each cable on the rear brakes. You have to crush the ferrels and pull them through the holes attached to the body. The thing that sucks *** about it is that the torque arm and driveshaft are directly in the way. It took me a good thirty minutes to get them all off and I cheated. I couldn't get the last (driver's side rear) one off no matter what I did. I started to get majorly frustrated and said **** it. I broke out the air grinder and cut a small wedge out of the mount so it would finally come off.

Wedge removed:


Once I got everything out I noticed that I still had the mount for the handle in the car. I decided to cut that out also (after picture):


Here's everything that I removed that's involved with the emergency brake system. I'll weigh it all on Thursday.


Thursday I'm going to cut out that one bracket I realized I forgot, weigh everything, and start working on the doors. I really need to order my cage and a new headliner. Once I get those two things I can get pretty serious on the weight removal.

CamaroRacing12

iTrader: (5)

GOOD STUFF!

Ty_Hoe

nice man

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

^ Thanks guys.

Random question. Does anyone know what this green wire is that is hanging down on the right side of this picture? It's attached to part of the emergency brake handle.

speedracer2536

iTrader: (15)

maybe the wire to tell the light on the dash to come on

DAVE00

iTrader: (10)

Yup, should hook to the brake switch that illuminates the BRAKE light on the dash.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

Thanks, that one's going to be removed then.

I got a decent amount of work done today. I also managed to get pictures because my friend let me use his camera. I'm almost done cutting out all the damn brackets in the car. I'm tired of getting pelted with molten pieces of metal and buying cutting wheels. I only have to cut a few more brackets, the trunk, roof, a pillars, and doors until I'm done cutting inside the car. I make it sound like its easy....

I finished cutting out the passenger side arm rest. Here's what it looked like as I was removing the main part:


Here's what it looked like when I finally got it out:

As you can tell I had to do some major mangleling to get it detached.

Here's the area it was mounted to once I got it off:

I went back over the area and cleaned up all of my cuts.

Here's what the driver's side one looks like uncut:

They're a signifigant amount of weight. They're just a major pain in the *** to remove.

I started cutting on that one. Here's everything I managed to cut out of the car today:


The rest of the day I spent helping Jason get his car finished for Pinks All Out tomorrow. The car is mostly done and will be finished tonight. We scuffed it up, taped it, and spray bombed it flat black. It looks a lot better than it did to start with. The only downside is I blew my nose and out came tealish boogers and snot. It'll be getting a nice paint job once Pinks is over. This was just a last minute rush to get it looking decent. This isn't the camaro I posted earlier either. This car was bought as a roller and completely built in less than a month. It's being tuned to run in the 10.00 range, but should be signifigantly quicker. I'm not at liberty to post pictures of the car, but here's a bad *** 1969 Camaro I saw heading down towards Gainesville as I went to get cutting wheels.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I also got to weigh the extra metal tabs I cut out, the rear arm rest brackets, and the emergency brake pieces. Here's my updated weight removal list:

Front Bumper Support = 25.375 lbs
Fog lights and brackets = 4.0625 lbs
Cruise control, cable, and throttle cable cover = 4.4375 lbs
Air pump and brass fittings = 5.9375 lbs
Stock horns = 1.875 lbs
Stupid siren and loud horn = 2.5 lbs
Stock Y pipe and single cat = 21.1875 lbs
Frame horns = 5.125 lbs
Fender metal = 1.25 lbs
Rear Seatbelts = 4.1375 lbs
Aftermarket Speaker Wiring (will be added to considering there is a ton more of it) = .25 lbs
Carpet = 29.0375 lbs
Windshield washer fluid resevoir with water = 8.0625 lbs
Heat shields beneath the car = 2.1875
Soon to be useless exhaust hangers = 2.00 lbs
Rear Seats = 22.4375 lbs
Random exhaust hangers, brackets, nuts, and bolts = 9.25 lbs
Front Speakers = 2.75 lbs
Rear Speakers = 3.25 lbs
Front Speaker Brackets = 1.25 lbs
Interior brackets including (rear seat brackets, antenna bracket, rear seat belt brackets) = 3.875 lbs
Security System Hood Lock = 2.6875 lbs
Antenna + Wire (not including the actual metal rod) = .25lbs
Stock catback = 50.1875lbs
Rear Armrests = 4.21875lbs
Extra Metal Trimmings = 1.00lbs
Emergency Brake System = 12.125lbs

Grand total to this point = 230.70625 lbs + all the stuff I still have to either cut out or weigh.

Tomorrow, I won't be able to work on it because of Pinks All Out. I'll be back on Tuesday though. I'll finally finish cutting out the rear brackets and start on the doors. I took a peak at removing the door bars and they looks like they are going to be rather difficult to remove.

Bad_tx_Z28

iTrader: (3)

wow...this is one of the best project threads i've seen. I wish i had the time and the money to do something like that. keep up the good work and good luck!!

daniel6718

iTrader: (36)

hey in the top of the pic that says
Here's what they looked like before with everything attached to them

what is the round circle thing with one bolt through the middle of it? if im keeping my ebrake can i remove it? it looks like its a damper for the brakes or something
lmk

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

Thanks, for the kudos. It's really not that expensive at this point, but it is extremely time consuming. I basically bought the car for $900. You could get one rather cheaply, take a lot of weight out of it, and throw a 150 shot at it. That was my original plan.

The round circle thing is the majority of the weight on those back brackets. They're thick round metal circles. I'm not sure of their function, but you can unbolt them rather easily. You just have to loosen one nut and it slides right off. I'd say they're about 1.5-2lbs each. The easiest way to test would to just loosen the nut, pull them off, and pull the emergency brake to see if it still works properly. If not all you have to do is drop the metal weight back on and tighten the nut.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I got a decent amount of work done today despite being rather unmotivated. As I started working through things I started seeing some progress and it got me motivated. I started by finally hacking out the last huge part of the driver's side passenger arm rest. I used the air grinder and comboed it with the air chisel. It made it a lot easier that cutting out the whole thing with the grinder. I started getting these new thicker grinding wheels since I've bought out all the other ones at Fastenal and they shoot huge sparks. It's not like the thinner wheels were a spark hits you and you don't notice. These ones hurt big time.

Here's what it looks like now that it's gone:

I started trimming some of the extra metal out, but after getting pelted by giant molten shards I stopped. I might go back over it, but I'm not sure yet. It's a lot of work for not a lot of weight. Once, I start doing the wiring too I'm going to reroute those wires through the body instead of the way they are now. It'll clean up the looks of things and make it easier to lay the carpet.

After I finished cutting out that bracket I started on the doors. I had drawn some lines out on them, but they were very jumbled and confusing so I just started cutting. I'd feel around and see if there was anything behind where I was cutting and work from there. Here's what the doors used to look like:


Here's what the door looks like now:
Driver's:

Passenger's:

I used a small air recipricating saw. It's an awesome little tool and cut throught the fiberglass extremely easily. The only downside is it makes a huge and I mean huge mess. There's white dust absolutely every where. I went through the car and tried to blow all the fiberglass dust and metal shavings out, but it didn't work too well.

Here's the material I removed from the driver's side door to give you an idea of how much I cut out of one door:


Another added bonus to removing all that fiberglass is that it's going to make getting the door bars out a million times easier. It also gives me enough room to remove the brackets that hold in the door bars too.

Here's my updated weight list with the door fiberglass added in:

Front Bumper Support = 25.375 lbs
Fog lights and brackets = 4.0625 lbs
Cruise control, cable, and throttle cable cover = 4.4375 lbs
Air pump and brass fittings = 5.9375 lbs
Stock horns = 1.875 lbs
Stupid siren and loud horn = 2.5 lbs
Stock Y pipe and single cat = 21.1875 lbs
Frame horns = 5.125 lbs
Fender metal = 1.25 lbs
Rear Seatbelts = 4.1375 lbs
Aftermarket Speaker Wiring (will be added to considering there is a ton more of it) = .25 lbs
Carpet = 29.0375 lbs
Windshield washer fluid resevoir with water = 8.0625 lbs
Heat shields beneath the car = 2.1875
Soon to be useless exhaust hangers = 2.00 lbs
Rear Seats = 22.4375 lbs
Random exhaust hangers, brackets, nuts, and bolts = 9.25 lbs
Front Speakers = 2.75 lbs
Rear Speakers = 3.25 lbs
Front Speaker Brackets = 1.25 lbs
Interior brackets including (rear seat brackets, antenna bracket, rear seat belt brackets) = 3.875 lbs
Security System Hood Lock = 2.6875 lbs
Antenna + Wire (not including the actual metal rod) = .25lbs
Stock catback = 50.1875lbs
Rear Armrests = 4.21875lbs
Extra Metal Trimmings = 1.00lbs
Emergency Brake System = 12.125lbs
Door Fiberglass = 1.90625 lbs

Grand total to this point = 232.6125 lbs + all the stuff I still have to either cut out or weigh.

When I head down there Thursday I am going to remove the insulation from the door panels, clean them, remove the crash bars, their brackets, and reinstall the door panels. There won't be any complaints out of passengers saying that the doors are too heavy now.

Cahill93Z28

I bet you could shampoo that carpet out. I used to be a professional detailer and usually dark stains come out pretty good.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I've seen worse cleaned out, but it only cost me $70ish to buy new carpet that's about 20lbs lighter.

TAEnvy

iTrader: (2)

Shampoo the old carpet and sell it.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

^ It got thrown away a long time ago. It wasn't worth the effort. It had cigarette holes burnt in it, smelt like smoke, was wet, and mildewed. I have a ton of stuff I need to sell off of this thing already. I really need to make a parts for sale thread.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I didn't get that much done today as I was doing things the dumb way, but here's the update any ways. I was thinking it would be a good idea to start swiss cheesing the window regulators. It would take a little weight off of the car and make life a lot easier for the window motors. I started by drawing all of my holes that I was going to cut out and then started drilling, and drilling, and drilling, and drilling....

I didn't realize until I was done that its actually 1/8th inch thick metal that I was trying to drill through. When I started drilling I was just making a tiny pilot hole. Then, going up two sizes on the drill bit and opening it up more. That method took forever and made my already tired arms feel even worse. In attempting to dig to find something I could just hit it with to make the pilot hole Mike showed me one of those stepped drill bills. It was brand new too and when I started with it I was rather excited. It made cutting through the metal extremely easy and I was done before I noticed. Here's what it looks like on the driver's side door:


It was a lot of work and probably only took off a few ounces. I did it mostly to make the windows go up faster and make it easier on the motors. It does look pretty cool though.

After that I was trying to plan out my attack on removing the door bars and their brackets. I started cutting at the bottom with the air grinder, but at one point I couldn't go any further up because of the locking mechanism. I then grabbed the small saw I used to cut the door fiberglass and started cutting. Unfortunately, the blade was already cracked and about thirty seconds in it broke in half. I then went to get some more blades and continued cutting for a few minutes. Here's what it looks like at this point:


I ended up detaching the metal rods that connect to the key hole and door handle for access. In looking at the doors I realized if you were really dilligent you could get a ton of weight out of them. You could remove the whole locking mechanism bracket that attaches to the door bar. All you'd need are three longer bolts, nuts, and washers. You could then pry the whole metal bracket out from inside of the door (the one I'm cutting on it the above picture). You could also remove the glass, window motor, and regulator. You could swiss cheese the whole regulator and the where the glass is held by the regulator. If you wanted to go really extreme you could cut out all of the fiber glass on the bottom and back of the door. You'd never see the bottom and only see the back when the doors are open. With the door that light you could probably also cut the hinges in half. Those are just some random ideas. I might get some bolts to replace the locking mechanism, but I'm done drilling on that door.

Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow so I'm not going to be able to work on the car. Next Tuesday is going to be the next time I can head down. The good thing is that next week is finals week so after that I'll have as much time as I want to work on the car.

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

What in God's Holy Name went on w/ that carpet???
Seriously that made my stomach churn.