Thumper Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 I am looking to remove the most amount of weight while spending no money. I am going to be removing the sound deadening, all electrical wires, headlights, wipers, mirrors, etc... but I was wondering where can I cut the frame to remove weight? I was thinking the rear storage compartments, gut/cut the doors, cut all uncessary brackets and tabs, and swiss cheese the front core support. Any other ideas? This is a Drag only car and will not have to worry about safety inspections. Also it will have a roll bar for added stiffness. The specs on the build are here. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=109709 Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnjdragracing Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 I am looking to remove the most amount of weight while spending no money. I am going to be removing the sound deadening, all electrical wires, headlights, wipers, mirrors, etc... but I was wondering where can I cut the frame to remove weight? I was thinking the rear storage compartments, gut/cut the doors, cut all uncessary brackets and tabs, and swiss cheese the front core support. Any other ideas? This is a Drag only car and will not have to worry about safety inspections. Also it will have a roll bar for added stiffness. The specs on the build are here. [url=http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=109709]http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=109709[/url'] Thanks Thumper, we cut out the nader bars in the doors, got ride of the door glass, and window regulators.cut out the metal below the small side glass in the back. We also removed all the heater and a/c stuff. We used head light covers painted black because there was no head lights or brackets. This car with a 400 sbc weighed 2300 LBS with heavy turbine wheels. Best of luck!!!!!! Jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 73Turbo240z Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Thumper, we cut out the nader bars in the doors, got ride of the door glass, and window regulators.cut out the metal below the small side glass in the back. We also removed all the heater and a/c stuff. We used head light covers painted black because there was no head lights or brackets. This car with a 400 sbc weighed 2300 LBS with heavy turbine wheels. Best of luck!!!!!! Jerry Sounds about par with what we'd come up w/ thus far... thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 You can probably get rid of most of the metal behind the tail light panel too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 In my 72' the spare tire well is cut out and a plate is welded over it. Isk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 I removed the reinforcements and related sheet metal from the doors of my 1978 280Z; net weight savings: 10 lbs. Certainly something to consider in the all-out effort for your specific purposes, but not a huge weight savings. Cutting out the front bumper supports and the associated bracing forward of the radiator support should be worth another 10 lbs or so. If you have enough time, consider cutting out the entire radiator support, including the transverse crossmember forming the power portion of the radiator support and connecting the frame rails. Replace with round or square tubes. What about replacing the radiator itself, with an aluminum universal-fit unit, such as Griffin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Cut the intire inner door off so you jsut run a skin, then pin it to hte roll cage to hold it shut. Like this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Oh and why are you runnign a cage? Is is required? Becaues that is WEIGHT WEIGHT WEIGHT. FYI with full lighting, roll cage, subframe connectors, thicker frame rails and floorpans, along with two heavy seats and a 1/2 tank of gas my car weighed 2340lbs I imagine you shoudl be able to do 2100 or less pretty easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 But the car is a 280, even though it's an early version I still think 2100lb is gonna be too low of a goal. What is the man. date on your 71? Isk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted April 4, 2006 Author Share Posted April 4, 2006 Our goal is 2400lbs. We have set it fairly high since we really have never gutted a 280z before. We would love 2300lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS1 240Z Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 all carpet, passanger seat, dash, door pannels (i wouldnt cut out the inside of the doors if you ever drive it on the street.. get hit in the side = death) remove headlights, tail lights, front sway bar. power steering if you have it. lastly make sure the person who is driving it dosent weigh over 200 lbs, thats the easiest way to cut weight off your car, is to cut it off you you could even remove the hood lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube80z Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Our goal is 2400lbs. We have set it fairly high since we really have never gutted a 280z before. We would love 2300lbs. My 240z that I raced at hillclimbs was 2050 with a 200 pound driver sitting in it. That was a full unibody wtih cage and an L6. I ran lexan windows, fiberglass doors, nose, and extremely light wheels and tires. Things you may not think about that weigh a lot. 1. Wheels and tires (steel belted radials are heavy) 2. 280Z suspension is heavier than 240 stuff 3. seats 4. Fluids -- use a small radiator and gas tank 5. Rotating weight matters. For a drag car you don't need big fancy brakes. It's up to how much you want to do but I've seen 280s that are 2100 pounds ready to go but they are real race cars. Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Pulling 600-700lbs out of a 280 sure is something. I'd like to see a car that stripped, for ideas. Isk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 The dashboard and factory wiring weigh 50lbs combined... There are literally DOZENS of wires that do silly things in the stock harness.... There are over a dozen EXTRA wires to get intermittant wipers, to make them wipe when the washer button is pressed, and the slow speed delay. You can GREATLY SIMPLIFY the electrical harness....The wiper motor has 2 speeds built into the unit.. get rid of all the gack and you still have high and low speed wipers. The dome lamps, door pin switches, safety interlock system, seat belt interlocks, neutral safety switch, air conditioning wires, air con relays, EGR relays+wires, Fuel pump cut relays are all useless for a project car.. all of the stereo wiring can go... the thing is you can still use all of these factory systems even though you can rip out MOST of the wiring associated with them.. for example... There are several pounds in relays and wiring installed in my 1972 240Z JUST TO CUT THE FUEL PUMP when the engine is running... BUMPERS..... the chassis mounting areas for the later model bumpers are heavily reinforced... these areas do not contribute to overall chassis stiffness.... you could peel away several layers of steel in the front clip and in the rear floor frame areas to shed more weight... spare tire wells are not as big a deal in the later models... but the rear floor frame IS WAY OVERBUILT in later models.... You do not need reinforcement past the strut towers front and rear.... those areas can be hacked and lightened... your cage will add about 1.2-1.6lbs per foot of tubing.. depending on what you use(1.5 or 1.75 0.095 DOM)... most full cages involve about 40-60 feet of tubing... there is no need to reinforce anything past the strut towers... anything added or left past the towers is just for crash protection... build the cage right and reinforce the fuel cell area and you are ok... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 Door skins.... Here is a picture of a "skinnned" 240Z door... notice there is/was no side impact bar in it... the only meat in the door is in the hinge areas... Here is a picture of a "skinned" 280Z door.... notice the BEEFY double webbed 3 layer monster of a side impact protection bar.... If you are using your cage-door-bars for side impact protection.. then get rid of that MONSTER BAR in your 280Z doors... I kid you not.. that sucker weighs 20lbs.... A 280Z door can be taken down in weight from 60lbs stock to less than 15lbs stripped... possibly less than that if you actually get it down to a bare skin... what the hell... loose the hinges as well... just pin on the skin... The rear hatch can be entirely removed and replaced with a simple sheet of plexiglass..... there goes 60 more pounds... just be sure to seal the edges well... you will get fumed out of the car... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 All the suggestions above are good but be careful about removing anything structural. The stiffer the chassis the more consistent you can be with launches and 60' times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iskone Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 I never thought of removing the ENTIRE hatch before. I like it. Isk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Check to see if for purposes of your application it is required to obey NHRA rules for the intended 1/4 mile time. You only need to remain as legal as the letter of the rules, right? Depending on what’s not necessarily required, it might be feasible to gut everything aft of the crossmember supporting the rear links of the rear A-arms, and everything forward of the radiator. I removed the crash beams from the doors of my 1978 280Z, but retained the glass and window winding mechanism. This required quite a bit of contortion. Using tin snips, I cut as little of the inboard sheet metal as possible. Then, with a dremel, pliers and snips, I cut out the crash beams completely. Then I gathered the scraps of metal and weighed them. The result – for BOTH doors combined: 10 lbs! That was a lot of work for just ten pounds. And comparing, subjectively of course, how the doors feel now, when they’re opened and closed, vs. how they felt before the surgery, the difference in apparent weight is exceedingly minor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Matman has a whole buttload of 240 doors. He's in CA, but I bet he'd give you a deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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