Legal ways to light car.
 

My 1969 Impala will be in reassembly stage.
Need a garage to complete it.

Wanted to know how to handle bumper braces.
What is considered legal lightening?
Are there any aluminum components that would work?
Like a supply of hardened alloy bolts/nuts?

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Most effective way on a early GM car is to remove all sound deadener, insulation, and extraneous pieces. Then use aftermarket seats, aftermarket disc brakes and light wheels. The expense of alloy bolts, etc. is way too much for the overall weight reduction. You might save 3 lbs if you replaced every no critical body bolt with aluminum or titanium.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

I also run a lightweight lithium battery. It weighs 8 lbs. saves about 30 lbs. brakes were a huge weight savings. 60 lbs lighter than the drums. Braking is way better as well with the aftermarket light weight brakes.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Gasoline and a match !

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

We replaced stock seats and mounts with aluminum Jaz and fabbed Ch-Moly mounts in a 72 Chevelle and saved right at 80 lb.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Billy Nees once told me "look for 50, 1 lb items, not 1, 50 lb item"...

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

OK... FWIW
I lost 20 pound of wrinkle filling fat last year..!
Think that helps.

The body right now is a Shell on a rebuilt Chassis.
Did have the floor sprayed with a sound deadener.
Have the Stock Carpet and Headliner.

What are the Best Adjustable Seats?
It has the Stock Drums on all fours.
What Disk Brakes are recommended for this car?
What Booster is used for Power Brakes?

Lightweight Lithium Batteries, good idea.
Is it useful to have two batteries? (one in Trunk)

What about wheels?

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Light seats,aircraft carpet,light battery,mini alternator,mini starter,light wheels,aftermarket brakes. My friend runs a 66 Biscayne and has Wildwood brakes,stops from 130 mph weighs 4000 lbs.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

I use a single core aluminum radiator. Alum is lighter than brass. Also the single core reduces the amount of water in the system. My system holds just over 2 gallons. Small fuel cell. 3 gallon cell and only haul a couple of gallons of fuel in the car. A gallon of fuel is about 7 lbs. water is about 8 lbs per gallon.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Remove all sound deadener, look in doors, 1/4 panels, and top. Remove stick out on bolts, big ones first. Lighter steering wheel, new glass is thinner sometimes. Put the correct gage wire for each load, remember bigger is heaver. Remove all unnecessary wire. Look in the rule book.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

In answer to your initial question..No, aluminum or drilled out bumper brackets are not legal.

However, if you're a hands on type, with metal working skills and tools, there's lots of places where you can removed a pound or two, and not be noticed.
If you're a checkbook / bubble pack racer, you're just going to have to open the wallet wide and kick it out..It's only money.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Look for after market glass, steering gear, steering shaft. Tom

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Hey mike you ever had any problem with your lithium battery ? And what brand if you don’t mind me asking

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

and cost please/thankyou

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

No issues with the lithium battery. You do have to take care of it charge wise. It charges quick usually about 20 minutes after the run. I have a Go Lithium brand battery and charger. Check with them as they run specials every so often the battery is about $600 plus the charger. I have been using it for about 5 years. I only run one of them and have not had any issues with power in the late rounds. I carry a pony battery in the trailer to run the water pump and fan to cool the car after the run while the lithium battery is charging.

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Seats,front and rear ,wiring harness, sound deadener , factory carpets ,all the unnecessary underdash stuff ,} defroster ducts and dash controls must stay }are the biggest gain for the least expense.
Door guard beams are also good for quite a bit of weight .
Aluminum bolts and screws on non suspension parts can reduce as much as 15 - 20 # on big cars. using the shortest bolts possible elsewhere all adds up.
Getting rid of the factory fuel tank in favor of a 3 gallon cell and pump is a big weight loss, but will take several hundred bucks from the budget. .
On the more pricy side are the lithium batteries ,but the weight savings are huge and when getting to the last 30-40 # is necessary an expense that may need to be taken.
I've had very good results using batteries from Antigravity Battery .
You mentioned adjustable seats , unless drastically different size drivers are going to be running the car, a waste of both money and weight .
Some modern steering wheels are are very heavy to dampen vibration, and to frevent breakage during airbag deployment .
Ive found light wheels that weigh as little as 1 3/4 pounds [Stock car stuff]

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

$$$

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

If you thought sound deadner was a necessary part of a stocker you need to re think your goals. Seriously, scrape that off and read the thread. Some great commons sense ideas here

Re: Legal ways to light car.
 

Actually ,a lot of the glass for older cars is substantially thinner {i.e. more cheaply made] and not as expensive as O.E glass.
I've seen some windshields that came from Mexico , China and South Africa that were 12 -15 pounds lighter than original and were not overpriced .
Optical quality ,sometimes I've had to say no ,get me another one .
I put one in an AMX that was actually 18# lighter than an O.E.