hey I wanna make my t bird as light as possible . What are all the things i can do for all this to happen?? Is it a bad thing if i do it??? let me know thanks.
ERIC
Well, taking all of teh sound deadning is a great start. say 20lbs, give or take. If your going to race it then the ac can go too. If you have power seats those are heavy, so you could loose those for a manual set and save so weight there. All of this is good thoughts or what I have heard, not proven by me.
There are a few things you can do. You can pull the passenger and rear seat. If you want to keep both front seats, you could swap to manual tracks.
You could gut the trunk, but you're in trouble if you get a flat tire. I suppose all of the carpet and insulation could add up to a few pounds.
Other than that, there's not too much you can do.
Are you trying to autocross the car?
Beat me to it, 84 Fila. :D
well i wanna make it a street car that just drag races and as well us the car for daily use. So far I gutted out the trunk . were can i get manuel seat tracks? cause i have both seats electric. should i pull out the smog pump and the emissions garbage? Any otehr suggesttions guys???
ERIC
It depends really on what you're doing with the car. If you don't mind a lot of noise you can pull out all the insulation and deadening under the carpet like 84Fila says. You could also go in search of all manual accessories, like crank windows, manual locks, etc. If it's legal and you don't mind doing it, you can pull all the smog equipment and cats from your car. There's a good 100# or so there.
I don't think that you can run out our cars without it. The manual seats out of any fox, tempo/topaz and I think probe will fit out brackets. The manual should match up too.
Sorry bro, I've learned a few things around here
I think there is a "point of diminishing returns."
You can cover every last part, including crank windows... but it won't make that much of a difference.
As far as the manual seat tracks are concerned, search your boneyards. Find some Fox chassis cars with manual seats. The motors in the power tracks are HEAVY, so there is a benefit in losing both power seats.
, 84 Fila! That's twice you've beaten me in the same thread.
I give up. :D
My '85 with CFI runs excellent (as excellent as CFI can run, anyway) with no smog pump, no cats and a blocked EGR.
Smog pumps are not needed, you just have to properly remove it.
thanks alot guys for helping me out but it there is anything else, let me know :)
ERIC
Cut the roof off.
Just kidding...
I bet if you take the p. seats out, sound deadning stuff, ac/smog bullshiznit, and even as far as the radio gone, you can save about 150-200 lbs. A sheer guess but I bet i'm close.
haha
Definitely do the manual seat swap - those power seat tracks are unbelieveably heavy. I was considering swapping the power seat tracks from the parts TC until I actually lifted them. Pull the wiring harnesses for the power seats as well - it'd save about ten pounds and make your seat tracks that much more desirable if you want to sell them.
You will need the tracks from a Fox T-Bird or Cougar (and possibly Mark VII). Although any Fox track will bolt up to any Fox seat, only T-Bird/Cougar tracks will bolt up to your floor. Mustang tracks are different. Dunno about other Foxes such as Continentals, LTD's, Fairmonts, etc.
You can 86 the spare, but carry a can of fix-a-flat and a cell phone.
You can also save weight by doing an aluminum-headed engine (TFS. Holley, Edelbrock, FMS, etc) but of course they're expensive. You do get the double benefit of light weight and more power tho. Yanking the AOD and tossing a T-5 in will save you quite a bit of weight in addition to using less power (parasitic loss) and of course it would make the car more fun to drive :D Tubular headers, even stock Fox Mustang units, weigh considerably less than cast manifolds and flow better to boot, so there's a weight saving with extra power too. Catalytic converters are quite heavy so if you can get away with an off-road exhaust go for it. Without the cats the smog pump is useless, so deep-six it (properly, so your accessories and belt still function)
Tubular K-member and control arms would shave a fair chunk as well. Fiberglass hood and trunklid would shave a few. Lightweight racing buckets, lightweight wheels (such as Weld Draglights) - there's a few pounds. Depending on how serious you are about weight loss you could even install a manual steering rack, then kiss the pump and hoses goodbye.
If you've got an LX or TC you could save a few pounds by installing the thinner (and lighter) carpet from a base car - a lot of effort for not much weight savings, but while the carpet is out you could pull the insulation. You could even se that ashphalt-like black stuff off the floor pans, but be prepared for some droning and road noise.
If you're really, REALLY serious you could even open up wiring harnesses and remove all unessecary wires. When Ford made the harnesses they included wiring for options your car doesn't necessarily have, and if you remove options that's even more wiring you can pull. Copper is heavy. For instance, if you decide you don't need a stereo you also don't need the wiring. If you go with manual windows, locks and seats, you don't need their wiring either. Be careful doing this, though - if the wire is connected to something (other than what you're removing) you probably need it.
Losing weight isn't the only thing that'll help - you can move it around, too. For example, moving the battery to the trunk will result in a slight net increase in weight due to the longer cables, but it'll remove about 60-75 pounds from the front end and put it in the rear, over the drive axle.
Basically, the easiest way to look at everything in the car and ask yourself "Do I need it?"
Fiberglass hood, front fenders, doors... I know of one company, at least, that makes a one-piece front facia/fenders.
Replace all the glass but the windshield with Lexan.
Titanium drive shaft, aluminum differential center section, aluminum/titanium trailing arms
Yeah, it's BIG bucks, but it depends on how serious you are about losing weight.
Of course the driver can make a difference too. Try bulemia. :D
Take a big poop before you race.....
It depends on how much noise and such you want to put up with. The back half of the interior of my 83 (rear seat area/trunk) is still stripped and it's annoying as hell driving it around town. Personally I think excessive weight reduction is not worth it on a street car, or at least one you plan on driving on a regular basis.
You can take the bumper supports off. That'll save a few pounds.
stellar post Carm...well done!
also can consider aluminum trailing arms and driveshaft, losing the harmonic ballancers off the rear diff, sway bar removal (drag raceing) or you can at least get one of the hollow mustang bullit ones. they can break but are way lighter than the tbird bars.
I had (still do now that I think about it) a thread documenting the weight loss of my TCs. The free things you can do are generally very time consuming and it's really up to you if it's worth it or not, but all I can say is all those little things add up.
hmm now im really thinkin bout this and im bout to do some stuff to this t bird. i want it a little lighter cause it is a heavy sucker. How many pounds is a 88 t bird lx with a 5.0 aod??
3600 lbs - ish,
I had mine weighed at the local s yard,and it was 3405.I have a 5.0 and AOD.I have smog and a/c delete (removed everything pertaining to both),off road x-pipe instead of the heavy h-pipe with cats,headers instead of the heavy cast iron manifolds.Once I pull the dash,I'll remove the un-necassary a/c stuff from there also.I want to keep the car quiet inside and keep a nice ride,so I'm not removing the sound deadener.
So you can street race? Fool
he said nothing of street raceing bud. so much bs lately wtf?
i agree, lately it seems like everybody is ripping into someone over the littlest of things....hey man, you said a elephant, its aN elephent, go back to school, your retarded, blah blah blah, bah humbug.....its getting ridiculous :shakehead
FYI I'm fairly certain that Fox seat tracks won't bolt into Thunderbirds & Cougars. I compared my old Mustang's seat tracks where they bolted to the floor, to my Thunderbird, and they're definitely different.
FWIW, I ordered the mustang seat mounts made for plastic or "Kirkey" style seats. The guys at Holcomb Motorsport didn't know if they would fit my 88 TC. I did have to drill new mounting holes in the floor, and fab up 1 inch spacers to bring up the rear of the mount. I tried some adjustable seat sliders but they mounted the seat too high for NHRA specs(I'm 6'1" and with helmet was too close to the cage) Without the sliders it will be legal though. I need to weld up large thick washers under the newly drilled holes for safety's sake. Hope this helps on the seat selection part of it.
heh, im running 79 fox stang seat tracks in my t-bird :D
the manual ones work fine..
lol this guy is funny. :slap:
any one know what a fully stripped 88 would weigh
somewhere around 2800-3000, and I mean it has to have every trick you can do...like all the ones mentioned in this 4+ year old thread lol
i see someone knows how to use the search function(s).
You would be hard pressed to get a T bird or cougar down to 3000lbs. My sons black car has went under the knife pretty
deep(crash bars in the doors,bumper supports,carpet,race seats and all the sound deadning and a fuel cell and all emmsions
stuff and the car weights in at 3150lb