Anyone done any serious weight reductions to these cars? I've seen them often times for Mustangs and things, I was wondering what people have done with the Cougar.
Ideas where the weight between the Cougar and the Mustang comes in? Seems that most of the interior pieces are rather light, cheap consoles, rear seat made of foam...
Obviously the body being longer and bigger has an effect, but where can I cut down on the weight? (besides going on a diet :D, smartass, I know you were thinking it :giggle: )
Anyway, any discussion on the topic would be appreciated.
longer and more steel body panels. The mutang has alot more plastic on them. They are shorter and have less options. Thing about it, even the tilt colum adds weight.
Pull the carpet back inside the car. Take a good look at the amount of sound deadener. Take a heat gun and putty knife and have fun. I removed as much as I could from my bird. Filled a 55gal garbage can and it was almost too heavy to carry.
the power seat tracks are heavy, all the extra sound deadening we have over the stangs, the rest of it iis pretty much sheet metal
Use a power adder or build more motor, the car will seem lighter... :D
I pulled about 60lbs out of my T-bird just from sound deadener in the door/floor/wall panels.
I'm with TurboCoupoe 50.I need the sound deadener,because I like it quiet going down the highway.More power AND comfort.Nice.
Not to derail, but this reminds me of a time a few years ago that my father bought a 35mm camera through mail order. When the camera came you could tell it was obviously very, very cheaply made, but he picked it up and said "You can tell it's a good quality camera, just feel how much it weighs!"
Needless to say it didn't even last a full roll of film. I took it apart for the flash capacitor, and imagine my surprise when I found a large lead weight factory installed in the base of the camera! They actually put lead in the camera, just so people like my father would say "feel that quality!" :rollin:
Maybe somewhere in these cars there's a lead weight :crazy:
I wonder, for those of us who want our quiet: Is stuff like Dynamat (or equivalent) as good as factory-installed insulation, but lighter?
I like my LSC quiet. After having done my last two out-of-state road trips in Escorts, I have to say I must have my creature comforts (and relative quiet is one of them) if I ever do it again. But it would be nice to shed *some* weight on that thing.
I like my quiet too. If I wanted a race car I'd drive a Mustang. Luxury is one of the big reasons I like these cars...
dynomat is actually heavy.. i'm pretty sure it's actually heavier then the factory installed insulation.
Having pulled most of the sound deadener out of my mustang (all the fabric stuff, didn't touch the tar junk) and then taken a few highway trips in it....I'll leave the sound deadener in my Thunderbird, thanks.
The sound deading material adds so much weight, but unless you're making a race car, leave it in. It will provide much more driver comfort. If you do want to remove it, wait until winter and use a hammer. It will shatter the tar.
I'm going to strip all the tar out of my '77 Celica since I'll be doing SCCA stuff with it. I did the same in another 77 and the tar filled a trash can. Crazy stuff.
Lighter suspension components may be a better solution.Better cornering,less weight.Fiberglass hood maybe?
Not much in the way of lighter springs, shocks, struts etc. There are tubular sway bars for the Mustangs - I wonder how they would lighten the car.
Not running the Turbo Coupe wheels is one way to keep the car light. Those things weigh a ton.
A fiberglass hood is a great idea as the stock hoods are just way too heavy.
I'm sure the doors are the real anchors. Take out the window motors, the bracing (I forget if there's a lot of bracing in there) and the speakers.
I took the insulation out of the back seat area and the sound is much louder than before. You can really hear the exhaust rumble now. But the insulation is very heavy. The back seat is fairly light.
The seats weigh a ton, powered or not. But I tried to lift an aftermarket seat and they seem just as heavy. You would think that they would have a light weight frame. They never give the weight of the aftermarket seats like in Summit. I have never lifted a stock Mustang seat and I don't know for sure that they would fit. I really like the feel of the stock turbo coupe seats though.
There's a big chunk of iron the the rear end near the u-joint that I never figured out what it was for. I took it off and it seems the same to me.
The stock master on the turbo coupe weighs a bunch and you can switch to manual brakes. There's also about 25 pounds of wires/computer for the ABS and eletronic suspension.
More power does help.
TED
what the dog bone thing with the two bolts. I thought that was for vibration control from the the rear to the driveshaft..etc
The dog bone is the counterweight for the rear end gears to help reduce driveline vibration. Once you change rear end gears it becomes useless and can be removed.
There is also a counterweight on the tailshaft of the transmission, sometimes, depending on the AOD (the Mark VII AOD definitely has it). That can probably get tossed as well.
That is a very nice looking car Thunder306!
TED
Alright, we've settled on the sound insulation, and I've removed just about everything from under the hood that I can.
From stock
Headers instead of cast manifold
No AC equipment
No PS equipment
Pulled out the stock carpet for lightened non-insulated stuff
Also, the 8.8 I put in from the Mark7, didn't have a dogbone.
Where else can I get some lightening from? I'm thinking about the seats next, possibly even removing the tar insulation and carpeting that I put in.
I know more power does help, but I've seen these cars run considerly slower than mustangs with the same mods, I just don't want it to be true :D
Hey ! Precisely yesterday i remove that "Dog Bone" from the end of the driveshaft. One of the sides broke and it was heavily rubbing with the driveshaft. i cant mount it unless i get some custom fabrication, but i need to put again ?
(http://teaca.iespana.es/almacen/Cougar.jpg)
Saran wrap is lighter than glass.
You don't have to if you don't want to. It's just there to "tune" out some of the vibration from the rear gears.
Take off the catylitic converters and replace them with straight pipe.Take the exhaust off from the lers back,and install turn down pipes there instead.If it's just for racing,remove the bumper covers and take the big fiberglass bumpers off and then re-install the covers.Remove the fuel tank and install a smaller fuel cell.Smaller battery.Remove the cast iron heads and install aluminum heads (LOT of weight there).Heater core and A/C evaporator box (just run the heatercore lines under the hood together and bypass the core).Remove the factory airbox and put a cone filter on a shorter intake tube.Short glasspacks instead of factory lers.Remove the carpet.If your car is going to be your primary driver,then be very cautious about what you do.The sacrifice you make in comfort may not be worth the sacrifce for weight savings.Get a Mustang and you save a few hundred pounds from the start from what a T-Bird and Cougar weighs.
"If it's just for racing,remove the bumper covers and take the big fiberglass bumpers off and then re-install the covers.Remove the fuel tank and install a smaller fuel cell."
Do you know how much these fiberglass bumpers weigh? I thought they may be pretty light.
Also there is a big piece of plastic under the tank that can be removed to save a few pounds. Don't why this is here but the stock straps work just fine without it.
TED
Well I've done 99% of those options already... And why would I want a Mustang? Everyone's got one.
I dunno about other thunderbirds/cougars, but on my Turbo Coupe there was some kind of weight bolted to the factory crossmember, this thing had to have weighed at least 5 lbs by itself. I pitched that and the weight on the end of the transmission.
Also as was mentioned about the ABS- the factory ABS MC is heavy (never actually weighed mine), but an '87-93 Mustang booster is only a few pounds and an all-aluminum MC is pretty light too.