Questions On Weight And Weight Reduction

Jul 31, 2013
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Hey guys,
Kind of new here but have been lurking for a long time. I have a 88 fox and have a question. I've looked around but haven't found any good answers and there is a thread on this already please point me in the right direction. Wondering about how much weight I could lose on my fox. I haven't officially weighed my car but im right at 190 pounds. I will go to a scrap yard before I start doing weight mods to get the official weight. My car is mainly a street strip car and not a DD whatsoever and im also gutting the interior like the rear seats, carpet, spare tire and jack, switching out front seats, taking out stereo, AC, HEAT, Interior panels, dash swap, possibly head liner. I also in the future want to do a carbon fiber/fiber glass hood, fenders. hatch. Possibly do a Lexan swap on the hatch. Lighter springs, lighten up the exhaust, do skinnies and drag wheels. My car is swapped with a 5.3 ls motor with spray. (don't hate please lol). I've always liked the look of foxes and the weight of them is a added bonus. With all of this done what should I be looking at? and is there anything else im missing. Im looking at around 420-450 hp never been dyno official though. also running a th400 if that helps. And a 15 pound bottle with heater and all the goodies.
 
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Fiber glass hood and hatch, stock hood and rear hatch weigh a boat load.

There are certainly weight savings to be had with these parts, but it is fairly expensive for the amount of weight lost.

From my build thread on corral...

Here is the control weight of your author...
IMG_1082.jpg


First up to be weighed, the stock steel hatch. All wiring has been removed at this point, as well as the glass, the latch, the lock cylinder, etc. It is just a bare steel hatch.
IMG_1084.jpg


and the verdict is... a simple subtraction of my weight gives us a total weight of 43.4 lbs.
IMG_1083.jpg


How does that compare to the Design Concepts Fiberglass hatch?
IMG_1088.jpg


24.8 lbs! Or about 18.6 lbs lighter than stock.
IMG_1087.jpg


Next up is the back glass.
IMG_1086.jpg


A total of 19.6 lbs.!
IMG_1085.jpg


How about a Cervini's Cobra Wing?
IMG_1090.jpg


10.4 lbs for the wing.
IMG_1089.jpg


Okay, last thing I weighed was the Fiberglass stock hood. Since I just did this one today, here is the new control weight.

IMG_1094.jpg


and the weight of the Hood is a total of 20 lbs.!
IMG_1093.jpg
 
I agree, lose the weight that's free, but paying for it in most cases costs more than it would to add much more power than weight savings net you.

Yup. I'll take a rigid, safe steel hood over a flimsy fiberglass unit that saves me a couple of pounds, but requires a set of ugly, hood pins to keep if from flying up and killing everyone in the car.
 
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I would bet my fiberglass hood is no lighter than a steel hood, but I always liked the way it looked....and on the bright side, it's not pinned and has always stayed put. Been on the car since 99 with about 145,000 miles on it.
 
my hood was night and day in the lbs dept. Soooooo much lighter. Take your shocks off your hatch and you'll be shocked when you try to raise it.

As the owner of two of these with fiberglass hatches, I can tell you that it is still heavy as hell without shocks (which you can't have with fiberglass anyway) and I can't see any way to avoid that unless you did something about the glass weight (20 lbs.) and the spoiler being levered over the back side of the hatch.
 
As the owner of two of these with fiberglass hatches, I can tell you that it is still heavy as hell without shocks (which you can't have with fiberglass anyway) and I can't see any way to avoid that unless you did something about the glass weight (20 lbs.) and the spoiler being levered over the back side of the hatch.

I just updated my rear hatch shocks and it was asked if I had a spoiler. Thought that was odd and he said it was beefer shock support. Does the fiber glass use the weaker shocks to close? ...or no latches for the shocks at all???
 
Fiberglass manufacturers don't recommend using any shocks due to the high load centered in a small area which can lead to cracking and failure. I don't really get into the hatch very often, but if I did I would setup a prop rod.
 
I can' t understand why you'd want to take weight out of the hatch anyway. These cars are tough enough to get out of the hole without removing weight from the rear wheels. I'd concentrate my reduction in the front end if it were me.
 
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