Lighten up my race car

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nwdart

nwdart

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Looking for advice on best way to lighten up the dart. Motor is a fresh 340 with eddy heads electric water pump ,altercation front k, glass hood,bumpers and aluminum bumper brackets. At minimum will get glass deck lid. Thinking of fenders and doors, never had glass doors before do they have any way to let air in on drivers side while staging . Roll up or sliding lexan? Motor is freshly dyno tuned 460 hp at 7 k so not willing at this point to touch it. So have to get lighter to go quicker. Still has full glass in rear quarter windows and doors. Advice,opinions,who to buy from is wanted.....GO!
 

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Lexan windows all around if you can that with the glass doors and deck lid and fenders. Most glass doors even race weight accept all factory pieces just need to drill out the holes, with the straight glass on these darts can use your factory window regulators and just have the lexan the same thickness and away you go.
 
Might check some places might have the front and rear already formed since there's a curvature to them unless you want to heat it to form it yourself.
 
nwdart said:
Looking for advice on best way to lighten up the dart. Motor is a fresh 340 with eddy heads electric water pump ,altercation front k, glass hood,bumpers and aluminum bumper brackets. At minimum will get glass deck lid. Thinking of fenders and doors, never had glass doors before do they have any way to let air in on drivers side while staging . Roll up or sliding lexan? Motor is freshly dyno tuned 460 hp at 7 k so not willing at this point to touch it. So have to get lighter to go quicker. Still has full glass in rear quarter windows and doors. Advice,opinions,who to buy from is wanted.....GO!
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If it's not a street car there are "tons" of ways. I run a 440 duster that's 2750 lbs.
 
I have glass dors and they aee worth the money but i dont see how you could run glass. I run lexan and at speed the stuff moves a lot. Lexan windows weigh half as much as glass.
If you havent done it grind off all the undercoating on the car. Should be worth about 50 to 100 pounds.
 
Every fastener you find, cut the bolts off just long enough to pass through retaining nut.

You'll be surprised how much weight ends up in the bucket.
 
X2 on cutting the tips off fasteners. While expensive, titanium is lighter. Nylon fasteners where you don't need steel, like any bezel screws or small stuff.

Vent wing windows and frames weigh a lot, bet you could shave 20 lbs a side ditching those. If you can live without roll-down windows, the mechanisms and guides probably weigh 10-15 lbs each on top of the window glass. Fix the rear quarter windows too.

What's the interior like, gutted? Stock dash? Get rid of all excess wiring? Headlights?

Aluminum master cylinder and lightweight front disc brakes? Aluminum rad?

Also, braided hose - the steel braided hoses are all heavier than the black woven stuff like Russell Pro Classic, Earls, Aeroquip Startlite etc. If you have a lot of braided line, think about switching to the woven stuff.
 
fiberglass hood...deck lip ...front and rear bumper ...replace the rear crush panel that goes with the rear bumper..front bumper brackets.....front and rear disk brakes...aluminium master cylinder.....remove stock wiring and rewired with what is only needed...aluminium radiator...

remove quarter glass and replace with lexan...remove the regulars also...
 
Thanks guys, cutting the bolts is brilliantly simple, do not need operable quarter windows and pass door, undercoating is already gone,lucky me! Will put a straight shaft column in it. And pm sent to bob for the doors.
 
Have not weighed it yet, just going on the lighter is better theory. May build a 360 later but not til the 340 dies . Nwdart
 
I was able to get a 72 Duster down to 2510# race ready. Just depends how much are you looking to spend. A list of some of the things I did were lexan windows, fiberglass pro front end, doors and trunk lid. The factory latches, handles and hindges had to go. Wilwood aluminum master cylinder and dynalite brakes. Also aluminum drive shaft, moly cage, a small aluminum 2 gallon fuel cell, and a 16 volt race battery. The firewall, dash, floor, rear wheel tubs and trunk in aluminum sheet. We removed the front iner fenders and used a Strange HD pro aluminum case with lightweight spool inside a fabricated 9" moly rear end.

Not sure how you are set up on the back end, but other areas to look at are body roll or spring flex may also be hiding some e.t.

Oh yea I need to keep my fiberglass doors open in the staging lanes to keep from burning up. The lexan windows are fixed. Also need to keep friends standing by the doors in the staging lanes so someone doesn't walk into them.
 
My Duster is 2950 and I have all steel doors and fenders and glass. I to am running a 340 and Im at 11.30s hoping for more tuning to drop a little more. I do have a lift off 6 pack hood and fiber glass bumper. I to ponder the idea of more weight loss heck I just put the bench back in because it was easier on my back. Your Dart looks nice I don't know how far you really want to go but if you do start dropping the weight keep the info coming good luck. Oh I spent a long day and night in Friday Harbor waiting on a ferry that never came. Beautiful island.
 
joes68340s said:
My Duster is 2950 and I have all steel doors and fenders and glass. I to am running a 340 and Im at 11.30s hoping for more tuning to drop a little more. I do have a lift off 6 pack hood and fiber glass bumper. I to ponder the idea of more weight loss heck I just put the bench back in because it was easier on my back. Your Dart looks nice I don't know how far you really want to go but if you do start dropping the weight keep the info coming good luck. Oh I spent a long day and night in Friday Harbor waiting on a ferry that never came. Beautiful island.
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What year duster/ how complete is the interior and dash? that's light, I'd love to weigh that with the power I have:blob:
 
71 Duster dash is pretty gutted I need to remove old wiring. Bench seat no back seat steel tubs have all stock glass. Wilwood front discs made a big difference in weight glass lift off hood glass front bumper. I recently added some weight as I added tti 3 inch x pipe exhaust and ultra flo muffler see what happens I may go back to the bullets. I am now looking for more weight to take out. That's why Im interested in this thread I have thought about lexan and glass doors and front end.
 
joes68340s said:
71 Duster dash is pretty gutted I need to remove old wiring. Bench seat no back seat steel tubs have all stock glass. Wilwood front discs made a big difference in weight glass lift off hood glass front bumper. I recently added some weight as I added tti 3 inch x pipe exhaust and ultra flo muffler see what happens I may go back to the bullets. I am now looking for more weight to take out. That's why Im interested in this thread I have thought about lexan and glass doors and front end.
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Bench seat weighs about 100 lbs. I killed my back getting it out of my car.
 
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