280Z weight reduction

[CPLUCKER]

My 280z rolls across the scales at 2700 lbs, I am no featherweight at 213 lbs. any body have an idea of how to get weight out of the car ? some Ideas are the following:

1) run less gas. I have a 12 gal cell have been working on a sumb with flappers to get the fuel load down to 7 gals or so

2) lighter exhaust, el cheapo 16 ga 3" exhaust weighs a bit, I have been thinking about a nice 2 1/2" .049" wall with a super light muffler

3) remove undercoating. not sure what it is worth but has to weigh something ? bought a " crud thug" tool but I have not tried it yet

any other ideas ? I know the weight has to be killing me, but I don't see how I will ever get there

Thanks

[Ron Earp]

I'm not too much different from you in that I am coming in heavy with no real way to drop 50 lbs.

A few off the cuff while eating that I'm sure you've done but what the heck.

1. Did the car have AC? Have you removed the AC controls, evaporator, and anything AC related? I personally wouldn't care if you gutted all that stuff as min weight is min weight, but I don't know about the other guys.

2. Shop batteries. Take your scale. You'll find significant weight in the same group batter across different lines/store brands. Get the lightest one.

4. Stock fuel system stuff, you've got a cell, you don't need to have that mess.

5. One fuel pump? I have double redundant pumps, filters, etc. and will be dropping the redundancy.

6. NASCAR bars so you can gut those doors? I did that on my passenger side last year.

7. Ally window net rod.

8. Light seat.

9. What kind of radiator do you have? I have a really light ally piece, about 1/2 the weight of a stocker if not more.

10. NISMO starters weigh 2.5 lbs more than the el cheapo brand from Advance Auto.

[pballance]

Everything Ron said, plus the undercoating. What wheels are you running. Significant weight can be lost there if you have heavy wheels. Replacement windshield might be significantly lighter, or so I heard

[spawpoet]

4. Stock fuel system stuff, you've got a cell, you don't need to have that mess.

When we re-did our shell I was suprised how much just the hard fuel lines weighed. It was a couple of lbs. Ron's list has some great suggestions (a few I'd never heard), and Paul is right about the undercoating and wheels (we are still VERY heavy here at 17 lbs.wheel). Undercoating should be several lbs. One thing not mentioned is gutting the door IF you add nascar bars to your cage. You add a little weight back on with a bit more cage, but if I remember correctly we saved around 17lbs a door when we put in the nascar bars. The biggest thing is to look at EVERY aspect of the car in the most minute detail possible. It all will add up.



Edit: Somehow I missed Rom mentioning the nascar bars in his post. I guess I didn't look in the most minute detail possible.

[Knestis]

Pay attention to everything you add. I see a lot of brackets (e.g., for kill switches) that are way too heavy. Dash panels, etc., etc., etc. Lots of little pieces add up and if you are doing them as you go, they don't cost much to make lighter than you might.

We got about 30 pounds of undercoating off of the Golf when we built it. I don't know how a Z compares but the Thug is the right tool for the job. I found a pair of old shoes when we moved this last time, that STILL had crumbs in them...

K

[lateapex911]

In addition to the good suggestions above:

Fasteners are free, some folks use other materials that are lighter. Of course, optional things like radiators needn't be held in with 6 stock bolts, two small tabs and two small bolts will do. That's just and example.

Suspension rules are pretty open. does the car run struts? those are pretty open, and significant weight can be saved there, Look at the inserts too. Swaybars. Big savings possible here. Hollow bars, with alum arms.

Stock systems that are optional. Everything goes. (although I don't buy into the 'remove the heater core because it's attached to some housing that the AC air ran through' mentallity). Anything that is open for removel, remove. Anything that is optional, (mirrors) consider weight when replacing.

Tires. They don't all weigh the same, and their weight 'costs' more as it's rotating and unsprung.

Exhaust. Stainless and or titanium. Significant potential for loss, and it can last longer.

On the Nascar door bars, read the rule carefully. Your right side should be the bare minimum to meet the exact words of the rule. (example: When they say "project into the door opening" they don't say by how much...you don't need the crush space, so 1/8" projection with ONE bar is enough to satisfy the rule requirement, IIRC. )

Seat. Buy smart and save 7-pounds or so.

Clutch and PP ...there are some savings available there, and again, thats rotating weight.

Guages. Remove all stock ones, replace with small dash panel and data aq system. Saves a bit of weight, but gives you a record of things you might be missing on track. (An oil pressure fluctuation in left handers that could rear it's head later, or a voltage fluctuation that explains that weird miss) AND you can review your driving which always makes you faster._

Sorry about this one, but eat more fruits, salads and exercise regularly. Or more. Helps during a three hour stint too.

Finally, read the rulebook, start to finish and think about weight in regards to every line.

[MIKEL]

Another thing are all the brackets in the engin compartment for the air canister and other junk. buy a drill to remove them (spot weld drill?). Depending which year you have some of the bumper mountint points were much beefer and an area to look at removing/lightning. Ron was right about the dash the 280s were a lot heaver than the 240s if possible pull it and gut it they had a lot more material and braces inside and if the dash is out remove some of the mounting brackets for the ac and other interior parts you are removing (drill again). And like everyone said the undercoating. When we built our IT 240 we weighed the undercoating from the floor pans and interior got 12lbs out.