ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[Ron Earp]

Thanks for the tips fellows because I'll have to go after that weight. No death ray is available but 25 lbs of dry ice I can get on the way home from work.

We were able to scale the car up tonight and see where we're at. I have to say we're better off than I thought we were, but not where we need to be.

We're essentially at 2510 lbs with the stock tank and about 12 gallons of gas. So I'd feel comfortable calling it 2440 lbs. There are still things left to remove - cruise control, some airbag crash sensors, and a few other odds and ends like comparing a fuel cell to the stock tank. But there is a lot to put back in - cage, race seat, harness, fire system, and other racing related items.

So in addition to those dampening pads, which isn't going to be fun, I'm going to need to attack the wiring harness and remove optional circuits that we can legally remove. There are a lot of them - ABS, anti theft, power windows/mirrors/locks, AC, and so on. The harnesses are very heavy. Tonight we spent time separating the metal from from the dash so we could get to the dash harness - just the dash harness weighed in at 9.7 lbs and the door harnesses were a bit over 1.5 lbs each. In this respect it would have been nice to have obtained a five speed manual non-power window non-ABS non-AC car that never had all the options, but the single example of that I found, which took almost a year, was in very poor shape. Ford quit make the stripper cars in 95 so if you're inclined to find one look for 1994 and 1995 models, after that they all had quite a bit of options regardless of trim. Anyhow, I'll need to be thinking about very light rear suspension components as well as a light ($$$$) seat.

I have to say I'm encouraged. I know we'll never make the 24XX spec weight but if we could score a 2700 lbs weight with driver I feel we could make the car competitive. I don't think it'll ever be one of the "cars to have" in ITS but I think it can be a contender and add some flavor to the class.

[Ron Earp]

..washer .....washer bottle....Must.....must not remove.....washer bottle......

Not a whole lot under the fenders to deal with. Cruise control, washer bottle, ABS stuff, and the controversial carbon canister, which in a race paddock is more rare than rocking horse poo.

One thing that is notably absent is rust and undercoating, a welcome change from the Z.

[joeg]

Forget the dry ice...sort of an urban legend and very much material dependent. For Fords you need to get the cold under the material and you therefore need to be on a rotisserie.

The N2 death ray is the nuts.

For me it was a acraper and a Dynazip. Hardwork but it gets the job done.

[tim240z]

plastic/aluminium hardware time?

[Ron Earp]

I am not sure the dry ice will work either, but it is cheap and I have 25 lbs ready to go. Removing those mats is more for aesthetics than anything else because there is precious little weight involved with them.

[shwah]

I always removed that stuff with a propane torch and a putty knife. Heat it to just bubbling and it comes right off, leaving clean primer underneath.

[Ron Earp]

The dry ice myth is busted, at least on a 1998 Ford Mustang sound deadening removal. I used dry ice in various ways - direct on the material, in bags, taped to the bottom and nothing worked. Had 25+ lbs on hand too and allowed it plenty of time to get to as low of a temp as possible. Wouldn't crack and wouldn't chip off.



What works really well is a heat gun and a couple of metal scrapers. About 45 mins and Jeff G and I had the driver's side about 90% done. Tomorrow we'll have two heat guns and also give it a go with the torch. There seems to be happy medium where it isn't too cold, nor too hot, and it comes off in nice large sheets.



I calculated that one square centimeter of this junk weighs 5.5 grains. At 7000 grains to a pound and with a re-calcuation of the square area we come up with 7 lbs of material. A lot of work for 7 lbs, but with a car like this that is severely weight challenged you have to do it. Besides, leaving it was going to piss me off. I envision a nice tidy white interior for this car and having those deadening mats painted over would always remind me that I "didn't do it right".

We've also already separated a couple of wiring harnesses and removed non-required circuits that we can legally remove. Man, there are a metric assload of circuits on this car and I suspect we'll be 10-15 lbs lighter on wiring when we're all through. Be a lot of work though, but again, something that is needed. All these little pounds add up and put us closer to that unobtainable 2480 lbs weight.