Remove heater/ac box and controls Remove radio and speakers Remove unneeded seats Remove carpeting and sound deadener Gut the doors Install Lexan windows Install lightweight components where available
Yea,what he said.And on crash bumper cars,if you want to keep the stock look you can "gut" the inner supports out of the bumpers and save about 35-40 lbs each.
i've also taken out the gas tank and replaced with a five gallon fuel cell. also removed the windshield wipers and the wiper motor. fiberglass hood, decklid, fenders, doors etc if you really want to do it. i've just got the fiberglass pin on hood on mine. that way you also lose the hinges. i also removed the instruments as i only have a tach, no need for the mph etc.
And an aluminum radiator and moving the battery to the trunk helps gets some of the weight off of the front.
With our cars being nose-heavy, I would focus on lightening the front end more than anything else. Moving the battery to the trunk is equivalent to moving the motor back roughly 10% of the wheelbase of most cars. Aluminum intake will shave 40 lbs off. Aluminum heads are great too. Didn't Fairmonts have aluminum bumpers at one point? They look like they might be close in size to fitting a Mav. In the sixties, it wasn't uncommon for guys to spend a lot of time with a hole saw and swiss-cheese a lot of stuff under the hood, inner fenders, frame rails, inner hood bracing. It does not compromise the strength badly either, because now instead of a piece of sheet metal arcing over it's entire surface, having holes punched in it forces twisting motions to take different paths, just not diagonally across the piece. Using a hydraulic press is even better. The holes have a bit of a lip to them and that is stronger yet.
