The weight saving thread

[Bruce]

I can confess to my gear selector forks having holes in them as well, but not as many as yours (mine have been fine by the way).

I've also been rather extravagant with the framehorn bolts and made them in Titanium, but you will be pleased to hear, in the time honoured fashion they have blind holes in them and a taper to the head of the bolt much like yours. Sad but true!

Pictures?

[deanosvws]

you lot are mad. hope its not contagious.
cheers dean

[Bruce]

Come on guys, I can't do it all!  Let's see your ideas.

These are the 2 dowel pins that locate the gear carrier to the main trans case.
Stock = 41g/pr
Drilled = 14g/pr  = 66% less

[Bruce]

This is the reverse gear's lever.
Stock = 48g
Drilled = 30g  = 33%

[Bruce]

 - you must have a fairly decent setup to drill all this, I have been struggling with an old pillar drill for a while now but a lathe would be lovely!  What machinery do you use for bits like this?

I've got nothing!  My job has me driving a desk, but every once in a while I help out where we have a small workshop with a pillar drill.  After work I give it a workout.
I also have a mate who works in a machine shop and likes doing VW jobs, so he does some.

One thing that really helps is good drill bits.  Look at this one from Boeing Surplus.  These are very sharp and they last a long time.  Notice how there's a step in the drill?  It's designed to drill sheet metal.  The step goes in first and produces a wobbly hole.  Then it acts like a pilot for the second part, making a perfectly round hole.  They are also very cheap; they sell them by the pound.  The only drawback is the limited number of sizes.

[Peter Shattock]

Hi Bruce I have a photo for you but don'know how to post it here! I'll see if I can find and adult to show me how!

Peter [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ] [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[Pas]

This is the reverse gear's lever.
Stock = 48g
Drilled = 30g  = 33%

Great drill work Bruce,these are like little works of art in there own right.

Shame that they have to be hidden away inside the box !

[Peter Shattock]

Hopefully this will work! Lightened Grade 5 Ti frame horn bolt.

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Peter

[benssp]

We need the weight for it, is it drilled through to? 

[Peter Shattock]

Frame horn bollt have blind holes and weigh 62g each

I had my hub nuts around as well they weigh 53g each.

Peter

[cameron shorey]

What? Is this thread stalled? Surely, there must be some more weight saving ideas!

[Rule09]

What about sandblasting the body a few times extra?
To make the sheet metal thinner..
To bad i just painted my bug last year.. 
And left my heating tubes from front to back.. 
I think next year when my second engine is ready, (2.7type 4 from Udo becker) i have to start cutting again..

[Rule09]

I have 1 set doors extra.. I'm gonna fit then on my bug..
Than i gonna try a bit of weight saving with sandblasting and cutting away inside metal and drilling holls in the side..
See what it delivers..

[Rule09]

2 doors are in for sandblasting and than some drilling..

[volkskris]

Just an idea: when you have trim, bore some holes behind it, should save a few grams too

[Rule09]

i think i'm gonna cut them in half.. No inside metal..
Pics soon..

[Bruce]

I don't think you'll be able to measure any weight difference by sandblasting.  All you're gonna do is warp the hell out of your panels.  Cutting and drilling is where it's at.

[Martin]

I thought sand blasting just moves the metal around, and doesn't actually remove any.


May be wrong,



Martin

[Bruce]

Hey guys, here's my secret weapon:

What? Is this thread stalled? Surely, there must be some more weight saving ideas!

Cameron's a machinist and he's got this cool waterjet cutting machine that can zip through hardened steel with ease.  Check out the holes he put in these reverse gears.  I also narrowed the one on the left.  I figure since this gear never breaks, and never wears out, it can stand to lose strength.  I just gotta remember to not do any reverse burnouts. 
Oh ya, original : 142g, drilled and narrowed : 80g.

[Fasterbrit]

Bruce, that's just insane! I would interested to know how much weight you save on your complete gearbox. It would also be interesting to know the parasitic power loss through a lightened drive train compared to stock. 

[Bruce]

The goal is to make my Berg 5 weigh the same as a stock 4 gear.  I've got a running total so far, but I'm not close to done yet.

There are two ways power gets stolen by the gearbox.  One is through friction of the various contact surfaces.  I figure that will be pretty much the same in my gearbox after the weight is cut down since I won't be changing anything on the bearings, and other than the gear in the pic and the coupler, I won't be narrowing the forward gears.  Much.

The second way power is robbed is through the inertia of the rotating parts.  They are all like little flywheels.  They steal hp while you're accelerating.  If they're lighter, they take less power to accelerate them.

The parts on the two shafts of the gearbox are almost insignificant compared to the big players like the flywheel, clutch, crank, diff, brakes, and wheels and tires.  All those parts will be on the chopping block eventually.

[Chris W]

[Bruce]

Well done Chris.  It's good to have a new convert.

You could go with bigger holes in the e-brake lever.  The strength is in the width.  The metal at the half way point of the width adds zero strength.
Next, drill the cross bar that the lever pulls against.  Have you drilled the brake shoes like in the pic I posted long ago?

The holes in the pan clamps do not reduce their effectiveness.  All of their ridgidity is in the vertical flaps.

[Chris W]

I am well on my way. 

I plan on going bigger on the lever. I just need to grab some smooth step bits.



I will hit the shoes and the cross bar this weekend.

[pupjoint]

bump for this thread. i like it a lot, but not much to contribute for now. 

[pupjoint]

just remember

i dint weigh the weight, but sometime last year i changed out the original SC master cylinder on my 66.

i wanted to try something different so i fitted an aluminium master cylinder from a late model Nissan 4 cylinder car.

it was designed to work with a booster, but i just took it, redreilled the holes to follow the the holes inour VWs .

it sure is a lot lighter but i am not sure what the bore size is.

seems to be working OK so far.



main reason wasnt even for weight, i wanted the reservoir to be ontop of the MC and the ATE late model DC costs USD140 in my area, the Nissan MC can be found in near mint condition for USD20, so i decided to try it out and if it doesnt work, just swap back a VW unit. so far no issues yet.

[Pas]

Another small weight loss, 15g saving on a stock steering column clamp.

[Neil Davies]

Another small weight loss, 15g saving on a stock steering column clamp.

Tha's one bit I might not take anything out of...

[Pas]

Another small weight loss, 15g saving on a stock steering column clamp.

Tha's one bit I might not take anything out of...

Hey Neil

Fear not it is still very strong, the strength seems to be in the folded edges of the clamp, ( back me up on this one Bruce ) I gave it a good old twist in the vice and it is still rigid. Phil West has been running a very similar clamp to this, and we both know how thoroughly he likes to test his car

[Bruce]

Tha's one bit I might not take anything out of...

it is still very strong, the strength seems to be in the folded edges of the clamp, ( back me up on this one Bruce )

Indeed!  There's nobody on this board with enough strength to break that.
I was thinking of making something like that from Al, although it would be difficult to best the weight of yours.