The weight saving thread

[Fasterbrit]

Ha ha! Yes, my website is fubar! I no longer have access to it to maintain its upkeep. My web designer has moved to South Africa and is supposed to be sorting it sometime soon...
I have moved workshop to Wadebridge. Pop in sometime for a cuppa and pasty

[Lids]

Ha ha! Yes, my website is fubar! I no longer have access to it to maintain its upkeep. My web designer has moved to South Africa and is supposed to be sorting it sometime soon...
I have moved workshop to Wadebridge. Pop in sometime for a cuppa and pasty

Thats the arse end of Cornwall!  why didn't you move further south on the Lizard, then i could bring my mums pasties round

[Fasterbrit]

The Lizzard eh? Do you have webbed feet by any chance? 

[dannyboy]

matt needs to be close to rick stiens place for his lunch 

[Lids]

The Lizzard eh? Do you have webbed feet by any chance? 

Nah, but we do have the best beach in Cornwall (church cove as seen on Dr Martin)!!!! and i can walk there 

[Frallan]

I guess this is the place to find more information or maybe the topic has been covered, in that case I have to drop it and search better.

Drum brakes being lighter up front than a disc setup?

Friend of mine is rebuilding a very nice car and he is weight conscious.
Now the car has regular disc brakes.
He will change for drums as he will save sevaral kilos on doing this.
In my opinion, if you are rebuilding why not get a drag-racing lightweight setup and save many kilos versus drums and stock discs.

Anyone have real comparison facts on this topic?
Suppliers? Jaycee, S&W or Lummus or other suggestions?

[andy M.]

Does any one out there have good data on the weights of the various wide five disc brake set ups out there (csp, jamar etc) for link pin front end and there weight saving over stock front drums,

Andy

Hi Andy,

Neal wide 5 front ally hub/disc, including bearings and washer 5.58kg.  Wilwood caliper 850gm including pads.  No data for caliper bracket although that's ally.

Cheers
Phil

Caliper mounting brackets 311gm.  So the total weight of the entire Neal kit including bearings is 6.7kg per side.  13.2kg for front brakes sounds like a lot!

Ok, I just went to my garage and did a bit of weighing and measuring,

stock 58-64 front drum complete with 12mm screw in studs, bearings and hub seal came in at a healthy 6.1kg

front shoes (drilled, about 35g lighter each than stock) springs, adjusters, bearing washer and end cap and retainers springs and cups were 1.2kg

front backing plate with wheel cylinder 1.5kg

making a grand total of 8.80 kg per side.

Bear in mind that I didn't use my Nasa calibrated scales to weigh these with, just a good quality pair of kitchen scales instead but there appears to be at least 4kg saving available doing the Neal disc swap plus you would gain the reduced rotational mass advantage of disc brakes too,

Unfortunately it would appear that they would also add about 20mm to the track each side if Mr West is right with the 80mm reading thus requiring a beam narrowing, and I'm not sure if they will clear zero off set centerlines, I'm waiting on an email from a contact in the states on this

Andy

[Frallan]

Thanks Andy!
...and thanks you other guys for this input. In general very good input on this thread.

[Bruce]

I have always remembered a story about how Mark Herbert once went into the auto parts store to look at headlights.  He opened up all the brands, trying to find ones made from plastic instead of glass.  Since hearing that, I too have been searching.

I found a single one in Mexico City about 6-7 years ago, but it had the illegal French yellow lens.

Last week while in Mexico escaping winter, I stopped in at an independent VW parts store.  On the shelf were headlights.  When I picked one up, I knew the holy grail was in hand!

With the H4 bulb in place they weigh in at a flyweight 192g.  This compares to 529g for the common Bosch glass H4.  
Total savings: 674g for a pair.

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[Zach Gomulka]

Smart! Reminds me, the aftermarket, chincy, late model headlight rings are also much lighter than a factory ring. I sift through them in swap meets in search of SB12's

[Harry/FDK]

Cool story's !

[Pas]

I have always remembered a story about how Mark Herbert once went into the auto parts store to look at headlights.  He opened up all the brands, trying to find ones made from plastic instead of glass.  Since hearing that, I too have been searching.

I found a single one in Mexico City about 6-7 years ago, but it had the illegal French yellow lens.

Last week while in Mexico escaping winter, I stopped in at an independent VW parts store.  On the shelf were headlights.  When I picked one up, I knew the holy grail was in hand!

With the H4 bulb in place they weigh in at a flyweight 192g.  This compares to 529g for the common Bosch glass H4.  
Total savings: 674g for a pair.

Nice score Bruce, I would love to get my hands on a pair of those. Don't suppose you picked up more than one set when you were down there did you?

[Lee.C]

This thread REALLY make me wonder just how light weight you could make a "stock vw" 

[Bruce]

 I would love to get my hands on a pair of those.

But what would you do with them?   Hint: Napoleon really HATED the British.

[Bruce]

This thread REALLY make me wonder just how light weight you could make a "stock vw" 

I've thought of that too.
There are some parts you can't lighten significantly.  The engine and trans cases.  You're not going to reduce the weight of the floor pan by much.  Or the bare body shell and doors/lids/wings.  Same goes for some suspension/steering parts.
However, many of the bolt-on bits can be lightened quite a bit.  If you went back to the parts I've been hacking up, I post the original weight and the reduced weight, then the % reduction.  I have found that 25-30% isn't too hard to cut out.  I'm guessing you might be able to apply these techniques to 40-50% of the car.  This gives a range of 80 - 125kg.  Then you'd still have a car that looked complete with all it's necessary parts.

[Lee.C]

This thread REALLY make me wonder just how light weight you could make a "stock vw" 

I've thought of that too.
There are some parts you can't lighten significantly.  The engine and trans cases.  You're not going to reduce the weight of the floor pan by much.  Or the bare body shell and doors/lids/wings.  Same goes for some suspension/steering parts.
However, many of the bolt-on bits can be lightened quite a bit.  If you went back to the parts I've been hacking up, I post the original weight and the reduced weight, then the % reduction.  I have found that 25-30% isn't too hard to cut out.  I'm guessing you might be able to apply these techniques to 40-50% of the car.  This gives a range of 80 - 125kg.  Then you'd still have a car that looked complete with all it's necessary parts.

Yeah I noticed your %'s - The IRS arm bolts where amazing!!!!! Soooooo much weight in just 2 bolts 

[Pas]

 I would love to get my hands on a pair of those.

But what would you do with them?  Hint: Napoleon really HATED the British.

Bruce, that hint is a little too cryptic for me! apologies for wearing my stupid head. I will give it a   anyway.

But seriously, if you know how/where I can get these give me a shout

[Bruce]

After conquering Europe, Napoleon decreed that everyone on the continent must switch sides of the roads.

These LHD headlights I have are "Autolux" brand, made in India.

I know this is one of their products:
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC-C10-7580
There are many details on this one that are exactly the same as the plain H4s I just got.  I don't know if this one is plastic.  This seller hasn't returned my inquiry.

[Pas]

After conquering Europe, Napoleon decreed that everyone on the continent must switch sides of the roads.

These LHD headlights I have are "Autolux" brand, made in India.

I know this is one of their products:
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC-C10-7580
There are many details on this one that are exactly the same as the plain H4s I just got.  I don't know if this one is plastic.  This seller hasn't returned my inquiry.

Ahhh I got ya  , and here am I thinking you guys drive on the wrong side of the road  

The LHD need not be a problem you can buy stick on film lens divertors in Europe to correct that.

Thanks for the lead on the headlights, I suspect the backs at least are plastic, the back of the bowls look very similar to the back of the plastic (also Autolux, made in India) Rossi style headlight rings I have. Not sure about the lens though.

[Bruce]

This might be the same manufacturer:

http://www.mamotorworkstv.com/vw/product/h4-headlight-european-style-each_361051/

The black mounting ring is similar.  The 3 tabs for adjusting are exactly the same.  It's missing the H4 in the center of the lens.  And this one has an extra bulb below the main one.  Too bad they're out of stock.

[Fasterbrit]

Designed and made some new caliper brackets today out of T6 aluminium for All Torque. Steel 312 grams, Ali 88 grams. A total of 448 g saved!! A fraction under a lb  

[Mirco Jufer]

Team Royalflush with the new Wheels for 2012... [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ] [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[henk]

that looks REALLY light,those skinny wheels.

henk!!!

[Mirco Jufer]

Yes they are...and very Nice too

[Fasteddie63]

Schley's Lightning Bug Backing Plates

[Bruce]

There's got to be more of that on the car???

[Bruce]

M-B, here's another part with 35% reduction:

[Zach Gomulka]

Looks like there's room for another pair of holes inboard of the ones already there?

[Bruce]

You're right, Zach.  The reason I didn't drill any there is because the bending moment is maximum at the point where the wing meets the body, and since I've seen the odd stock one bent, I thought I would suffer the penalty of carrying around the extra 1-2 grams.

Found this pic on another forum.  This guy is attempting to recreate Muffler Mike's experiment of watching how much oil stays in the left head at rpms.  I noticed the valve cover he sacrificed is stamped from sheet Al.  Can you imagine what that weighs?
I sent the guy a message and he only had the one, and can't remember where he got it from.  A couple of days later, he suggested maybe JC Whitney.  A search of their site yielded nothing.

Anyone know who makes this?
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[Fasterbrit]

Hi Bruce. Has your Ti turned up yet? Regards, Matt