| [ Total Views: 2079 | Total Replies: 17 | Thread Id: 66105 ] |
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 bluebaja
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| posted on November 15th, 2007 at 10:52 AM |
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weight reduction options
I was wondering where weight can be taken out of a beetle from the basic to the extreme whilst keeping it road legal in qld.
obviously remove spare wheel, jack, back seat, carpet and matting and anything else not needed.
Light weight rims.
Can glass be replaced with plexiglass or perspex, i heard all but the front. Can you make the side windows fixed and remove the wider mechanism
legally?
Are aluminium front torsion bars legal on the road?
Is a fiberglass one piece front any lighter than the original?
thanks
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Turbo54
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| posted on November 15th, 2007 at 04:12 PM |
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I turned my 54 from a delux into a standard to take out more of the interior.
Glass bonnet, guards and decklid.
No carpet, loose all overriders
Good Luck,
T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.
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bajachris88
A.k.a.: Chris Leete
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| posted on November 15th, 2007 at 04:21 PM |
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get rid of a lot of sound deadiner too. heaps around.
if you eva rebuild your engine, buy an aluminum engine block, they vw ones around.
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta! |
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bond
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| posted on November 15th, 2007 at 05:07 PM |
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roof. chop top it.
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555bug
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| posted on November 15th, 2007 at 07:24 PM |
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you can fix everything with a hole saw 
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OZ Towdster
A.k.a.: Andrew Westwood
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| posted on November 16th, 2007 at 11:37 AM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by bajachris88
get rid of a lot of sound deadiner too. heaps around.
if you eva rebuild your engine, buy an aluminum engine block, they vw ones around.
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Chris , the original engine cases are Magnesium and are lighter than the new Aluminium Cases ya wally
Don't let body work get in the way of real suspension travel
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LIFE IN THE LOW LANE
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| posted on November 17th, 2007 at 07:49 AM |
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beat me too it Andrew LOL
[size=4] ACCEPT THAT SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE PIDGEON AND SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE STATUE[/size]
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pete wood
A.k.a.: figure itout
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| posted on November 17th, 2007 at 03:47 PM |
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sorry if it sounds silly, but why do you want to lighten it? you can do some pretty radical things, but in the end most of them make the car very
noisy to drive and not really street legal. eg. perspecs windows.
also, if you are seriously racing it, a roll cage will add weight, but it's weight worth having.
BTW, rod richardsons blue 61 is in VWMA this month, you could have a look at that car. it's got steel guards and such, but there's not much left
inside it.
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bluebaja
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| posted on November 19th, 2007 at 07:24 AM |
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My theory is every kilo lost is one less to push down the strip. Plus the car is already pretty noisy.
I heard lexon windows are legal execpt on the front, in qld you need to maintain a opening mech on the side widows but i saw a leather strap set up
that looks retro and would weigh in the grams.
Dont you only need a roll cage if it goes sub 10sec?
Chopping the top would be good but its already got a rag top sun roof.
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The Bigfella
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| posted on November 19th, 2007 at 09:16 AM |
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Acid dip it - get them to leave it in a bit longer than normal
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BiX
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| posted on November 19th, 2007 at 10:48 AM |
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First point of call, make sure the driver weighs in less than 65kgs. If you can't get to that weight, get yourself trim.
Then interior, sound deading. Taliing to a mate on sat night, he said that fiberglass guards are worth about 0.5 to 1kg a side. Not much in the grand
scheme of things, but if you that serious, a cromo cage rather than steel, ligthweight race seats. extra brackets etc should go. Light weight battery.
Light weight rims. lexan windows, everyhting that can be pulled off the body should come off, remove excess material and replace. Also you should make
sure you don't have 5 layers of paint on it, also always let the body get some surface rust and sand it all off (eg make the shell steel thinner).
I have no sympathy for my car, only the wallet that pays for it!
Go hard or go home!!!!
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Sides
A.k.a.: Dave Sidery
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| posted on November 19th, 2007 at 12:11 PM |
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Got myself a hanging scale last week, and so I'm about to start going nuts weighing different bits. I'm more circuit than drags, so my aim is to
shift the center-of-gravity further forward. To do that I want to reduce weight at the rear of the car without reducing strength or roadworthiness -
I've already moved battery etc. forward, so just swapping things for the lightest version is my next step.
So far I know that Australian (or German) steel rear guards come in at 3.3kg compared to 2.7kg for fibreglass ones, tho that'd depend on how thick
the fibreglass is. Brazillian steel I suspect are a bit lighter again, but haven't weighed them yet since they're on the car at the moment.
Without going too crazy, other things I've seen on Improved-Production or Street-Sedan beetles are:
- aluminum rear apron (just a skin from 2mm sheet)
- aluminium bumper brackets (folded up from 4 or 6mm sheet)
- aluminium bumpers (suspect very expensive, and no idea who makes them)
- alloy guard bolts
- aluminium running boards
- molded plastic or alloy tail light housings
- lexan/acrylic windows, stripped out interior etc. as everyone's already said
- dechromed and shaved door/bonnet handles (all you need is a push button)
Like BiX says though, overall the weight saving is going to be 4/5ths of stuff all, but it should shift the CoG forward, but probably not noticeably.
There's a LONG time before this driver will get anywhere near 65kg, but 10kg loss in the driver is probably the easiest saving.
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modulus
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| posted on November 19th, 2007 at 04:40 PM |
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Titanium nuts. The bicycle racers use them and, into the bargain, you can tell everyone you've got titanium nuts.
hth
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VWCOOL
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| posted on November 19th, 2007 at 05:27 PM |
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yeah all good ideas - I weighed the sounproofing and carpet from a bug a couple of weeks ago, I was amazed to find JUST the soundproofing and carpet
from behind the rear seat to the back windows, plus over the inner guards weighed more than 8kg
Pay your debts, CxxT
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BrisDubba
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| posted on November 21st, 2007 at 08:55 PM |
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Weight reduction
Just how far do you want to go, a mate with a racing Mini has holes drilled in almost everything (I dont think he did the fuel tank) the accellerator
pedal looks like swiss cheese and he has aluminium doors and panels. I have taken a lot of weight out of my car without going silly but the rollcage
certainly added a couple of kilos. I recently made some fibreglass panels and they are almost half the weight of the original, but they were only 2
layers, whereas generally your standard baja style panels would be 3 layers to take punishment of offroad etc.
Keep us updated how things progress.
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BiX
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| posted on November 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 AM |
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I was thinking of making some bumpers from 2 layers fiberglass and running 2 alum brackets. I am also removing more sound deadening, take the passnger
set out for track days. Other areas to save weight are wheels (get some nice light ones will also lower rotational mass for acceleration).
I have no sympathy for my car, only the wallet that pays for it!
Go hard or go home!!!!
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modulus
A.k.a.: Peter Hill
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| posted on November 22nd, 2007 at 09:14 PM |
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Alum. bumper brackets at:
http://landproducts.ca/shop/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=59
quote
These look stock but are ultra light weight aluminum. The fronts are just 212 grams the rears are just 358 grams. Durable powder coat finish.
unquote
hth
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bajachris88
A.k.a.: Chris Leete
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| posted on November 22nd, 2007 at 09:17 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by A Westwood
| Quote: | Originally
posted by bajachris88
get rid of a lot of sound deadiner too. heaps around.
if you eva rebuild your engine, buy an aluminum engine block, they vw ones around.
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Chris , the original engine cases are Magnesium and are lighter than the new Aluminium Cases ya wally
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Haha, shucks... i been hangin around the 308 v8 boys at work
for too long.... lol
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears.
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta! |
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