Al. I'll be back in town next week.
Perhaps you, RMCHGR and I can Meet up.

You can lighten the seats and keep 'em in for the tots.Me thinks a set of aluminum hood hinges and the material of choice.Ditch the latch and pin the front.Talk to Marty,he exit 62 and will help you decide what shaft won't give you the shaft.http://www.supershafts.com/ Marty is a fellow mopar man and is my go to guy.He also has the high speed balancer.
If I wore my hood more often,I would put hinges on it.PITA when your parked at the cruze,one gust is all it takes,,,,,,,,,,

Westbuty is our destination!

Thanks Lee, that's the kind of input I was looking for. I think as it sits right now it might be pretty close to 2,900.

I slept on it, back seat will go back in since I don't want a gutted interior. There's been effort made to keep the interior looking 'normal' so in keeping with that idea, the seat will stay. Hopefully my kids appreciate it!

A flat pin-on hood is not something you see often, might be kinda cool. Will probably hit up the Palm Reader to make it look decent. From all I've read, I think there could be at least 40-50 lbs off the front with a glass hood and no hinges.

While the interior is out, I considered a glass dash but I didn't want to create more work for myself when I'm almost at the finish line. The car has been on jack stands for over two years, it needs to be finished.

Did some research on driveshafts last evening. There seems to be a lot of debate whether they are worth the price on a street car. I dunno, just kind of a better mousetrap. Trimming the dead weight seems to be the biggest benefit. Not sure what the cost/benefit is as far as ET though, seems to be minimal.

Al, I've been to Marty when he was out in Mastic Beach, I actually forgot about him! Thanks for the heads up, I will give him a call.

The Palm Reader will make that thing super straight and it will look factory steel at that. Just be ready to leave it with him if you go that route and be patient. The hoods out there these days are darn decent and almost perfect right out of the oven. The trick is to remove any signs of the molding waves. I forgets the guys name on here that makes a sweet A-dash. Heard it weighs in the vicinity of 3-4 Lbs.
The factory hinges with springs and mounting bolts and catch/latch, Lever, tension spring and mounting bolts can add up to about 15-20 Lbs alone. The sweet spot about it all is that it can all be reversed and reinstalled later. Aluminum circle/dirt track pins save a pound or so against the steel types. I've seen some examples out over at S&K. I might even have an extra pair or two and you can have 'em when I get back in town.

Shaft weight is not so much a gain as it is dead weight removal. The weight, even as rotating is too small in diameter to make much difference. Lighter tires sitting at the outer parameters of the wheels will probably make more of a difference ET wise than a lighter shaft. Of course I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the very last metal matrix aluminum shaft from Dynotech quite a few years back.

I don't know the weight of a Duster hood but my 68 Sat hood with hinges was 67 lbs. Unlimited Products pin on 6 pack was 20 lbs. Street not race weight 'glass. Removal of a 6 pack hood is a breeze. One hand in the scoop opening, other hand/belly at the front of hood . A flat pin on hood might be kind of a pain to remove. No good place to grab it.

I tilt up at the front, flip it to one side vertical onto the rubber bumpers/stops at the fender apron side and then grab it by both side ends and walk it off the car. The same going back on with respect to where it falls into place over the four pins. Mine is heavier than the glass hoods being that it has a full Hemi SS style scoop in aluminum and the whole hood itself is aluminum.
I'll post pics of how I do it sometime next week.

I only wear my hood when I go to Carlisle.It's the law Ask me how I know
With a pin on it's a HUGE PITA to remove at the cruze in,blanket on the roof,,one good gust and,well you know.One of these days after the $$$$$$ valve slows down I would like a pair of aluminum hood hinges to go with the hood pins.

One-piece, tilt front end would solve ALL your issues in one stroke.

PITA? my God guys, get some Wheaties in ya. LOL.
I could see if it were a steel flat hood, but we are talking glass here.
I'll post next week, but as I said, lift it up as if you opening
a regular hood with hinges, tilt it side ways and rest its side leading edge on the side fender continental shelf as I call it and grab it from the top and bottom and walk off. It should only be about 15-20 Lbs of weight.

I was referring to what could happen with a pin on after you remove it

Oh,
Sails in the wind. Yes, I sit corrected by Hemi-itis. I've had something on the opposite side of laying it on top of the car happen with two different painstakingly gutted steel hoods with sad results. Both times I forgot to slip on the four holding pins and drove off. Now I have it mentally seared in my head as a point check no matter what. Hood is too non replaceable now.

Since this is a weight loss haven I'm wondering if anyone has found any 5 1/2" plastic headlights that have an original pattern look to them?
Thanks! MJ

You can find them on amazon from time to time.

I found some original size headlamps with the plastic faces, but the filament base or back side of the bulb was glass or something and they weighed more or less the same as the old school glass types. I'm banking that I was wrong and just gave up too soon. Perhaps someone can jimmy in with an example and have real world weight differences and part numbers and pics.
At this point, I don't have the time to research with real items, but perhaps later on.

Here's the passenger side of weightlessness at the hands of "The Palm Reader"
It will all get sanded off to nothingness in the next day or two.

If you don't need the actual light of the headlamp, thin aluminum sheet metal glued in the bezel and a vinyl headlight pic.

Well... just bought a new project... and i broke the #1 rule ov weight-reduction: (buy the right car) and sold my bare-bones 70 Challenger for an optioned-out 74 Rallye Challenger. My 70 weighed 3000lbs even. A 70 A66 4-speed (for comparison) specs out at 3350ish, maybe a tad more. My 74 (4-speed) specs out at 3500lbs. So looks like i'm 150lbs behind the ball... so let the hack begin. I cant see a LOT in the 74 that cant be easily made into 70-spec (though those doors are gonna be a [censored])... so i'm not terribly worried. I'd wager that optioned as mine is, i'm looking at 3550 stock weight.

Daily driver goal (by July) is 3250lbs. 3200 if i can trade my rallye hood for some kind ov FG one. 250lbs in two months with no visual clues? Child's play...


Have a quick question? Will removing the door beams compromise the integrity/structure ov the door any? Not talking impact here... just normal (gentle) usage. Dont want these suckers to sag or twist or do anything weird if i remove those beams.

Beams? we don't need no stinkin beams. Heck I cut the entire inner.
Doug