A body guys. When removing the inner fenders, did anyone happen to weigh what was removed? What was really gained from removing them. I know that you have to reinforce the shock tower when you do this. Can someone please give me some pros and cons? Thanks

If the car doesn't have a full cage and bars going through the firewall substantially supporting the frame rails and the front suspension, I wouldn't remove them. In fact, on cars where they can't be removed (Stock, Super Stock) some builders will weld the joints where all the front end sheet metal is spot welded together to stiffen up the car.. Otherwise, take them out and the firewall and frame rails are flapping in the breeze.

I can't imagine those two pieces of sheet metal weighing much more than 15 pounds. Better places to take out weight.

the biggest pro was access, access plugs, starter motor, brake calipers etc... If you run a bar thru the firewall onto the frame rail then you can cut the shock mount down & make a new mount on the bar & move the shock out a bit. When you do this you can build better flowing headers without having to make a sharp 90 as soon as you come off the head as you try & get around the shock mount. I can't think of any cons.

X2. You will need to support the frame rails. A snout bar tied to a front door bar of a cage is how that works normally. For more engine bay room, great idea. For weight drop, not so much. Mild steel will leave you about an even trade off in weight. Chrome Moly would help drop weight, but cost of materials and labor is much higher. Snout tubes would also be a great place to mount an engine plate to, helping free up room from motor mounts, for headers.

My car when originally set up by Alston many, many, many years has a snout bar running from the firewall to the frame. He used a plate welded to the firewall, like welding a cage bar to the floor, and it goes straight to the frame. He did tie the shock mount into that bar. Has been like that for umteen years and thousands of passes. I've owned the car for 32 years and it was done years before that (converted to race car at 20K mi). Many wheelstands and absolutely no impact on the firewall. I'm sure it didn't save any weight but as stated sure makes stuff more accessible.

Approximately 7 lbs per side.. and don't let anyone persuade you every ounce matters trust me

I didn't weight things when I did it, but I used to run fender well headers and had part of my inner fender cut out. We than ran the snout bars from the cage to tie into the shock tower and frame and removed the rest of the inner fenders. The snout bars probably weight more than the inner fenders did, but it made the front of the car more rigid. With an BB in a abody and the inner fenders removed it makes it easier to access items as you now have different angles from which you can approach. If it's a drag only car almost a no brainier to removed inner fenders, but if it will be driven on the street I'd let them in.

Why stop there if you are going to do it. I can take my whole frontend off in about 90 seconds with four bolts

The con is you weaken an already flimsy unibody structure. A single tube from the front of an A pillar bar, through the firewall, to the framerail in the area of the front of the engine is hardly enough. Triangulating that bar to the top of the frame rail in a few places (i.e. a piece of tubing from the underside of the snout bar at the firewall to the top of the frame rail at the bend behind the upper A-arm mounts) will make that structure a lot more substantial.

Adding the bars in red will tighten this up considerably. Guys I've done this for can feel it in the car. Welding the firewall to the snout bar and adding a third bar from the top of the rail at the outside bar to the underside of the snout bar at the bend adds even more.

Not a very good picture but I tied the cage into the factory shock mount Tower

My 1974 Duster. I haven't raced this one yet so some changes may be made.

Not an "A" but I cut the shock towers out for more clearance in the engine bay after setting the engine back. 1st pick was done so I wouldn't have to drop the shock out for VC removal.