As the topic says. For my race car. I need to determine if it is worth it to remove the back window and replace it with a plastic one plus an extra roll cage brace to make the removal legal. If the plastic plus the extra steel weigh more than the glass than obviously it will not be.

Does anyone have a window already removed they can put on a bathroom scale to give me a rough idea what it weighs?

No I dont have one,but Im Guessing 5 to 8 lbs.

quote Originally posted by SCCAFiero: As the topic says. For my race car. I need to determine if it is worth it to remove the back window and replace it with a plastic one plus an extra roll cage brace to make the removal legal. If the plastic plus the extra steel weigh more than the glass than obviously it will not be. Does anyone have a window already removed they can put on a bathroom scale to give me a rough idea what it weighs?

I have one lying around somewhere in my storage, but don't have a scale there. My best estimate is 10-13 lbs. Real PITA to remove. I doubt that there would be a significant weight savings, if any at all. I am not familiar with the SCCA rule for this one. Do they require that bars be added between the main hoop and the reat strut tower? If so, there might be an additional advantage to the added rigidity. However, I would not do it for weight savings alone.

You might ask this question on the Fiero Racing List. There are several members on that list that race in SCCA.

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FierOmar

i think the weight of some bars and plexiglass would be more than the normal glass.
i've pulled out 2 or 3 and they are a real PITA.
the work involved plus the same weight or possibly more weight, i wouldn't suggest it.

I just weighed the car yesterday on 4 scale pads. The total weight is 2729 with a full tank of gas, and me in it. The interesting part is the left side weight is 50.2% of the total weight and the cross weight is 50.5%. That basically means the car should turn left and right equally as well. The total weight of the car before I converted it was 2783. The roll cage weighs right around 130, (the basic structure was 120# plus some extra steel cross bars on the drivers side).

The car only has to weigh 2600# now thanks to a rule reduction this past February from 2780#. In other words, I need to lose about 60 more pounds and cross the line with about 1/4 tank of gas. Every bit helps.

My current cage attaches to the rear firewall in 2 places, 4 places on the floor, and one bar from the drivers side front hoop to the wheel well to stop the left front wheel from intruding into my feet. I am only allowed to run 8 points so I figured if the weight advantage is there I can add my 8th point to the left shock tower.

Thanks for the replies so far. I will check out the Fiero racing board, never heard of it until now.

If you don't get an answer I have a rear window sitting in my parts room. It has the defroster grid on it so it might weigh a CH more than the clear window.

I have one out of my parts car with the defroster, it weighs exactly 16.5 lbs.

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87 Fiero GT
Yellow / Grey Interior
T-Top, 11.25" brakes
Whaletail, Mecham Scoops, ZR2 Scoop
T/A Fender Vents, Mr. Mikes, Much Much More

86 SE Red - 3400 SFI

86 SE Gold - Parts Car

Formerly FieroGT87
My build Thread: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/036679.html

Thank you Earl... and to the rest of you for keeping this near the top. Now I have some figuring to do. I am guessing I can probably shave about 10 pounds off by doing the conversion. Keep in mind this is 10 pounds in the middle of the car. The more weight I can get out of the middle the more stable it will be at speed. It may also make pulling the engine out the top a bit easier although I am set up to where I can get the cradle out in about 45 minutes now that all the extra stuff is out of the way. The big problem with dropping the cradle is the extra floor space it takes to have all the stuff laying around and not being able to easily push the car around. The car is already pretty well stripped so every bit helps. Now to give out a few +s. Thanks again. I know this is an unusual request.

this sounds like a bad ass racer is there any pics of it?

Well........ the fire exstingisher can go, that is another 1 or 2 lbs

Seriously pull out the dash and leave the instrument pod in place. I think you can do that....... I pulled two dashes recently and I can't remember.... I'm getting old. That would be about 5 lbs I bet.

Do you have any pics of the front area or the engine area?

I also se a couple of pounds of water in a bottle on the passinger side

Looks like the headliner backer board is still in place, that a pound or two.

The steel panels on the doors, do they have to be there. I'll bet there's about 20-30 lbs on the doors combined.

Your car looks stripped down it's hard finding a few areas to take wieght off the car without seeig the whole car and what you've done so far.

[This message has been edited by Earl-R (edited 10-02-2006).]

The dash is as stripped as the rules allow. The fire extinguisher is not an option, rules or otherwise

Panels on the doors are actually aluminum and are a lot lighter than the door panels. They are also required if the door panels are removed.

Headliner will be coming out soon as well. It is on my list. I left a few things like that in the car because the original weight was so high. I do not have current front or rear pictures, I will get them soon. I recently finished redoing the entire exhaust system so it is only 4 feet long. I saved a good bit of weight there as well.

I found the Racing Fiero list and joined up. The never ending pursuit of knowledge.

This is pretty obvious, but when cutting down on weight, the higher the better. Lower the center of gravity.