Easy weight reduction. (remove window stopper blocks)

[H-Man]

Originally Posted by Xist

Replace the rear windows with sheet metal?

Reshape the rear roof for better aero?

[Frank Lee]

Empty the ashtray?

[markweatherill]

If you remove those stoppers, better make sure the windows don't hit something else and damage themselves, or it, on their way down. Or fall out of the guide channel, which may not go down all the way.

[NeilBlanchard]

This all seems like nibbling around the edges. Even if you car weighs only 2,500 pounds, removing a few dozen pounds of weight seems to be nearly worthless.

[tyronasauras]

Yes, the weight savings seem small. On the other hand, the medical motto "do no harm" seems to apply to ecomodding. I hate to think I work hard on a mod and it makes FE worse. It seems at least that this mod should not hurt FE.

I am working on adding a mid belly pan now. I have a spare hood from a former minor collision with just some cosmetic damage and it is free. I plan to use it for the mid pan and add coroplast that I have to the front and rear of it in channels mounted on the leading and trailing edge of the hood. The hood has structure in it so I won't have to add any substructure to support the coroplast. It will attach with 4 nuts fro easy removal and cleaning. The hood is steel and initially weighed 59 pounds, I was concerned that maybe the weight gain of any belly pan might not offset the potential gains in FE. I lightened the hood to 54# and removed some exhaust weights to get me down to 49#. Deleting 4# of window blocks would get me to 45#, which is similar to what others have added including their aluminum support structures(well maybe on the 3rd version,lol)
I plan to mount it backwards. The mounting is symmetrical so I can mount it either way.
I have read here that flat may not be ideal or desirable so the hood has a nice taper to it. Any advice from the areo wizards?

[tyronasauras]

Also, I hate that my rear windows only go down halfway. I have a friend that owns an auto glass shop, but I wouldn't have thought to ask him about this, so thanks to the OP for the the suggestion. I will have him take a look with me.

BTW, being steel with all the 1.125 holes in the inner liner and painted black on the inside should help with the heat dissipation. I am covering the single exhaust pipe just after the cats. I put on a new exhaust clamp and tack welded it too.

No one has mentioned any concern over potential CO poisoning by adding a full belly pan to older vehicles. I got a household battery operated Carbon Monoxide detector just to be safe for $20 to use inside the cockpit.

[NeilBlanchard]

Rolling your windows down any more than an inch or two will really hurt your FE.

[tyronasauras]

My BAD, My Panther rear windows do go all the way down, they have a rear window lockout control button. It is my 94 impala SS rear windows that don't go all the way down

[backpacker3]

Originally Posted by Cobb

What about removing all the crap for the rear windows and glue them in the up position? Remove the regulator, motor, gearing, stopper? That ought to save 10-15 lbs a door.

Not when you have crank windows. There no motor regulator or wiring in my doors.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by backpacker3

Not when you have crank windows. There no motor regulator or wiring in my doors.

I don't know about other makes, but on most GM vehicles the weight differences would be almost nothing anymore. Power window regulators(inc motor) are as light or lighter than their manual counter part. The mechanisms in the manual window regulators are often still made with 1/8" or thicker steel. I think it's because they are going to see higher input torque at times, when they can build the regulator for the power window, to handle a specific input. Popeye has to make sure his manual window is all the way up, and will get pissed if the regulator failed on him