Hi Team Chevelle.

I need to know what the weight of my 73 Nova will be when I am finished. I am trying to get as low as I can. Here is what I have planned so far...

-Gut interior, seats, headliner, doorpanel, heater, all seats, gas tank and all the other b/s.

-one racing seat, 8 point roll cage(required), gutted dash internals and wireing, fuel cell.

-fiberglass 4" cowl hood, f/g decklid, f/g bumpers

-SBC 350, TH400 trans, 12bolt rear with traction bars etc..

-And possibly plexy windows and f/g doors and front fender later in the season.

What do you think she'll weigh in at not including me in the seat?

thanks TC!
-wes

with every thing you said about 2700 to 2900 .since this is a race car save some more weight and go with a glide.with glass front end and doors you may be down to 2500 to 2600.a 73 is heavier than my 67 but it weighed 2880 only the seats are missing though with all the glass and steel bumpers

Cool! Those are the numbers I like to hear! :thumbsup:
Thanks Pal!

Here's a link to some weights of the Nova's and Chevy 2's:

http://novaresource.org/weights.htm

You are going to have to do the math though.


I have a 73 Nova hatchback and I bought all of the fiberglass for it from Glasstek in Illinois. I bought fenders, doors, hood, hatchlid, and bumpers from them and the only thing is they advertised the rear bumper as fitting a 73/74 model but it is modeled after the 74 bumper which is slightly different than the 73.

If you do get the doors I would use and modify the hinges that are already welded to the sides of the cowl. If you design them right with some pins you can have it to where they are easily removed and if later decide to go back to steel doors it won't require too much work. I mounted my doors that way and was also able to use the stock latch mechanism and have it bolted into the fiberglass doors.

Another place to save weight if you are going to cut into the car is remove the sides of the cowl and replace with flat steel. Some people call them tulip panels for some reason but when you have the fenders off it is the portion that curved next to the inside rear of the front fenders and on the inside where the kick panel covers go.

Glasstek also makes fiberglass front inner fenderwells. Any of the doors you get wll have a perimeter frame around them to attach lexan to and the only way to make roll up style windows is to graft portions into them off of the steel doors.

Here's some shots of the one I was working on and is now on the back burner:

http://hometown.aol.com/krystaldesigns/page1Prostreet.html

http://community.webshots.com/album/112419609BoHFrN

Jim

Jim, will that 74 modeled bumper still bolt right up to my 73? Or do I have to modify it?

The 73 and 74's bumpers are bolted to brackets that then bolt to the car. If you are going on a weight saving take some steel or aluminum and make some brackets off of the car that can be unbolted from the car and attach the brackets to the backside of the fiberglass bumper by glassing over them. By doing this you won't have the bolt heads showing on the outside of the bumper and it will be fairly easy to remove and reinstall.
Are you going to leave the rubber fillers in between the body and the bumpers ?. If not I would also section the fiberglass bumper to make it narrower and be able to tuck it closer to the body.
I sectioned the bumpers on my 73 Nova custom and they were steel but they look nicer than just moving them in towards the body.
Jim

Well heres my 73' Nova down to the detail. I wouldnt expect anything under 3000 lbs. Mine is a street/strip car with a full interior.

-350ci with aluminum heads, intake, waterpump and radiator
-Richmond 5 speed with Mecloud scattersheild and Long H pattern shifter
-9" rear with Moser Axles and detroit locker
-Weld drag lites 15x3.5 in front and 15x8 in the back
-Fiberglass 4" cowl The rest of the body is steel
-Removed sway bar
-Manual steering
-Manual disc brakes
-Factory suspension and stock rear leafs
-Sub frame connectors
-Full interior was weighed with the summit sport seats {F-1 style} and 5 point harnesses
-Roll Bar 8 pt.
-16 gallon RCI Fuel cell
-Battery located in trunk
-Radio and speakers
-3" exaust and 50 series flowmasters

Thats all i can think of that would be significant. The front and rear weight or the car was 1820 in front and a total of 3560 with me in it and 3-4 gallons of gas. thats a 51% front end weight, not bad at all. Any other questions let me know...

I had my '72 at 3,120 lbs. on a certfied scale. All that was really changed as far as weight benefits would be: Aluminum radiator, Weld Alum. wheels, 16 gal fuel cell, Optima in the trunk, bucket seats out of a Subaru...... that was about it. All body parts steel, Small block iron head, TH-350, 10 bolt car. Nova's are not hard to get light by any means.