The Elephant In The Room: unloading the load from a B-body.

[fullmetaljacket]

Wait, what???

LOL.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

LOL.

Ok. so to break away from all of this weightlessness, I thought I'd bring in some heavy laughs.
I figured why not give a look at the levels of ingenuity, attitude and dress codes to differentiate between the big three and their constituents.
As the little shunned out David, might as well bet high and go for Goliath's jugular by aiming at the GM tinkerers.
Here they are all spiffed up after a night out on the town. This is of course the morning after meeting up with a lone Mopar underneath the BQE.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Ok. so to break away from all of this weightlessness, I thought I'd bring in some heavy laughs.
I figured why not give a look at the levels of ingenuity, attitude and dress codes to differentiate between the big three and their constituents.
As the little shunned out David, might as bet high and go for Goliath's jugular by aiming at the GM tinkerers.
Here they are all spiffed up after a night out on the town. This is of course the morning after meeting up with a lone Mopar underneath the BQE.

View attachment 1491993

Ok. so to break away from all of this weightlessness, I thought I'd bring in some heavy laughs.
I figured why not give a look at the levels of ingenuity, attitude and dress codes to differentiate between the big three and their constituents.
As the little shunned out David, might as bet high and go for Goliath's jugular by aiming at the GM tinkerers.
Here they are all spiffed up after a night out on the town. This is of course the morning after meeting up with a lone Mopar underneath the BQE.

View attachment 1491993

Here's the other gents from Dearborn representing the Blue Oval brand looking more like Mad Men In Black rather than Men In Blue. Nice hair day guys.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Here's the other gents from Dearborn representing the Blue Oval brand looking more like Mad Men In Black rather than Men In Blue. Nice hair day guys.

View attachment 1491994

Last but not least and talking about hair, here's the mad scientists themselves at the Chrysler labs burning the midnight oil and their respective marriages at the same time.
Personally, I'd pick the long trench lab coats over the pressed suits, polyesters and weathered leathers any day.

The head of the gang........I mean the head of hair on the bottom has the perfect Mopar hair which is still the case to this day.

Any body ever see Jerry Stein's hair? I rest my case!

Note: four headlights on this early prototype A-990 instead of only two. Lots of changes and tests back then I suspect. I rest my case double time.

 

[Mopar John]

GTX must have worked in or lived by a storage/stock warehouse to be able to go through these grueling evaluations. Talk about having time........... or even access to parts. Maddening.
Attached below is what I call "The Devil Is In The Details". Enough of this practice can convince the theory of 1600 places to remove an ounce removes a 100 pounds. When I saw this, I dropped my mic.
In the process what was learned is that different farmed out manufacturers make the same part either with different materials and sizes or less of the same material.
Case in point, the tiny traditional and original lower passenger fender pentastar emblems were made out of some kind of tin metal, the new repros are lightweight plastic. LOL.
Later on I'll post the difference of attire between different camps. It will bring it all together along with some laughter.

View attachment 1490828

View attachment 1490829

Thanks for the positive comments on my weight loss madness Lee!
It is ironic that you used the door buttons as an example.
I have 2 pair of these for sale over in the exterior parts for sale section!
One thing I would like to mention here is that Chrysler had multiple suppliers on almost all the parts.
I had an advantage of having boxes of original parts from parting out midwest rust buckets years ago.
Now with the AMD sheet metal there are no more parts cars!
So an example I would to share is inside door handle pulls.
I got all mine out and weighed them!
They ranged from 3.9 oz to 3.2 oz and when you look at the back sides you can see the difference in the castings!
You can even clean up some of the mold plugs for more!
MJ

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Thanks for the positive comments on my weight loss madness Lee!
It is ironic that you used the door buttons as an example.
I have 2 pair of these for sale over in the exterior parts for sale section!
One thing I would like to mention here is that Chrysler had multiple suppliers on almost all the parts.
I had an advantage of having boxes of original parts from parting out midwest rust buckets years ago.
Now with the AMD sheet metal there are no more parts cars!
So an example I would to share is inside door handle pulls.
I got all mine out and weighed them!
They ranged from 3.9 oz to 3.2 oz and when you look at the back sides you can see the difference in the castings!
You can even clean up some of the mold plugs for more!
MJ

View attachment 1492864

View attachment 1492865

View attachment 1492866

View attachment 1492867

View attachment 1492872

And there you have it guys. This campaign is MICRO with a capital M. I love it. Big car, low numbers, big results. The car speaks for itself.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

And there you have it guys. This campaign is MICRO with a capital M. I love it. Big car, low numbers, big results. The car speaks for itself.

John.
Would you care to elaborate on other stuff having to do with that Gee-t-***? Perhaps still classified? We're all Mopar family here......................to a certain extent. LOL.

 

[Mopar John]

OK Lee!
Lets start out with some history of the GTX.
It was one of the first GTX's built on Tuesday August the 6th 1969 for the 1970 Model year.
The last I checked it was the earliest built survivor!
According to the 1970 GTX registry it is the first painted limelight green!
That unusual color is what drew me to this car.
I bought it from a salvage yard in March of 1970 after it had been stolen and recovered with 8,000 miles on it.
It has been a race car the whole time that I have owned it.
The body is all original and untouched except for a couple of 3" strips to move the inner wheel houses out to the frame rails.
You are looking at all original paint, stripes, vinyl top, stainless and glass except the windshield!
The original hood and front bumper are put away for safe keeping.
I am told the car weighed just over 3600 pounds when new and weighs 2895 at the present!
I keep a log book with all the changes in weight and get really down when I add weight!
When I went to wider slicks is an example when I had to add 5 lbs to the total.
I have attached a picture my nephew found me racing at Milan, Michigan during the 1985 Mopar Nationals.
If you look close you will see the big heavy tow bar tabs under the front bumper before I started using trailers!
MJ

 

[fullmetaljacket]

OK Lee!
Lets start out with some history of the GTX.
It was one of the first GTX's built on Tuesday August the 6th 1969 for the 1970 Model year.
The last I checked it was the earliest built survivor!
According to the 1970 GTX registry it is the first painted limelight green!
That unusual color is what drew me to this car.
I bought it from a salvage yard in March of 1970 after it had been stolen and recovered with 8,000 miles on it.
It has been a race car the whole time that I have owned it.
The body is all original and untouched except for a couple of 3" strips to move the inner wheel houses out to the frame rails.
You are looking at all original paint, stripes, vinyl top, stainless and glass except the windshield!
The original hood and front bumper are put away for safe keeping.
I am told the car weighed just over 3600 pounds when new and weighs 2895 at the present!
I keep a log book with all the changes in weight and get really down when I add weight!
When I went to wider slicks is an example when I had to add 5 lbs to the total.
I have attached a picture my nephew found me racing at Milan, Michigan during the 1985 Mopar Nationals.
If you look close you will see the big heavy tow bar tabs under the front bumper before I started using trailers!
MJ

View attachment 1493589

Lord oh mighty. 2895 Lbs? That is a sin.
I'm dropping my mic again and leaving the building............ forever.

I will not let out the cars weight as of present because of two factors. "Don't give away the ending" as they say and since in this case, there's a lot yet to discover that already has been done.
Two: I don't think I lost too much Lbs from my last number which was a few years back, so once a few modest tricks are completed, the numbers will surface. As soon as I know, y'all will know.

I will concede as I lay on the floor, 2895 Lbs is a hard act to follow............literally.

As far as one from the first batch in '69, that is so cool. That means those body panel molds were nice and straight with no distortions from over use in the stamping plant. First Limelight? living large and in the limelight.

 

[dvw]

Lord oh mighty. 2895 Lbs? That is a sin.
I'm dropping my mic again and leaving the building............ forever.

I will not let out the cars weight as of present because of two factors. "Don't give away the ending" as they say and since in this case, there's a lot yet to discover that already has been done.
Two: I don't think I lost too much Lbs from my last number which was a few years back, so once a few modest tricks are completed, the numbers will surface. As soon as I know, y'all will know.

I will concede as I lay on the floor, 2895 Lbs is a hard act to follow............literally.

As far as one from the first batch in '69, that is so cool. That means those body panel molds were nice and straight with no distortions from over use in the stamping plant. First Limelight? living large and in the limelight.

I'd kill for 2895. I'm assuming this is w/o driver? Aluminum block? Mine is 3120 full of fuel minus driver. The big lump is a the Mega Block, 275lbs.
Doug

 

[Mopar John]

I'd kill for 2895. I'm assuming this is w/o driver? Aluminum block? Mine is 3120 full of fuel minus driver. The big lump is a the Mega Block, 275lbs.
Doug

Doug,
You are correct the weight is without the driver.
I will get to the drivetrain later but will answer your question.
The heart of the engine is a non numbers 1970 440 HP block.
It was prepared by Mike and Dale Chenoweth of Morton, Illinois.
Mike took pride in correcting as much of the geometry as he could during the machining process.
Each cylinder bore was corrected as much as possible and both head surfaces at the same angle.
Mike said he saw as much as a 50 HP increase in horsepower doing this!
The engine block also has BCR aluminum main caps.
MJ

 

[Mopar John]

Lightweight MOPAR starters!
For years I have been watching the weight of the smaller mini starters.
I run a P53005984 that weighs in at 8lbs 4oz.
I also have a spare P3005984 that weighs in at 8lbs 4oz.
Here are some others I have weights on:
P4379144 11lbs
P4510049 10lbs
P5007860 8lbs 7oz
P5249644 8.95lbs
So recently I saw an ad for the "440 SOURCE" advertising a mini starter
powerfull enough to start our big blocks weighing in at 7lbs!!
My questions to the guys out there that have one:
1) does it crank over your race engine with no problems?
2) does it weigh 7lbs? or is it 7lbs 12oz or what?
Thanks! MJ

 

[RemCharger]

Lightweight MOPAR starters!

1) does it crank over your race engine with no problems?

I honestly can't recall a car at the track with a stock starter for years..
Short answer; all racecars use a mini starter nowadays

 

[Badvert65]

I just ordered one from 440Source. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[Mopar John]

I just ordered one from 440Source. I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks for the reply!
I hope you have a good scale to weigh it on down to the ounces!
MJ

 

[Badvert65]

No worries there, I can accurately weigh it down to 0.01 ounce.
Seriously.

 

[RemCharger]

Lots of weight a guy could trim off a starter.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Lots of weight a guy could trim off a starter

These shave 1 pound and 30 grams. 6AL4V Titanium

 

[Badvert65]

That is so sneaky (and awesome).
Kudos, my friend, Kudos.

 

[fullmetaljacket]

These shave 1 pound and 30 grams. 6AL4V Titanium

View attachment 1495757

That is so sneaky (and awesome).
Kudos, my friend, Kudos.

Thank you.
Backing plate bolts. (8) pieces. Shaved almost a pound between the both sides. Could not find the castle nuts in Titanium, so I had to go with stockers. The cotter/stop pins are Ti though.
Had fun showing some sneakier prototype items to some of the F.A.S.T guys this weekend at Carlisle. Heads were rolling the HHHHMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm's. LOL.