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

rmchrgr said:
Feels like I just gained 10 lbs from dinner. My wife is a really good holiday cook and I always eat too much...

For those that have Instaglom and want to see some serious bordering on insane weight reduction, check out @ bostrum_racing_enterprise_ He's building a vintage Pro Stock Demon with a twin-plug hemi and all the old school trimmings. He's swiss-cheesed the unit body beyond recognition. He's on FABO too.
Click to expand...
Here is the thread you were referring to on FABO

Screenshot_20241228-214141~2.png
 
Lightweight wing window bracket hand polished for the moment. I will throw it under the buffing wheel later on and really get it to glisten. 2 ounces off on a boring Winters night. Won't be able to tell the difference once the gaskets and fasteners are on with the glass and all.

1-7.jpeg
 
Badvert65 said:
Man, that looks good. You never cease to amaze.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
I know well enough that this all seems insignificant and dwarf, but I'm having fun just as much as rodders did back in the days trying to figure out their Tin Lizzies on the dry lakes. The difference and irony here is that I'm trying to hide it all in plain sight. LOL.
This image here is the original stock vent bracket as it was on the car.

1-8.jpeg
 
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Here's the new featherweight vent bracket as installed on the car. It's been hand rubbed using only Mother's aluminum polishing wax and it looks fairly good.
When I get a hold of a compound kit with the three gradual grades of grit compound, I'll put a buffing wheel to it and really make it shine.

1-9.jpeg
 
While we're in the general area of the front dash and door mechanisms, it's only proper to repost this if I haven't already.
As one can see, these are the glove box door hinges. One is original and completely steel and the other, of which only one half of the hinge lever has been worked is made out of.........well, y'all know.
2.80 ounces vs 1.30 ounces. Where do I sign up?
It was a winter project a few years back or so and I have yet to install them in the car.

1-2.jpeg


1-1.jpeg
 
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OK, those pics are of the first two drums. I am waiting to actually put my hands on them to confirm fitment and function, but they look awesome in the pics.
In a nutshell:
Aluminum brake drum with cast iron liner, 10 x 2.5”, 5 on 4.5 bolt circle.
Fits most Mopars with the 10” x 2.5” brake option from 1965 to 1993.
Direct replacement for most Mopar 10 x 2.5” cast iron drums.
(I do not know the weight of these just yet)
I had looked high and low for an aluminum brake drum that fit a MOPAR. I liked the GM aluminum drum, but it necessitated using the entire GM setup, shoes-backing plates literally everything. I am certainly not a purist, but I couldn't bring myself to swapping GM specific parts onto my Mopar. I kept searching and found some promising Mercedes drums. They turned out to be less than 10 inches in diameter, but they did have the right 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern. Unfortunately, they are somewhat rare and used ones go for over $350 each....OUCH!
So that brings me to this. DON'T hate me because...... these beauties are made in China. I literally searched high and low for a North American source but got NO takers, NONE. Undeterred, I expanded my search and got a few bites. I found an established, reputable Chinese company that was willing to take my spec drawing and create what you see here.
I am going to have more of these made but I cannot give a price just yet. I am a little concerned about shipping, import fees, and the proposed import taxes coming up. My hope is to be in the $150 each range, not exactly cheap, but doable. I have already invested a considerable sum just to get this far. If this works out, I will get some made in the 5 on 4" pattern for the A body crowd.
Anyway, stay tuned and I will update as I get more information.
 
Badvert65 said:
OK, those pics are of the first two drums. I am waiting to actually put my hands on them to confirm fitment and function, but they look awesome in the pics.
In a nutshell:
Aluminum brake drum with cast iron liner, 10 x 2.5”, 5 on 4.5 bolt circle.
Fits most Mopars with the 10” x 2.5” brake option from 1965 to 1993.
Direct replacement for most Mopar 10 x 2.5” cast iron drums.
(I do not know the weight of these just yet)
I had looked high and low for an aluminum brake drum that fit a MOPAR. I liked the GM aluminum drum, but it necessitated using the entire GM setup, shoes-backing plates literally everything. I am certainly not a purist, but I couldn't bring myself to swapping GM specific parts onto my Mopar. I kept searching and found some promising Mercedes drums. They turned out to be less than 10 inches in diameter, but they did have the right 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern. Unfortunately, they are somewhat rare and used ones go for over $350 each....OUCH!
So that brings me to this. DON'T hate me because...... these beauties are made in China. I literally searched high and low for a North American source but got NO takers, NONE. Undeterred, I expanded my search and got a few bites. I found an established, reputable Chinese company that was willing to take my spec drawing and create what you see here.
I am going to have more of these made but I cannot give a price just yet. I am a little concerned about shipping, import fees, and the proposed import taxes coming up. My hope is to be in the $150 each range, not exactly cheap, but doable. I have already invested a considerable sum just to get this far. If this works out, I will get some made in the 5 on 4" pattern for the A body crowd.
Anyway, stay tuned and I will update as I get more information.
Click to expand...
It's a phenomenal achievement to get a company to fabricate items such as these from scratch. From the looks of the drums, it seems this company has experience in making drums. They almost look like the GM drums from what I can remember.
Aside from the obvious weight savings, (rotational weight at that) there could be the benefits of better cooling not only from the cooling fins, but the light alloys ability to dissipate heat better than cast iron.

One would think that an American company making these, even if there wasn't a huge market on the horizon, would still make a piece meal commission by designing and fabricating the product and charging the person/s wanting the product. From there on, the customer would have the option to further the production or not.
Perhaps they have not and would not set up their operations to facilitate odd jobs coming in.
I had to go to Canada to get the aluminum mufflers now on the car. No one here wanted to fabricate them and also indicated that the idea was crazy, so did Canada, but they made 'em.

Perhaps the products at SEMA will soon if not already, be dominated by off shore companies willing to facilitate ideas and orders within their expertise.

Keep us posted, especially on the weight differences.
 
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Yes, I tried getting them made in the USA, no luck. Then Canada, then Mexico, still I got only some curt NO answers. When I expanded my search, I got positive replies from India and China. I have seen a lot of different videos of stuff being made in what looks like India and while impressive, I wasn't sold on their process. I got a few quotes from China and just picked one that specialized in making brake parts, drums-rotors-etc. I like what I have seen so far, only time will tell.
 
There are some good manufacturers out there in Asia for sure. They have the same mentality of a growing first class society in that they are enthusiastic and ambitious to your ideas.
Can't wait to hear of the results as you see them.
 
Talking about lightweights, my long time friend here in New York is finally bringing himself to send off his lightweight 330 tribute to a new owner.
Beautiful car it is. Dudek power is spine cracking to say the least. This thing has A-864 aluminum fenders, aluminum hood, aluminum Hemi scoop, aluminum doors and aluminum front bumper. Check it out in the Mopars for sale if you want to have a great starting program in the lightweight divisions.
NYC is heavy with the lightweights.

330.A.jpg
 
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Roll Drums please. While we await the results of Badverts adventure to remove crucial rotational pounds using aluminum steel lined drums, I'll entertain y'all with my itty bitty ounces.

Here's both glove box hinges ready for install on the aluminum glove box itself. At 2.70 ounces for the pair, they're not too porky at all.
I'll post up again when I remove and get the steel hinges on the scale. Stay tuned.

1-3.jpeg
 
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the lightest of them all?
Stay tuned over the cold winter as we witness these pieces of aluminum..............

1-1.jpeg
 
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