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Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 6:24 pm
by Amateur
That A/C compressor is still there. It's going to get pulled but I'm in no rush since it's like a given lol. I'm also going to put in a smaller lightweight battery.
So today I focused on the stock hood. My hood (which already had the sound insulation stripped) weighs in at 40lbs. That's heavy and I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a fiberglass one.
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So I went to town on it! I removed the central bracing and made it into swiss cheese. I took out just enough material without sacrificing it's core structural integrity. I could've done more but I don't want to resort to hood pins and wanted to keep the OEM latch setup.
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Here's the shavings I managed to recover from hole drilling:
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All That lightened the hood by 5 lbs for a new weight of 35 lbs. Total savings so far is 103.5 lbs.
I also switched the car over to full synthetic oil. Also ruh-roh:

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Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:06 pm
by Amateur
Project: Lightweight goes on. I managed to finish stripping out the interior. Since I'm putting both seats back in, the weight savings from today is 55 lbs. The total so far stands at 158.5 lbs.
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Approx. weight saved in lbs:
Carpet+ any insulation and sound deadening underneath 42
Center console+ HVAC plastic trim underneath 7
Power door locks x2 1 total
lower doorsill plastic trim x2 1 total
Lower panel underneath steering column 3
aftermarket cable wiring to trunk (probably for a subwoofer) 1

On a side note, each seat weighs 30 lbs. I'm keeping both but taking out one would be a nice gain :)
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I should really attend to that rocker rot sooner rather than later:
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Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 5:58 pm
by 1988GTU
I have an aluminum full race seat if interested.....

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:11 am
by 3X00-Modified
That rot is pretty bad and probably beyond saving.... Just clean it and spray it with rust converter and hope it just stops.

Who tried to jack up the car using the drivers side floor board?
I'm also amazed at how much rust some of these cars have INSIDE under the carpet... It's crazy.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 7:42 pm
by woody90gtz
I like the weight reduction in the rocker...

Reminds me of my 95z in more ways than one. I figured I saved about 100lbs reducing weight when I went drag racing.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 2:27 am
by Amateur
I have an aluminum full race seat if interested.....
I think I want to keep this build more on the streetable club racer type versus a full blown caged track only setup so I may have to pass but thanks! I'm seriously considering a 4 point rollcage which is livable. I don't want to put any more than that on a street car but it also leaves the option open to expand on it should I ever decide to make this track only.
That rot is pretty bad and probably beyond saving.... Just clean it and spray it with rust converter and hope it just stops.

Who tried to jack up the car using the drivers side floor board?
I'm also amazed at how much rust some of these cars have INSIDE under the carpet... It's crazy.
Yes, it got very bad very fast. It just may end up in a shop where we cut the cancer and build a new section with all new metal from scratch. I bought the car with that bump in the drivers floorboard, clearly somebody had no idea what they were doing sometime in the the 15 years prior to me taking ownership. Not going to lie, the under carpet rust really caught me by surprise. I'm just glad I got rid of that carpet, it was definitely on its last leg!
I like the weight reduction in the rocker...
Hahahaha! At least the car is doing its part for this project! The trade-off in structural rigidity is worrisome, I just think about how much play there is when driving over train tracks.

So I've been pretty busy this week but little by little I'm chipping away at the decklid. I'm going more extreme with this one since I'm actually just going to use hoodpins to fasten it down. I managed to pry its subframe from the shell which is going bye-bye and I'm essentially going to use the outer skin only on the car.
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Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 9:33 pm
by woody90gtz
Be careful if you run any kind of roll bar or cage in the street. The cage becomes life threatening if you are not wearing a helmet. A dude in nastyz28 got killed by his cage when he got t boned on a Sunday drive.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 7:03 pm
by Amateur
Be careful if you run any kind of roll bar or cage in the street. The cage becomes life threatening if you are not wearing a helmet. A dude in nastyz28 got killed by his cage when he got t boned on a Sunday drive.
For sure, rollcages definitely are meant to be used in conjunction with a helmet and preferably with a harness. Like you were saying, in an accident, it becomes a deathtrap if you have a full cage since your head's going to slam into those steel tubes in a wreck. A 4 point is definitely the highest I'm willing to go on a street car.

So I made more headway with Project: Lightweight. (weight approx in lbs)
Stock decklid: 25
Z04 kit rear spoiler: 10
Decklid hinge assembly: 10

The stock decklid weighs in at 25 lbs. I removed the decklid subframe which saved me 10 lbs----> it's new weight is 15 lbs. Spoiler came off+the hinge assembly since I'm just pinning it back on. All in all, weight savings from today is 30 lbs and the running total saved so far is 188.5 lbs.

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It's just a rough fitment, I steel need to fine tune the mounting.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 10:20 pm
by 1988GTU
bumper frame and bumper horns are hefty. What's preventing an aluminum bumper frame and direct mounting to chassis deleting the bumper horns? Lexan the doors and also do the coupe sides lexan as well. Steering wheel with that air bag and dash pad air bag are not weight friendly. 2nd gen Cavalier z24 wheels are still floating around in the yards cheap.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:41 pm
by MY91GT(Z)
Is this car rotted to ppint your willing to ruin it for this??

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 9:56 pm
by Amateur
bumper frame and bumper horns are hefty. What's preventing an aluminum bumper frame and direct mounting to chassis deleting the bumper horns? Lexan the doors and also do the coupe sides lexan as well. Steering wheel with that air bag and dash pad air bag are not weight friendly. 2nd gen Cavalier z24 wheels are still floating around in the yards cheap.
Bumper frames are definitely staying on. It's streetable and I would like to have the added safety of it directing the crash forces to the crumple zones. For the most part, I'm keeping the oem glass just because lexan scratches easily and can get blurry after awhile alongside the fact that they normally aren't as water tight as the glass. My airbag has been disconnected for ages, but yes I will be swapping that jazz out for a smaller diameter and lighter wheel. For the wheels, Eventually I'm going with a wider width and more aggressive offset to give me a bigger contact patch and a wider track, Cavalier Z24 wheels aren't going to fit that bill :)
Is this car rotted to point your willing to ruin it for this??
Honestly, it's pretty solid except that passenger side rocker. I don't know where the "ruin" part comes from but yes, I do race the car and everything I'm doing is completely functional towards the purpose of making it more competitive. Weight reduction is a very common practice to increase performance and handling, Formula 1, GT3, Prototype, LMP cars all strive to meet the minimum weight requirements of their tiers and then some just so if they need to ADD weight they can do so where they want to, to balance the cars better. At the rate I'm going, I'm probably going to have the lightest Beretta in this group short of anyone with a dedicated tube chassis.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 10:25 am
by themixer
man i love the legacy of this Beretta. It has been though a LOT.

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:29 am
by Amateur
^^^Thanks! yeah, it definitely has changed throughout the years but in a sense it changes as I change. One day, I hope to just walk away and say "I'm done, there's nothing more I want or need to do with her".... one day hopefully.

Well 1988GTU, I've begun converting the rear quarters to Lexan. This should be fun!
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After a valiant battle trying to whittle away at the adhesive poly caulk to gently pry out the glass with a suction cup, I ended up shattering the window altogether by accident. They really laid in on thick from the factory, probably because it had to support the window and entire quarter rubber weatherstripping. Oh well...
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Now for the business, I made a rough template using foam board that’s more at home in a science fair than my shenanigans. I bought a huge sheet of poly- carbonate Lexan that happened to be on sale at Menards. Now remember kids, You want the good stuff, the had much cheaper acrylic sheets and such but that’s no good. Lexan is wayyyyy stronger, super shatter resistant, offers UV protection, and most importantly in case of fire, it’s non-toxic and essentially self-extinguishes itself.

So I copied the template to the Lexan and hacked away with a special hook blade. My Harbor Freight rotary tool broke ages ago after 3 uses and I never bothered to replace it with a new Harbor Freight rotary tool. Harbor Freight is my jam. I still had my trusty Harbor Freight angle-grinder but that seemed a little overkill. Surprising that thing is still chugging after 2 years. Harbor Freight is a mixed bag of surprises. By hand, it took me awhile to do this step. “Handcrafted by skilled Artisans in a workshop?” lol. Yes. yes it was.

Next was trimming the edges to fit with a steel filer, and making some holes to where the aluminum rivets were going to mount.
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Also, I had to haphazardly strip the remnants of the adhesive caulk which was a PITA.
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I masked and spray painted the interior side edges a gloss black with 5 coats. A little trick I picked up painting Hobby R/C car Lexan bodies back in the day.
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Even though I could have just mounted it as is, I’m not a savage. These things are never really watertight, but just to mitigate it, I used some general purpose silicone. I don’t need it to be an adhesive since I got the rivets for that, I just need SOME weatherproofing since this car is still streetable.
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The Lexan weighs in at about 1.8 lbs, which is awesome! The old glass, ?????. It shattered so I wasn’t able to weigh it but I’ll weigh the passenger side when I remove it to see the difference. I still need to clean up the silicone overrun but not too shabby if I say so myself.
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Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:12 pm
by themixer
freaking sweet !

Re: Chevy Beretta FF

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:01 am
by Amateur
I’ve finished kicking the rear stiffness up a notch by installing 2 sway bars in back!
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I've had a pre '95 bolt-on internal rear sway bar lying around that I picked up awhile back from the junkyard. Now my car being a '95, it wasn't 100% direct bolt-on but it was pretty darn close. The torsion beam factory holes were a non-issue BUT there was one section that was directly in the way of a necessary mounting hole that needed clearance.
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I’m a very messy person with an angle grinder. It ain’t pretty but it’ll get the job done. As you can see, the material cut was from a section “floating” off the beam.

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Now with that done and over with, I have my next issue. the original triangle mounting bolts for my Addco external sway bar rusted over and the ends ripped off as I unbolted them.
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I needed new ones. I originally emailed the Addco for some new brackets and such but never heard back from them...
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I’m a man on a mission and made my own!
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I bought some threaded rods from the Home Depot that were the same width as the originals. I needed to make two and each really long one makes one each because....
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I needed the extra length as my leverage handles since I was bending them by hand with the help of “Old Bendy.” Old Bendy was a metal handrail that I’ve used countless time to bend metal, brake lines, whatever.
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Voila! Good replicas.
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Both mounted simultaneously:
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That pic below shows them installed and that jack stand is only on the drivers side. That’s pretty stiff—There’s like next to no slop between the two hubs. Awesome for racing conditions but I pray for my back on the street lol.
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On a FWD car, the front does all the work and the rear is just there for the ride!
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I’m also playing around with possibly installing a rear vane meant for a WRX and a different style decklid hoodpin design. I’m also mulling just making a new decklid from scratch using fiberglass. We’ll see where I go.
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