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  1. #1

    Default Aluminium bumpers vs steel bumpers - front and rear weight comparison

    Hi,

    Today I've pulled the aluminium bumpers off my parts car and compared them with the steel ones of my Ghia, and used a scale to compare the weights (probably not the most accurate but it does the job). Here are the results :


    Front steel (with turn signals and housings) - 15.5Kg 34.2lbs :



    Front aluminium (with turn signals and housings) - 6.5Kg 14.3lbs :






    Rear steel - 14.5Kg 32lbs :



    Rear aluminium - 6Kg 13.2lbs :






    That's a major difference, around 2/5th of the weight of the steel bumpers.

    Hope it helps

  2. #2
    FEP Senior Member
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    That sounds about right, I measured 18 lbs difference between the steel and aluminum F bumper supports, I never bothered with the rear, since my 85 is a drag car, and the weights in the right place. Also, the only aluminum rear I had was badly corroded around the lower mounting holes.
    1978 Fairmont 2 door sedan, 428CJ 4speed. 9.972ET@132.54mph. 1.29 60 foot
    Replaced the FE big block with my 331/4 speed in my Fairmont, best 10.24ET @128 MPH.
    1985 Mustang LX hatchback NHRA Stock Eliminator 302 4 speed best in legal trim 12.31@107 mph, but has gone 11.42@115 with aftermarket intake, carb, and iron Windsor Jr. heads.New for 2012! 331 cube SB Ford, AFR 185 heads, solid flat tappet cam, pump gas; 10.296ET@128.71 mph, 1.37 60 foot.
    1979 Zephyr Z7, all original 302 auto, 2nd owner.

  3. #3

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    Just changed my front and rear over to Aluminum. Thinking about swiss cheesing the front.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  4. #4

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    I built front and rears for my 88 out of chromoly. Probably half the weight of these aluminum ones. I'm going to build some for my 80 coupe with the turn signal brackets out of round bar. I may make a few extra sets and sell them while I'm already at it.
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  5. #5
    FEP Super Member erratic50's Avatar
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    Awesome info!

    What I like about this is what else can you take off the very tip of the nose of a fox and replace it with something around 20 lbs lighter that has ZERO impact on the appearance of the car?

    I like the moly setup too - very cool.

    I am certain some of you guys have the formula for the ideal drag fox and the ideal road course fox worked out down to spring and shock/strut info, etc.

    What I can see is a glass hood and some tweaks under the hood like battery relocation, AL radiator, and AL heads and you might get a car somewhere near a 50/50 weight balance. Heck glass fenders too for that matter. Somewhere near a 50/50 would be awesome for every use case I can think of. Shove the wheels forward and motor back or build a lighter power plant and more stout rearend if you want weight distribution biased to the rear.... and leave the steel bumper out back too.

    thanks for the posts- I've enjoyed the read.

  6. #6
    FEP Senior Member BMW Rider's Avatar
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    No luck sourcing aluminum bumpers for me so I used a fiberglass front from an aero car modified to mount the signal lights and swiss cheesed the rear with a hole saw. The front is super light, the rear lost 8 pounds.

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