Heafty Vette?

[tscott9330]

I was talking to my mechanic the other day and he said that my 78 vette weighed pmore than most cars of that time. He said fiberglass is heavier that sheet metal. Is this true or is he full of it?

Tom

 

[RedRagTop]

Check your stats, vettes ain't light....
My brothers 68 427 is heavier than a truck.

 

[Stallion]

Corvettes aren't terribly light, but fiberglass is most definitely lighter than metal. Our bodies, I believe, are lighter, but everything else added in...I'm not sure.

But I was always led to believe that fiberglass is much ligther than metal.

 

[Tom73]

The '78 had a curb weight of 3,572 lbs before adding any options.

tom...

 

[Stallion]

The '78 had a curb weight of 3,572 lbs before adding any options.

tom...

That's not that heavy.

 

[yakatak76]

that's about the same weight as the 79 camaro that i had....

 

[whelen1]

That's not that heavy.

Thats heavier than all the taurus' you see out there, their curb weight is around 3300-3400lbs

 

[JohnZ]

For the same part (like a fender), fiberglass is the same weight or heavier than steel, as the fiberglass part is much thicker for strength. Corvettes bodies aren't fiberglass for weight reduction; they're fiberglass for reduced tooling cost - a fiberglass panel only needs one matched male/female set of dies, and a steel panel requires five or six progressive die sets with much heavier dies and they require five or six huge presses to produce them instead of just one.

Tooling (just the dies) for a steel fender costs about $6 million; the mold set for the same panel in fiberglass is about $600,000; there's no way to justify the expense of tooling for steel panels at the Corvette's low volume, so they're fiberglass.

 

[KANE]

My 78 weighs 3300lbs....

Now remember my vette has an iron block, 4 bolt main with TPI and a 700R4 overdrive.

When I weighed mine, I also had a 1/2 a tank of gas.

 

[YellowBeast1969]

Our old Vette, it was a 75, was fairly light for a corvette because my father stripped it our pretty well for weight reduction. If i wasnt worried about bastardizing the car, i would do the same to mine.

 

[rpounds]

The C3s just kept getting heavier as time went on. That's probably the reason why they had such a reputation for being 'sleds'. Of course, you have to take into account the reduction in real power through those years. My '68 bird is a LOT lighter and so was my '67 Mustang and '68 Cougar.