How To Body Drop A Ranger? The 128 Correct Answer

Ford pickup truck with a chopped top.

Chopping and channeling is a form of individualization in “kustom kulture” and hot rodders. Both procedures are often combined, but can also be carried out separately.

hack [ edit ]

“Chop top” redirects here. For the fictional character, see Chop Top

Hacking the top of a VW Beetle – the C-pillar is unfinished.

In this picture, the hacking is almost complete. Notice how much smaller the rear quarter windows are compared to a stock Beetle.

Dating back to the early days of hot rodding, Chopping the Top is an attempt to reduce a car’s frontal profile and increase its speed potential. To hack a roof, the pillars and windows are shortened, lowering the entire roofline. Some racers on the dried-up lakes smashed the tops of their cars in so hard that the windows were only a few centimeters high. These were sometimes referred to as “mail slot” windows. This type of body is also popular with custom cars, kustoms and leadsleds. Rooftop hacking also quickly became very popular among drag racers for the same reasons as lake racers. The first roof chopper is believed to be Sam Barris (brother of car customizer George Barris) who hacked and customized his all-new 1949 Mercury. Barris also pioneered a more advanced shape that removes the B-pillar, turning it into a pillarless hardtop in the process.

Concept cars like the AMX-GT are often lowered, even if the vehicles are based on production models. Automakers use the chopping technique to make their show cars look sleeker and “racy”, although it would be impractical for normal use.

Channel [ edit ]

Channeling is a mod that can be applied to cars with body-on-frame construction. To channel a car, its body is temporarily lifted off its ladder or bounding box. After the floor has been loosened and secured higher in the body, the body can then be lowered back over the frame. So, the modification causes the entire body to be closer to the ground without changes to the suspension. The overall effect is to give the car’s bodywork a lower profile.

Each automobile would have its own technical challenges in terms of modifying the various components of the chassis. Local laws may prevent the modifications from going too extreme and safety would dictate some restraint. Channeling is also popular with hot rod, leadsled, and minitruck enthusiasts, although the latter refer to it as “body drop”.

Cutting [ edit ]

Cutting involves removing a horizontal section from a car’s body, lowering the top half onto the bottom half, and welding the result back together. The purpose is to reduce the overall height of the car body. Like a roof slash, it also has the benefit of reducing a car’s frontal area and reducing wind resistance. This type of body is popular with mini trucks, race cars, kustoms and leadsleds.

Whether you’re a trackday beast, a budget racer, or just serious about road driving, it pays to put your car on a diet. Here are a few ways to reduce that weight!

Share Tweet Email WhatsApp

1. Remove or replace heavy electrical components

Even cars that are several decades old can be crammed with heavy comforts, many of which can be discarded to save weight. Say goodbye to the air conditioning compressor and around 5 kg are gone. An additional 10 or more kilos can be shed by removing the heater matrix, fan and associated piping. The stereo is also a prime objective, along with all the speakers and cables. The things you can’t do without can then be swapped out for lighter versions. For example, car batteries typically weigh around 10-15kg, a number that you can cut in half by upgrading to a smaller racing battery.

2. Strip the interior

Here you can take some serious free discounts; It’s just a matter of how far you want to go. Assuming you’ve started with the obvious — removing random crap you don’t need in the car, putting down the spare tire and jack, etc. — you can then attempt to take out the carpet, underlay, and rear seats. Depending on the car, you can save about 25kg by losing the rear seats, and that’s before you turn your attention to the front seats. If your car has power seats, they can weigh up to 35 kg. In an ideal world, for maximum race car-ness, you’d ditch the passenger seat entirely and swap the driver’s seat for a sport seat that tips the scales at around 12kg. This saves you a total of almost 60 kg. Would you like to go further? You can expect to lose an additional kilo or two if you take off the door panels, or over 10 kg if you lose the dashboard.

3. Mount lighter body panels

If you’re really serious about shedding the pounds, consider swapping out steel or aluminum body parts for GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) parts. The bonnet, front fenders, trunk lid, doors and even the roof can be swapped out for GRP, bringing significant weight savings to your car. want an example The £175 BMW E36 3 Series plastic hood you see above (from Geoffsteel.com) weighs just 3kg compared to 15kg for the factory metal part. Of course you can also save by swapping out for much stronger, better fitting carbon fiber body panels, but they’re more expensive: if you want a carbon bonnet instead of a fiberglass bonnet for your E36, you’ll look more like £500.

4. Replace glass windows with polycarbonate

While you’re at the plastic swapping scene, it’s worth thinking about swapping out your glass windows as well. Using polycarbonate instead can save 1-2kg for each window replaced, costing around £70 for a pair of windscreens.

5. Lighter wheels

Switching to a lighter wheelset could save you around 2-3kg per corner. Doesn’t sound like much, but the benefits go further than just reducing the car’s overall weight. Reducing the rotational mass of the rims means the suspension doesn’t have to work quite as hard, and you’ll see small improvements in acceleration as it’s easier for the engine to spin lighter wheels.

6. Put less fuel in your tank

For short track days, shorter races and less adventurous road trips, you don’t need to lug around a full tank. If you only fill your 55 liter fuel tank halfway, you will lose 27.5 liters of unnecessary fluid – the equivalent of around 20kg. Sounds obvious, but is often forgotten.

7. Losing Body Weight/Friends Image Credit: Magnus D on Flickr

There’s more to gaining speed on the track than focusing all your energy on improving your car’s performance. By taking a “less is more” approach and reducing the weight of your car, you can squeeze out more power and leave even more room to work on the performance aspect if you want. Performance tuning is about balance, not performance, and weight reduction can help.

Weight removal can be done in a number of ways and depending on how serious you are about it you can do anything from just removing the insides to replacing body panels and components. If you still want to use your car for leisure and passenger use, there are also options that reduce weight but keep your car comfortable. Foreign Affairs Motorsport can diagnose what needs to be done and work with expert knowledge on performance upgrades and engine overhauls. Count on our technicians to perform optimal tuning that preserves car integrity and driver safety.

Start with the inside

One easy way to lose weight is to swap out the car’s internals for lighter versions that are better suited to racing. Removing the rear seats and passenger seat and replacing your own with a lightweight racing seat shaves a good 200 pounds off the weight. Power seats can weigh 70 pounds each and are worth removing for the ultimate power gain from lost weight.

When removing items from your car, you must remember that it still needs to be road legal. Removing the spare tire is an option if your car has modern runflat tires, but removing airbags and wiper motors will make your car illegal and put your safety at risk. We can always advise you on how to properly strip your car. If you can live without a stereo or air conditioning, consider removing those too, as well as the carpets.

Step on the fiber

If you’re serious about reducing as much weight as possible, consider carbon fiber and GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) as replacements for steel and aluminum door panels, decklids, hoods and fenders. Carbon fiber is the strongest and lightest alternative, although it costs a pretty penny, with fiberglass being the cheaper alternative.

If the cost makes you think twice about replacing it, consider how much a new coat of paint will cost from all the dings and bumps that racing has already brought you. Carbon fiber becomes an attractive investment should the need arise due to its durability and good resale value.

If you are considering carbon fiber wheels, you should know that they will shatter and crack on impact and are not repairable, incurring high costs if they break. On the other hand, alloy wheels are light, which makes it easier for the engine to turn them, and have increased airflow, which improves braking performance. We make sure every change optimizes your race car for ultimate performance. Why focus only on speed when you can also improve control?

Dad was a Rollin’ Stone, but your car wasn’t supposed to be

If you decide to swap out the steel panels in your car for carbon fiber, we recommend adding a roll cage. Steel and aluminum handle bumps better, and to maintain the car’s structural integrity and ensure your safety – especially at the increased speed from the weight loss – a roll cage will do you a favor. The addition of a roll cage protects you in the event of a crash, but also means we can remove more metal from the interior while still keeping it strong.

Go Plastic, it’s awesome

Glass windows protect the interior of your car and can also help the car’s aerodynamic factor. If you want to lose weight but maintain aerodynamics, try Plexiglas or Perspex instead. It’s 50% lighter than glass, adding pounds to the weight loss count if you’ve already lost weight in other areas of your car. However, the windshield must remain in place for safety reasons.

Keep in mind that Plexiglas and Perspex tend to cloud under UV light and are easier to scratch, but at a weight reduction of up to 50 pounds. Doing without side windows is also an option if you do not use your car in your free time.

Replace heavier components with lighter alternatives

All the pounds add up, and finding ways to make even a small difference will help get as much performance out of it as possible in the end. Some engine components have heavy factory settings for alternators, water pumps, flywheels, pistons and blocks – where lighter options can be found by our knowledgeable team. Your battery and radiator can also be swapped out for lighter ones, and our fitment center will ensure the new one is compatible with your car’s engine.

Speaking of heavy components, if the car’s driver can shed a few pounds, it might be worth considering. And if you’re running a smaller race, only put in as much fuel as you need, the rest becomes unnecessary weight.

We are always able to advise you on the best performance tuning options for your car and which combination of parts will give you the greatest performance gain. Our experience at Foreign Affairs Motorsport will turn your car into a masterpiece instead of the hassle and heartache of DIY.