Yes bondo is a major weight adder.

Glenn Gormley's old "war wagon" was an 86 chassis and had been 80lbs over weight for years. He sold it to Austin Newmark our 14 year old racer. Naturaly Austin is a smaller than Glenn so tub weight never seemed an issue. However they started doing body work to repair all the things that caused the car to be called the "war wagon" in the first place. They ran into lots of bondo in places. The one the day the car was some 40lbs under weight.

I think they probabyl pulled 40-50lbs of bondo off that car. Rick your 88 could be the same.

Right now I am ok with the 2600lbs weight with my 1983 but since I haven't weighed my 1988 which might be ready for racing next year, I am going to be neutral on this one.

So has anyone done a calculation on how much difference 50lbs will make in terms of lap times or acceleration? Probably not even noticeable if you asked me.

I have run my car as much as 80lbs over weight intentionally to make the back end stick better. I was just too lazy to make a sway bar adjustment.
I won that race at Cal Speedway with the POC.
Weight will make a difference but until you can drive the car at 100% all the time I don't think it is an issue.
The driver is the biggest factor for going fast.

40 pounds will slow you down at least 2 seconds.

It just so happens that I am about 40 pounds over so that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Big Dog

i had heard it estimated that each 100 lbs is worth about a second a lap. I do agree though that the major factor in making the car go faster is the driver.

I say leave it @ 2,600 lbs. I scaled out @ 2,637 in my 85.5 with a Autopower cage and approx 7 gallons left in the tank. Once I pull the door glass and power window motors I am gonna be close. Driver is 215lb in full gear.