Reducing Vehicle Weight - Maintain Rear Wheel Weight

[NJSPEEDER]

I think the biggest thing that you can read into all this discussion is that you are right, it is just as much about weight management as it is weight reduction. Ultimately the lowest weight possible is the right answer but that is tempered by the fact that you need the suspension to support it if you can't distribute it as desired.

start with simple stuff, moving the battery to the back makes a massive difference.
if you have access to a hole saw set go to town on the bracing for the hood. it doesn't seem like a handful of holes would make much of a difference but it is up front and up high, that's as bad as sprung weight gets!!!
look at stupid stuff like your fenders, how many bolts does it really take to keep a fender from running off to start a life of it's own at the hippy commune?
You can also usually find a variety of brackets and such made of steel that could easily be replicated out of aluminum from the local big box hardware store
There is also the possibility of learning to make your own molds for fiberglass(there are seriously a million online how-to's) to replace non critical parts made of heavy plastic or steel.
There are also a lot of lifestyle decisions, living without A/C was already mentioned but also consider pulling up the carpet and removing all the padding/sound deadeners/seam goop the factory dumped in the car.

exwestrace makes a great point about fords engine placement, especially on older vehicles. In the 50's and 60's ford belived that making a car that could be serviced easily was valuable to their dealerships who were expected to perform the service so their design requirements included some degree of putting the engine out where 5 guys could climb in and work on it together. See if anyone makes or if anyone local can help you fab mounts to pull it back and drop it so that the pan is closer to the height of the bottom of the cross member.

-Tim