"De-heating" heat exchangers?

[s2per]

Has anyone ever cut off the heater related sheetmetal that surrounds the exhaust headers on a <'74 factory exhaust system? I'm really not a butcher at heart, but this seemed to be a fairly reasonable alternative to headers since the factory system is very efficient. And since I'm in Florida and the car is getting to be more track-oriented, I thought I'd remove the extra sheetmetal and save a few more pounds.

If so, can the "operation" be done with the HEs on the car?

[VincentVega]

I cut the boxes off my SC exhaust so you can do it in the car. However, I dont think the metal weighed more than a couple pounds, if that. I used an air powere cutt off wheel, a reciprocation saw and an air chisel to get mine off.