2G Weight reduction running out of ideas

[dexterholland04]

If you don't mind (hopefully it doesn't require you to write a novel) could you go into some detail on how you achieved this. Most seem to struggle to get to the 2400lb mark and spend quite a lot on lightweight parts in the process. Thanks.

Keep in mind - this is a fully-gutted tin can...

-Delete ABS
-Delete Power Steering
-No dash, heat, or anything like that...just a steering wheel, seat, wiring and 3 gauges
-Scrape the sound deadening off of the floorpan
-Light rims and slicks
-Aluminum driveshaft
-Chromoly rear subframe
-4" bumper exhaust
-Took all unnecessary wires out EVERY harness in the car
-5 gal aluminum fuel cell
-Manual window regulators
-Kirkey aluminum seat
-Remove glass sunroof, motor and assembly, epoxy CF sunroof in roof
-CF hood
-CF hatch
-CF doors

I did less than 20 things, many of which a lot of other folks do as well. With lexan, smaller brakes, taking the rear crash beam out, and looking for any other things I can do...I should be able to get it down around 2300.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Keep in mind - this is a fully-gutted tin can...

-Delete ABS
-Delete Power Steering
-No dash, heat, or anything like that...just a steering wheel, seat, wiring and 3 gauges
-Scrape the sound deadening off of the floorpan
-Light rims and slicks
-Aluminum driveshaft
-Chromoly rear subframe
-4" bumper exhaust
-Took all unnecessary wires out EVERY harness in the car
-5 gal aluminum fuel cell
-Manual window regulators
-Kirkey aluminum seat
-Remove glass sunroof, motor and assembly, epoxy CF sunroof in roof
-CF hood
-CF hatch
-CF doors

I did less than 20 things, many of which a lot of other folks do as well. With lexan, smaller brakes, taking the rear crash beam out, and looking for any other things I can do...I should be able to get it down around 2300.

Well i wouodnt call that effortless. The subframe, doors drive shaft. Maybe it is maybe it isnt, it's a lot of cash to fork out to lose weight. I'm looking for free weight reduction at this moment and will be buying things down the road. I agree there is tons of weight in the dash and harness. The airbag alone feels like 15 lbs, the glove box feels 15lbs. Tue dash feels 50lbs I'm gonna weigh everything and I'll post up what they all are so others can find for themselves if it's worth the work to remove the weight

Who knows though the only things i dont have on your list are
Cf doors
Cf harch
Alum drive shaft
Cf sunroof delete
Fuel cell
And the manial window regulators. So i guess i shouldnt be too far off from you by maybe 350lbs cause the doors

 

[twicks69]

It's not too bad to remove with steering wheel on I guess, it a been a while.

Been so used to a race steering wheel and quick release hub. Considering I have a 8.49 cage and 5-points, the airbag systems were removed and I pulled/gutted the passenger airbag assembly and removed the driver assembly.

I'm assuming you already pulled all the radio components, speakers, speaker housings, gutted the tweeters and reused the grill covers, and pulled all the misc. wiring/ cables.

Pull the back seat seat belt assemblies and fasteners, I'd suggest not throwing them out and boxing them up, as funny enough, the ones I pulled from my car like 7 years ago I just used on a customer car that was missing them and needed a set.

 

[gofer]

Ah, okay. That's extensive weight reduction Mr. Dexter, there's not another pound to shed on that car without going to a fiberglass front end and tube chassis once you go to lexan glass.

So, to get my car to 2760 (w/o me sitting in it) here's my list...

- no windshield wipers or wiper motor.
- no rear wiper.
- no emissions.
- no SRS.
- no cruise control or CC ECU.
- no HVAC, this includes all ducting under the dash.
- no stereo or speakers.
- no remote receiver for keyless entry.
- no antenna
- no weight in glovebox door.
- no weight in tilt wheel steering colum.
- no plastic trim other than the driver and passenger doors.
- no sun visors or oh shit handle.
- no spare tire well/spare tire/windshield cleaner tank.
- no passenger seats, only stock electric driver seat.
- no carpet.
- no sound deadening.
- minor harness work to remove unnecessary wiring.
- no hood latch or cable.


- CF hood.
- CF hatch.
- CF head liner (not really weight savings but cleans up visor and oh shit handle delete)
- CF wiper cowl (no weight savings but cleans up wiper delete)
- AFCO radiator.
- Chromoly rear subframe, LCA, and toe arms.
- Evo IX Enkei wheels.

Car was weighed with 5ga of gas in the tank and has a sun roof.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Okay i got the dash out, removed the ducting in the dash, removed heater core (which had melted fire wall padding on it) removed the firewall padding, that itself was 15lbs. Removed the AC Radiator thingy, and the blower motor. With the radio gutted down keeping thr harness in it i got it down to 14lbs!! So i put the dash back in and I'm cleaning up my gauge wiring.
I'll update this as i weigh things to tell you what i removed and the weight of the things i wipl be keeping in.

Gutted and reinstalled for street 32 class
Bare dash no ducting but with harness 17lbs

Kick pannnels, lower dash trim, center console, center vent with the hazard light button- 10lbs

Door pannels-??? (Will weigh)

Glove box??? (Will weigh)

Removed and weight saved:
Metal driver dash plate, Ducting heater core blower ac box 28.2lbs

Sound damper rubber thingon firewall 15lbs

Passenger airbag- 9.2 lbs

Total of 52.4 lbs just out of the dash. Leaving it all gutted would yeild weight savings of 79lbs

Other things to note:
Oem driver seat-55lbs
Oem leather pssenger seat 45lb

Here is some pix.

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[Archer Fabrications]

So how do i go about removing the metal in the glove box i dont want to break it and i dont see anh clips

 

[gofer]

... http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/clean-looking-weight-reduction.301256/

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Put dash back in and center, lookin good and clean I'd recommend this to all race cars.

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Oh and heres whag thr back of the center vent looks like incase people are curious for gauge installation, basically it's only attached to the ducting with screws, otherwise it pulls out.

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[Archer Fabrications]

... http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/clean-looking-weight-reduction.301256/

Okay i understand. Looking through that thread he shows the ABS comouter to be at the passenger foot resr. Is it different on a 99? Is it all under the wheel well? I dont see where anything was mounted previously. No holes no nothin. But my abs module is there under wheel well.

 

[Christoph]

Are those kick panels painted? I can't really tell, if so does it scratch easy? What did you use to paint them?

 

[tylersevo]

Okay i understand. Looking through that thread he shows the ABS comouter to be at the passenger foot resr. Is it different on a 99? Is it all under the wheel well? I dont see where anything was mounted previously. No holes no nothin. But my abs module is there under wheel well.

I looked when I followed that thread as well Kyle. 99's must be different.

 

[dexterholland04]

Well i wouodnt call that effortless. The subframe, doors drive shaft. Maybe it is maybe it isnt, it's a lot of cash to fork out to lose weight. I'm looking for free weight reduction at this moment and will be buying things down the road. I agree there is tons of weight in the dash and harness. The airbag alone feels like 15 lbs, the glove box feels 15lbs. Tue dash feels 50lbs I'm gonna weigh everything and I'll post up what they all are so others can find for themselves if it's worth the work to remove the weight

Who knows though the only things i dont have on your list are
Cf doors
Cf harch
Alum drive shaft
Cf sunroof delete
Fuel cell
And the manial window regulators. So i guess i shouldnt be too far off from you by maybe 350lbs cause the doors

The only real difficult work I put into it was the wiring. It took forever. The rest was just either changing parts, or taking things off. The DSM fuel tank weighs more than you think with the siphon pump and all. Sunroof is a heavy pig, too. I epoxied mine into the car, leaving the whole stock tray/motor and whatnot out. CF doors suck. They suck to put together, the fitment sucks, BUT...they look awesome and they don't weigh anything. If you do a hatch, do it right the first time and put the FAL poly-carbonate window in it. I was cheap and put the stock glass back in it....the stock glass is HEAVY.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Are those kick panels painted? I can't really tell, if so does it scratch easy? What did you use to paint them?

I used duplicolor plstic and vynal pint, it doesnt scratch too bad if it was cured correctly. Way better than Plasti dip.

I looked when I followed that thread as well Kyle. 99's must be different.

Interesting. I think in 99, the computer and module must be one Under driver side wheel well.

The only real difficult work I put into it was the wiring. It took forever. The rest was just either changing parts, or taking things off. The DSM fuel tank weighs more than you think with the siphon pump and all. Sunroof is a heavy pig, too. I epoxied mine into the car, leaving the whole stock tray/motor and whatnot out. CF doors suck. They suck to put together, the fitment sucks, BUT...they look awesome and they don't weigh anything. If you do a hatch, do it right the first time and put the FAL poly-carbonate window in it. I was cheap and put the stock glass back in it....the stock glass is HEAVY.

I definately would use FAL glass, that sucks to hear fitment was off, got any pix of your car with the doors? I'll probably keep the sunroof for a while. It's the beat ventilation when there isnt AC, my friend is making a carbon fiber roof, with aluminum frame and sunroof delete, hes saying that alone is going to save him 150lbs. Would be interesting to see

 

[gofer]

Kyle, you need to exercise the use of the +QUOTE feature in the bottom right of posts you're responding too. You're spamming your threads making individual posts responding to each person, I merged them but next time try it... it works great!

I have a set of '99 FSM's on the bookshelf at home, I'll read-up on the ABS system on the 1999's and see if anything changed.

As far as getting CF doors goes, I wouldn't advise doing it (even if you CAN afford it) until you get a cage with door bars if you plan on doing any kind of driving on the street. Nobody PLANS on getting in a car accident but if you were to take a side impact (t-boned) on a CF door the car hitting you would drive right through the front seats. The stock doors are reinforced with steel beams that can take (somewhat) of a hard side impact and give you a chance of survival.

That being said...

Once you get a cage, at least this is what I plan on doing since I can't afford $1000+ CF doors, I'm going to pull out my angle grinder and cut off wheel and take as much weight out of the stock doors as possible. I haven't seen any 2g DSMer's doing it but the 1g guys are getting ~35lbs out of each door.

Here's a gutted 2g door, of course I'd want to use the factory door panels so I'd retain all it's mounting points but this is another ($1000 cheaper) option once you get a cage.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/turboaddict21/20121227_221246-1.jpg

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[arrowhead]

A 2g door gutted will weight 18 lbs w/o any hardware and the one pictured by gofer could still be trimmed a little higher, of course the more you trim, the flimsier it will get.

From what I know the CF door weights the same, so save your money.

If you want to go a little extreme, cut the hinges in half.

 

[Rsawd95dsm]

Manual side mirrors. Can get rid of the wires that run to them. Also read in here briefly, manual window cranks.

 

[twicks69]

My carbon/kevlar doors are 9# each without anything on them. I installed the factory hinges, lock cylinder and bracketry, factory inner and outer door handles and bracketry, steel window bracketry and 1/8" polycarbonate windows, total weight is currently at 18# before any sort of trimming of the door panels or skins.

You can always do mirror deletes too.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Kyle, you need to exercise the use of the +QUOTE feature in the bottom right of posts you're responding too. You're spamming your threads making individual posts responding to each person, I merged them but next time try it... it works great!

I have a set of '99 FSM's on the bookshelf at home, I'll read-up on the ABS system on the 1999's and see if anything changed.

As far as getting CF doors goes, I wouldn't advise doing it (even if you CAN afford it) until you get a cage with door bars if you plan on doing any kind of driving on the street. Nobody PLANS on getting in a car accident but if you were to take a side impact (t-boned) on a CF door the car hitting you would drive right through the front seats. The stock doors are reinforced with steel beams that can take (somewhat) of a hard side impact and give you a chance of survival.

That being said...

Once you get a cage, at least this is what I plan on doing since I can't afford $1000+ CF doors, I'm going to pull out my angle grinder and cut off wheel and take as much weight out of the stock doors as possible. I haven't seen any 2g DSMer's doing it but the 1g guys are getting ~35lbs out of each door.

Here's a gutted 2g door, of course I'd want to use the factory door panels so I'd retain all it's mounting points but this is another ($1000 cheaper) option once you get a cage.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/turboaddict21/20121227_221246-1.jpg

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What the heck happened to auto merge sorry bout that and thank you for the edit. Appreciate it actually.

I definately would hve a cage in before compromising the structure and saftey of the car, with the exception of air bags. I was considering cutting the metal, i gutted my door pnnels and put them back on. Chopped the airbag cover and ziptied it back on. Car is looking good with a ton of stuff gone. I'd aplreciate you looking through the fsm for the abs thing

I got the glove box metal out, it's sitting clamped up with jb weld


Some other things to note.

foam and ducting in both door pannels = 2.6 lbs
Metal dash trim= 2.6lbs
Glove box metal= 3lbs

And the door pannels after gutting them (not removing the fiberglass) is 13.6lbs

This thread will sort of be informational for those taking out weight i guess.

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@twicks69 are morror deletes cool for street32 at the SO? i weekend the car so I'll keep them on for now but I'd do deletes for track days

K here is how it looks with everything gone, so many plugs to get rid of!

Here is a view through the passenger footwell before i stalling the glove box.

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[gofer]

So, upon further reading, I compared my '97 FSM to my '99 FSM and the ABS system does change but I did find something you can remove for weight from it.

Here's the '97 ABS system on an AWD car, notice the ABS ECU is on the passenger side floorboard.

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Here's the '99 ABS system on a AWD car... notice the ECU is integrated into the hydraulic unit. Who knew?

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But, you can remove this G sensor in the center console I guess.

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[Archer Fabrications]

Okay so i saw that thing and i was like WTF is that? Lol good to know it can go. g sensor..... Yeah right thanks for looking that up, i need one of those. Like yesterday


Heres all the crap removed, and the interior looks as the pictures above.

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That G sensor must be high tech gadgetry senses how gangster you are.

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i dont know why people Make the glove box inatall such a big deal, you can remove the clips that stop the box from dropping down install screws then Reinstall the rubber stops.

Started the car and the abs light is on, now i get to find out which plug that i left unplugged is tied to the ABS. Found out the hazard light plug needs to be plugged in for any turn signals to work .