1G Where does all the weight hide in DSMs?

[GSXftw]

Okay guys this might just be an open ended question, but Id do really wanna find out.

Here's a story, I had a 94 Eclipse GS as a parts car, it had no engine, manual windows, I took all the body panels off of it, (hood, fenders, ect) and sent it to the crusher. It went in as a stripped fwd roller, with a trans, on doughnut tires. IT STILL WEIGHED 2000 LBS!! How is this possible?

Many similar FWD cars weigh less than our awesome DSMs, to me that seems like kind of a flaw, so where is all this weight? Is it in the K frame? My 91 GSX weighs 3100 w/o driver, after a bit of weight savings, and just kinda wanna know where the weight savings would be that isn't taking out AC and PS. It's a daily driver so I like my comforts, and of course I've read the threads showing the weights of numerous things you can rip off the car, but honestly I don't think I can rip off a whole lot else before its converted to a track car all too fast, I've of course tossed the spare tire/jack, converted to 1Gb, changed to cloth interior, tossed rear wiper, power antenna, EGR, ABS. What else are you able to do, besides AC/PS, that still has the car manageable?

I'm sure there's people with cars lighter than mine that can still live with it. Thanks!

 

[xxNocturnalxx]

Since you've already read all the weight loss threads... I think what you want to hear is.. take a hole saw and swiss cheese that mother

 

[poteau]

K frame and rear crossmember. It's a tank. Custom job it and build your own.

 

[97blkeclipse]

Is your plan for it to be a track car? If so, replace all the glass with lexan. There's a significant loss there. Remove sound deadening on interior floor and is the crash beam still behind the front bumper cover?

 

[GSXftw]

K frame and rear crossmember. It's a tank. Custom job it and build your own.

Good to know thank you. I do plan on doing the front roll stop mount with tubular, ill look into this as well

Is your plan for it to be a track car? If so, replace all the glass with lexan. There's a significant loss there. Remove sound deadening on interior floor and is the crash beam still behind the front bumper cover?

well itll stay a street car whatever happens, but more of the weekend warrior type. Front crash beam is a bit hacked for the VRSF but otherwise still all there yes

Electrict seats are look pigs as well!

Did you mean the seatbelts? Cause I replaced those theyre probably 20 lbs for the pair. Seats themselves, the rear doesn't weigh shit, and I actually put it back in just cause it wasn't justified being out being my DD, front seats are heavy for sure tho

 

[stiver557]

k frame, cross members, I know in the doors alone there are crash beems that I took out of my car and each weighed 30 pounds. also the crash beams in the rear bumper. ud be surprised on how much of a tank these cars are and how much metal can be cut out, like the previous comment, u start cutting holes and making it swiss cheese. bullfab makes those chromoly bars for the motor mounts in the engine which take out a lot of weight and make it look cleaner as well.

 

[mitsubishikid]

The stock rear hatch is heavy, the cf ones are a lot lighter.

 

[JCB]

Like others said K frame and crossmember The rear hatch weighs a ton too

 

[Mischif]

I've stipped down a fwd 1g and took it for scape metal before. Weighed in at 1060. Only thing left on it was the suspension, front windshield, rotors, main electrical wiring harness, ebrake cables, front seat belts, gas tank, fuel/brake lines, powersteering rack, and donuts all around. Everything else was removed.

 

[GSXftw]

I've stipped down a fwd 1g and took it for scape metal before. Weighed in at 1060. Only thing left on it was the suspension, front windshield, rotors, main electrical wiring harness, ebrake cables, front seat belts, gas tank, fuel/brake lines, powersteering rack, and donuts all around. Everything else was removed.

Interesting. and my fwd for scrap weighed 2000 . So sounds like doors, hatch, interior, were all gone in yours. My jaw about dropped when they said how much mine weighed still. Well Im seriously considering a rwd swap into a foxbody mustang or something to get somewhere around 2700 w/driver, cause I couldn't ever see my gsx getting there, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try and get close thanks for all the info guys, Ive actually taken the crash beams out the doors of my two other cars, Camaro and supra, 25 lbs and 20 lbs each, so that makes me feel better.

 

[91stocker]

The seats are massively heavy. I swapped in some kirkey's and cut 82.8lbs.

The front seat belt assemblies weigh in at 30lbs
The rear seat belt assemblies weigh in at 18lbs.

There's 131lbs just in seats and seat belts.



But with the dsm, there really are no other big weight items, You just have to chip away at it 5-10lbs at a time. Your already handicapping yourself by keeping the ac and such.

Some other easy ideas are

- the rear wiper, motor, and reservoir 5lbs
- rear antenna & motor 5lbs
- spare tire, jack, tool bag 35lbs
- front and rear bumper supports 55lbs
- rear hatch struts & privacy cover 20lbs

Then maybe wheels and tires. Rota slips and some qtp's. But the rest of the weight is much harder to get at. Like scraping the sound deadener from the whole car, etc

 

[arrowhead]

The doors with electric windows weight 87 lbs each, pass, seat 85 driver 87, there are many places where weight can come off, it depends what can you do without, and use of car.

Hope to have my fwd under 2m lbs.

 

[Mischif]

Interesting. and my fwd for scrap weighed 2000 . So sounds like doors, hatch, interior, were all gone in yours. .

yup it was stripped clean.

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I had my fwd 1.8 turbo weighed and it was at 2100lbs. Carpet and sound deadening is gone, everything behind the front seats is gone, seats, seat belts, plastics, spare and jack. All hvac controls and air ducting in the dash was removed. entire a/c system in the engine bay was removed including mounting brackets. It has a manual steering rack. The front end is steel tubed from the strut towers forward. both steel bumpers are gone. It still has door speakers, and rear speakers as well as cd player. Also power windows, but manual mirrors, doors are completely intact. Removed the metal bar slider thing thats on the inside of each seat by the center counsel. Still have the center counsel, the one with the arm rest. Removed all lap belt components, but still have the entire shoulder belt set up. Removed headliner and visors. And other tiny stuff here and there.

Also there is no way the front seats weigh 80+ pounds. They have to be more around like 40lbs. Unless the leather ones with the lumbar and ass adjustment ones wieght a ton more than the normal cloth ones.

 

[91stocker]

Also there is no way the front seats weigh 80+ pounds. They have to be more around like 40lbs. Unless the leather ones with the lumbar and ass adjustment ones wieght a ton more than the normal cloth ones.

My stock cloth manual seat w/brackets weighed 58.2lbs.

The kirkey seat w/brackets weighed 16.8lbs.

I have pictures of the weights on the scale in my build thread here (post #11)
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/dsm-build-journals/458404-91stockers-6-4-panda-91-talon.html

Swapping the seats and removing the rear seat belts and brackets cut almost 100lbs even.

 

[StarFawkes]

Get an extra set of doors. Keep one with manual windows, manual locks, and crash beam for DD doors. Gut your other set of doors, trace your glass window onto plexi or lexan and rivet it into place, and rivet a very thin piece of aluminum to cover your empty door.

Cut out your spare tire well and rivet thin aluminum in its place.

Remove all carpet and sound deadening.

Carbon fiber hatch and hood.

Replace seats and stock seatbelts.

Delete as much electric stuff (pop up lights, cruise control, A/C, stereo, etc.) as possible and wire tuck your harness.

 

[Mischif]

Get an extra set of doors. Keep one with manual windows, manual locks, and crash beam for DD doors. Gut your other set of doors, trace your glass window onto plexi or lexan and rivet it into place, and rivet a very thin piece of aluminum to cover your empty door.

Thats actually a pretty damn good idea! I think i might just have to do that with my spare set of doors.

 

[91-GS]

Get an extra set of doors. Keep one with manual windows, manual locks, and crash beam for DD doors. Gut your other set of doors, trace your glass window onto plexi or lexan and rivet it into place, and rivet a very thin piece of aluminum to cover your empty door.

For racing get a set of carbon fiber doors with lexan windows.

 

[GPTourer]

Many similar cars, as you say, start with that manufacturer's small/economy car chassis. Our's is the Chrysler "D" platform which is a chopped down Galant chassis, a "bigger" midsized car instead of them building it off the Mirage. We're more like an Accord or Camry coupe rather then a Civic or Corolla.

 

[GSXftw]

All very great input guys thank you keep it coming! Im learning a lot. What Ive done on my car so far is a 1Gb conversion, which did definitely help with weight, changed from leather/lumbar to cloth seats, so I did have them out and they did feel pretty heavy, rear wiper, washer, spare tire/jack is all gone, along with smog and ABS. Im really into cutting weight on cars, my Camaro and Supra have both gone on pretty substantial diets, Supra is 3000 w/driver, and Camaro is 3400 w driver. I am now kicking myself in the ass for letting the doors of my parts car go, they were manual and would've been perfect for some lightweight candidates, they were even the same color but that's an awesome idea, I was already planning on having to front bumpers, 1 hacked for summer/1 stock for looks. What do people do on the rear bumper to keep the cover from sagging with the beam gone?

 

[z2roll4life7]

Wow seems like this platform weighs a ton! I have no idea what my 91 gsx weighs, but my 90 nissan 240sx with a sr20det and rear panels and rear seats removed with a full tank a gas 2480lbs with no one in it . Fiberglass doors with manual windows, hatch and hood. ill be close to 2300lbs. Also my 94 civic dx with a Ls-V and full interior 2440lbs.

 

[subi_this]

You get get them light my 2g was 2900 with full interior and chromoly cage

 

[John Myers]

Just for comparison, since I just weighed mine:

91 talon TSi AWD
3140 with no driver (calibrated truck scale)

All AC components removed
Cruise control deleted
Full stock leather interior
Spare tire taken out and battery re-located to the hatch
Rear wiper delete
Rota slipstream wheels
2 piston calipers

 

[Lazy]

I'm thinking of cutting out where the spare tire goes and riveting or bolting down aluminum in the whole truck area,
also a lightweight /small battery should cut down on some lbs.

 

[Nuzzi]

Don't forget about cutting the floor boards out and riveting in diamond plate. Cant remember where I saw this but just be careful it can fly off at high speeds.

 

[boost97gst]

hahahaha^^^
That damn "manifold pressure"......gets your floorboards everytime man.