EXTREME LIGHTENING

[beavy69]

can I/is it OK to get rid of that padding on the back wall of the engine bay before the battery area?

any other lightening suggestions?

ive already got rid of my rear seats, all carpet and padding but love my music too much to loose the dash and speakers in the spare whee well.

(i need my front passenger seat as f*@kin heavy as they are - i'll be gettin light seats when budget permits!)

[mowgli]

that padding is worth about 5kg or about 0.6% or 5litres less fuel.....

best weight saving is actually starting with a base model. that way, the trim is minimal, and there will be no sunroof (30 odd kg) so you save about 10% over a high spec model. removing soundproofing would save about 20kg but driving a car with no soundproofing is loud.

the trouble with lightening is that the vast majority of stuff that you can remove is in the middle of the car, so the weight at each end remains the same, so you don't change the weight balance by much.

[Philsutton]

you want to see what ive taken out of my corsa, carpet, sound deadening even wires that arent needed heaters ect...

[Gunzi]

Probably very expensive, but what about an aluminium bonnet? That'd remove some weight from over the bay/wheels

[Stuart]

grp lol....

then again they arent "that" much lighter lol

[beavy69]

Bugger the bonnet i've done too much decorating to kuf with that!

[DIY*VALVER84]

does any1 know what the law on driving without a dash is? i mean you could make your own to fit easy enough and im sure it would weigh far less than the original. but for the ultimate lightening mod just cruise round on fumes as i often have to lol.

[Mike.]

to lighten my car, i got rid of the bumper irons ( metal bar behind the bumper ), theres a fibreglass tailgate, its been stripped out inside the car, i have also gutted both doors, and i have ground out the rear seat brackets. And theres a fibre glass bonnet and polycarb windows on there way.

[Stuart]

AGAIN

no you dont need a dash in the car as far as the law is concerned. jsut you need to have a pannel for switches etc... blah blah.
Ive made an ally pannel dash, see my antibies in the 1.2 scetion lol

[Philsutton]

What he said, i ran around in mine for a while with no dash and all my switches hanging down pmsl, got pulled by the poilce and they werent impressed.

[beavy69]

I assume all you need do is get them out of the way and get the wires secure so it's not a hazard.

where did you put your fuse box in your stripped 1.2 Stuart?

[Stuart]

erm well the std loom is totally gone. Ive made my own loom to save weight/reduce complexity etc.

But ive got a small fuedbox that will be next to the ally pannel
I belive dan is still running a std nova fuse box and that sits more or less in its usual place with ally brackets

[Dan]

for a few tips and idea's click the link in my sig to my car, it was ran like that daily for almost 18mths with no problems at all. As for saving weight metal can be cut out here and there although in some instances a stitch or weld along the cut edge maybe be required (top bulkhead removal etc).

again as stuart rightly said, grp is lighter, but like the boot panel, once they have been trimmed down the difference isnt that massive. My car weighs in at 'around' 720kg with all original panels. Taking into account thats got 30kg of cage added along with heavy wheels, bigger brakes etc etc etc its not to shabby

regards fusebox, i made my own switch panel down the right hand side of the steering column and fixed the original fuse box to the back of it out of sight. This was obviously made abit easier as when i redirected my loom through the bulkhead i trimmed all the unwanted stuff off the loom making the birds nest of wires alot smaller.

[Rob-16v]

[quote="mowgli"]that padding is worth about 5kg or about 0.6% or 5litres less fuel.....

best weight saving is actually starting with a base model. that way, the trim is minimal, and there will be no sunroof (30 odd kg) so you save about 10% over a high spec model. removing soundproofing would save about 20kg but driving a car with no soundproofing is loud.[quote]

is there any way to save on the sunroof? like using polycarb? or is it the full unit and jst not the glass?

[Mike]

remove the roof and get an after market replica of a non sunroof nova roof panel, then fit that. other than that no.

I've removed the sound deadening?fireproof tosh from behind the engine (on the bulkhead) and it weights a ton tbh! i had to take as much weight out the front of the car as theres bugger all in the back and it was scary going around island in the wet as it wanted to spin out!

I replaced both front seats with two sparcos that weight less than one nova seat.(nova seats weight approx 2 stone each, sparcos are bout 3 for a pair) nothing in the rear besides a spare wheel to keep some weight in the back and a brace.

[beavy69]

Stuart did you cut a hole in your boot floor, what is that?

see my post about your white 1.2

7im.

[Stuart]

its pretty obvious from thepics and the "spec" that say i cut the floor out lol

I did it as i was a tad bored whil renewing the rear pannel so i cut the floor out too, braced it and will be covering with polycarb. Its probably no lighter but its a talking piece lmao.

[Jim]

If you want the car to be as light as possible, you have to lose the stereo and speakers. Keeping them defies the point of going extreme.

30kgs sounds a bit much for a sun roof mechanism too - saying that, I've never actually weighed one.

Jim

[Philsutton]

30kgs sounds a bit much for a sun roof mechanism too - saying that, I've never actually weighed one
they are fairly heavy, not sure about 30kg, but its not nice when it drops out an hits you on the head.

[DIY*VALVER84]

so the next time im driving round and i see sum1 with a hard hat on whilst driving thats you then phil?lol. them bleedin sunroofs weigh a ton let alone 30kg i dropped one once :oops: and it got brokened into many pieces. im still having major issues with my damvan (its new name)so sum ppl replie to my Q's on technical forum! :!: !

[Rob-16v]

If you want the car to be as light as possible, you have to lose the stereo and speakers. Keeping them defies the point of going extreme.


Jim

Im running full sony invisible sound system, its top of the range and impossible so steal!