put your car on a diet
 

What do you guys do to your crxs, or any other car, to make them lighter without compromising the structural integrity of the car?

Some things I have heard of:

mild
-----
take out spare tire, rear seat, a/c, rear interior, exterior trim, sound deadining, carpet
add fiberglass hood, fenders, front end, dash

extreme
--------
remove front and rear bumpers, heater, weld a plate in place of sunroof, completely strip interior(radio,dash,door panels, pass seat)
add fiberglass doors, fiberglass hatch, plexi windows

I want to make my 89 si about 2000lbs full of fuel and with me in it. So thats about 400 to take off, but NIRA minimun is around 1700 I think...

Re:put your car on a diet
 

my 87 crx weights 2000 with me (220 pounds) and gas

with everything in it. and sub woofer and lots of misc ---- all over the place (its a mess)

Re:put your car on a diet
 

ah the 1st gen advantage...

Jeff

Re:put your car on a diet
 

Jeff, you ever put your white CRX on a truck scale when you finished stripping it?

Re:put your car on a diet
 

oh it isnt done getting stripped yet... still working on the doors and other crap.

JEff

Re:put your car on a diet
 

what are you doing to the doors? just cutting stuff out and welding in bars?

you should get those fal windows thats 50 lbs saved, and then there's fiberglass fendes, door, hood / frontend

Did I pretty much mention everything possible to save weight?

Re:put your car on a diet
 

I am cutting the ---- out of the doors, no re-inforcement either.

FAL windows are ------- overpriced, I am making my own from lexan.

Jeff

Re:put your car on a diet
 

ya really, theres no point in buying the FALs, lexan sheets are cheap, and cutting em is easy

Re:put your car on a diet
 

Ah this ones for me!!!

Im building a 69 fiat spider.. Iknow none of you have heard much of them.. Its a turbo project.....
Anyway to lighten it i started by building a custom tubular/channel frame. Used fiberglass front fenders from a company called smoothline. each weighs less than 6 lbs. cost $375 a pop, I made a carbon fiber hood for it. "another story" this weighs less than 11 lbs and cost me $120 to make.. the fenders wrap around the front so the valance is real small. I got one with extra venting in it so its even lighter... Now this car used to sit with the springs somewhat loaded even without the engine in it, it now sits at the top of the coil with out an engine in it. I can lift the car myself from front or back. I also used alluminum diamond plate for all the floorboards, inner fenders, and firewall. ;)

Re:put your car on a diet
 

As far as putting my car on a diet.. that comes after my fat ass.... but anyways... the sound deadening material on the floor is it just used to kill the outside noise. or is it used to insulate the interior cabin and protect it from the heat? (tailpipe runs right under your ass)? whats the best way to remove it? Heat gun and a spoon or just start scraping off chunks while its cold?