Weight Reduction

[JoshSI]

I didnt know where to put this thread so administrators can move this whereever but hpoefully this thread will be very useful in the future.....



What exactly can we get rid of to make our cars significantly lighter? I dont want to tear out my interior though. Ditch the steering wheel airbag assembly, headrests, spare tire, CF hood, lighter wheels, etc. Lets get this going guys.....


Josh

p.s. Hopefully we can get some good info in here and maybe get this stickied!

[Suk02Si]

sound deadening(not sure how much weight) and sunroof(about 80lbs on the 99-00 Si)

[fishboy]

you know what i'd like to see... a carbon fiber replacement for the sunroof. what do you guys think?

yeah i'd pull the spare tire out and get a carbon fiber hood. yeah on the sound deadening materials also, i heard thats about 20 plus pounds. oh and lose some weight that's a good way too. i guess the headrests in the back if you want to save that .5 lbs.:) i took them out so i can see better and have those mad weight savings at the same time. best mod i ever did.

[JoshSI]

Where are all the sound deading parts located?

[k20ASi]

drive with the back seats folded down for lower center of gravaty

[BlasTech]

A CF Sunroof "plug" would be cool. A TypeR roof would be good too.

TheOldOne ( an old-school honda tuner ) uses Marguard Lexan to replace the rear quarter windows...its a lightweight lexan material made by GE...thats all I know at this point. Supposed to be easy to form to the windows shape... Maybe the sunroof glass could be replaced with that, or another semi-transparent lightweight material.

When my HELMS manual arrives, I want to look for some parts that could be replaced with aluminum or CF, (or Titanium after DocOfMind lends us some serious $$$). Which reminds me, there are some lightwieght brakes out there too, which is a good place to save weight, right?

It would be cool to drop 200 lbs. off the EP.

[!@#$%]

an avg driver dropping 200 lbs is like me dropping anywhere between 240-290. i only weigh 110. im definitely looking into lighter brakes, other than the windows, this seems to be a heavy feature. also the rims im gonna get will be 17'' 12.5 lbs so that will shave close to forty off of my current 23 lb adr's. I must compliment these with 215/45 falken azenis. I wonder how much our stock hood weighs? would weight reduction be a big enough factor for buying a cf hood since ours is so small?

[BlasTech]

Also has anyone heard of a super-lightwieght race battery?
I've looked a little, but not seen any yet...though I've heard of them...

[Skidtron89]

You stock hoods are pretty light I know CF is much lighter but the weight of the car isn't in the hood. I would like to see you guys take out all teh sound deadening and weigh it. Come on someone out there wants a rawer sounding car! I did it to mine although mine is 14 years old and it really didn't get that much louder but you can hear theengine a lot better so If you don't like to hear the engine then don't do it or you'll regret it. I would guess there was near 50lbs of sound deadening in my car from the tar on the floor of the chasis to the rubber mat under the dash and on the firewall and some mat stuff in the engine bay on the firewall supposedly there for fires???? I don't know about that as it burned fine when I took it off and held my lighter to it to test it out. I think it was just to help deaden sound personallly. Also the trunk has lots of useless stuff in it usually. Not spare tire but boards and carpet and what not. All I have ia a spre tire a jack and it's tools the stock carpet is kind of laying over it. Also my battery is not in my trunk. I have gutted the back of my car one time and even on my car which is about 3-400lbs lighter than yours I could tell the difference. If I go with a roll cage I will eliminate all of the rear interior to compensate for the weight added by the cage. Just thoughts and a bit of info for you guys hope it helps.

[FailureToStop]

drive with the back seats folded down for lower center of gravaty LOL...:) You could also drive around like those cholos or cruisers --- recline your seat to about halfway down while you are driving. This would also lower your cg and increase your cars cornering ability. :rolleyes:

[I_VTEC]

Take the damned back seat entirely out. I guarantee it's 30+ lbs. If it's only you in the car, take out the passenger seat and track, that's 25+ lbs. Have CivicSiR (bret) make you a carbon fiber sunroof panel, and seal it all up. Take out the power window and door motors and switches. Take out the radio and a/c if you are that desperate for being cheap.

Andrew

[Skidtron89]

I like steamed rice I_VTEC

[BlasTech]

Originally posted by I_VTEC
Take the damned back seat entirely out. I guarantee it's 30+ lbs.


I've been seriously considering this, since no passengers have been in my back seat for months, now....but I cant figure out how to get rid of the rear seat backs!!!! IF YOU KNOW, PLEASE TELL US!!! anyone?


:o

[ADAMnQuickCIVIC]

Why bother, I'm 6'6" 320 lbs...
Not like saving 50, even 100 lbs will make that much of a difference.
My only option is going tube-frame :rolleyes:

[I_VTEC]

The entire rear seat, bracketry, seat backs, bottoms. Look under it, and get your wrench out.

[BlasTech]

OK, Ive gotten the rear seat bottom out with the 10mm socket, but all I can see now is the 60/40 connection joint, which is utterly inpenetrable, and.... there's a long piece of body-painted metal that everything looks bolted to...it goes all the way across, and it looks bolted down to the body... is that what you mean?

[BlasTech]

Originally posted by ADAMnQuickCIVIC
Why bother, I'm 6'6" 320 lbs...
Not like saving 50, even 100 lbs will make that much of a difference.
My only option is going tube-frame :rolleyes:

Im a hunnert and forty poun sokin wet, but dammit IM WIREY!!!
;)

[Skidtron89]

I don't know how to do them on your but a lot of honda split seats have little spacers that snap onto the ends of the bar the seat pivots on. They are between the seat backs and the rear interior. You would pop those off allowing you to slide the seat outboard just enough to come of the center pivot point. Then twist and lift them out. Like I said I have no idea how to do the new ones but that's common on older Hondas.

[FailureToStop]

Blastech,

Get the instructions for installing the CD changer. It tells/shows you how to get the rear seats out. Once you do, please post on how much they weigh.

http://www.collegehillshonda.com/instructions/02si/cdchanger.pdf

[SiRman]

Hey blastech, checkout AJ Racing (http://www.aj-racing.com/) , look under T1R in the products section, they list a battery
that is claimed to be 50% lighter.

[IceD out N CALI]

Originally posted by SiRman
Hey blastech, checkout AJ Racing (http://www.aj-racing.com/) , look under T1R in the products section, they list a battery
that is claimed to be 50% lighter.

I jus checked that out, 13.5 lbs is not bad. I wonder how long they last though

[BlasTech]

Originally posted by FailureToStop
Blastech,

Get the instructions for installing the CD changer. It tells/shows you how to get the rear seats out. Once you do, please post on how much they weigh.

http://www.collegehillshonda.com/instructions/02si/cdchanger.pdf

Wow that's what just I was looking for! THANKS!!!

[02blksi]

Man, you are already ripping apart your interior???

Thats Hardcore. --Joe :)

Who learned his lesson last time he did the "weight" reduction route. and trying to make people sit on bare metal and no backs ---LOL

[BlasTech]

I've only used the back seat twice sine june!
But mostly Im just curious... tinkering...

[SPEEDEP]

Pay the big bucks and get a titainum exhaust. try to loose some drag from the rear bumper by adding a defuser. You can alwas try some rebar removal if your not scared to get REARENDED AND KILLED. Got to have balls to go fast. Got to have cash to go fast in style!!!!:D

[redronin22]

does anyone make titanium exhuast for our cars yet? i dont think so. but that would be friggin sweet. save a butt load of weight.

as far as weight savings go, find one of those skinny lil azn chics like the one i got. haha she saves weight. Come to think of it im pretty thin to (140) so combined we weigh 240 give or take a lb. hmm if i dont take her to dinner a few nights a week i might be able to shave off a few lbs. =-)

spare tire:
jack:

[BlasTech]

OK so here's some wieght shaving data I've collected so far, but first, a word about my weighing technique...

Using a household scale on a level spot in my garage, I first made sure the scale was calibrated using 10 and 20 lb dumbells. When measuring parts, I would stand on the scale, then hold the part above my head, then subtract the difference...for instance, I measure 140 alone, if I hold something over my head and get a reading of 149, I can estimate 9 lbs for that part. It's not atomic physics, but it is close enough for this kind of thing...now on with the numbers:

Jack: 4 lbs

Spare Tire: 26 lbs

Upper deck tray, cargo floor board, and cargo floor matt: 5 lbs (really!)

Rear butt cushion: 9 lbs (feels lighter, but the numbers are there)

Right Rear 60% seat back: 26 lbs (the center shoulder harness hardware is inside there)

Left Rear 40% seat back: 14 lbs

TOTAL: 84 lbs. (give or take a couple)

Though I'm going to put it all back together for now, there's at least another 10-15 lbs of seatbelt hardware and misc. back there that would now be unneccessary. That would make almost 100 lbs. for quick-gutting the rear end of the ep hatch, leaving the sound-tar and the speakers in tact. take out the speakers, and get more...and so on...

Replacing the rear butt cushion, and leaving the backs out is an option that will retain some passenger seating back there for 9 lbs. (they'll still have roof handles to hang onto!) Another thing to think about is a custom, light-weight way to cover the back end up and make it look presentable (lightly padded wall-to-wall carpet or even CF?)

Well, I've got a mess to clean up!

[BlasTech]

BTW I took it for a drive... theres a little elecrical whine, some not-unpleasant exhaust note, and pronounced tire noise on sharp turns...and turning feels easier...

It would be great if an experienced autoxer tried this out for a more refined opinion.

[SPEEDEP]

JIC will come out with a titanium exhaust just wait!!!!!

[BlasTech]

This is totally unsafe and goofy, but you could replace the rear seat backs (40 lbs.) with something like this:

http://home.austin.rr.com/dmcknight/lightseat.jpg

:eek: a human cargo net!












:rolleyes:

[william]

This is totally unsafe and goofy, but you could replace the rear seat backs (40 lbs.) with something like this:


HA HA HA:D :D

Thats harsh man. But funny as hell! First off, there is no way i would ever compromise passenger safety. If i ever took out the seat back, or seat belts, or what have you, i would at least not risk someones safety. But that's an awsome post about the actual weight of the stuff in the back. Next time i go autoxing, i'm taking out my spare!



human cargo net.....HA!

[CRV440]

Buy some Run-Flat tires like the Mini Cooper has, and you can ditch the spare tire and jack.

[2k2SiAutoXer]

does anyone have the weight on our front seats, and the weight on some aftermarket ones?
--Tom

[jo3y]

i saw a 98-00 Si with the complete interior from behind the front seats back. you could see into his trunk from the drivers seat - it looked cool, a very hard core look - but he solved the interior cosmetic issues by giving his windows a healthy shade of limo timt