fried_rice

iTrader: (20)

35lbs for the complete assembly. If you just wanted extra light you could remove the entire assembly, rivet the Lexan in and keep sliding shade, like you suggested. Removing the entire assembly is a pain, as you have to remove the headliner.

I welded steel sheet metal in place of mine. I'm not sure if I will replace the steel with carbon fiber or aluminum as I could see it flying off or dislodging into the car if I ever rolled.

sc315

iTrader: (1)

The ecu for air bags is quite girthy haven't got the abs one out yet. Wanting to gut passenger side air bag and reinstall just the cover then upgrade the steering wheel.

fried_rice

iTrader: (20)

All those extra ECU's and wires add up. The complete body harness with all ecu's, and a few misc items was around 70lbs.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I realized today I could remove the front right tie-down hook without removing the wheel well liner and side splash shield like the factory service manual says to do. Just removing the screws holding the splash shield in at the bottom opens up enough room to reach in with a socket and remove the three massive bolts. However, you then have to do some aggressive wiggling to pull the tie-down hook up out of the top side of its opening. It might have been easier to just remove that trim piece that holds it in from the bottom.

Once I had it free, I was amazed how big of a chunk of metal it is. It weighed in at 2 lb 11 oz! I assume the front left is the same size, but I'll probably have to do the full recommended disassembly to get it out, since the oil cooler covers it up.

With all four tie-downs removed, weight savings will be ~10 lbs, with the added bonus of taking slightly more off the front of the car than the back. Not bad for something I've never used and probably never will.

bigwhite

Dont they use those on a roll back tow truck? Granted its items like this that Im always looking for.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Flat bed trailering is the only scenario I can think of that they would be of any use, but considering I've never required a trailer (knock on wood) and they can always use the subframe or axles for short-term tie-downs, it's nothing I'm going to lose sleep over not having.

turbodremz

iTrader: (18)

A GOOD tow truck driver can get away with towing or loading a car without tow hooks. However, 99% of tracks require you have a dedicated tow point, and alot of shops with dyno's prefer factory tow points for the tie-down. Maybe replace the factory steel ones with aftermarket aluminum hooks? I know I have 2 factory ones left on my car, and yes they are heavy.

t2d2, did you get the weight with the bolts, or just the tow hooks/loops?

bigwhite

T2D2, not meaning to burst your bubble. My ECU failed me the other day after making a 45 mile drive. It was running great, then would not restart. Got towed back by a rollback. I like the idea though, seems like aluminum would bend.

turbodremz

iTrader: (18)

A quality aluminum tow hook wont bend, a cheap ebay "I wanna be JDM fanboy" tow hook will bend.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I didn't think about dynos. I've never been to one, and let's be honest, probably never will with the SC unless boosting it, which I don't plan to. It's a good disclaimer for others to be aware of, though.

That weight was with the bolts. For the rear tie-downs, they're 4 lb 4 oz combined with four of the bolts left in for the muffler mounts.

Are the SC's tie-downs even rated for towing? I know they aren't on all cars. The service manual refers to them as transport hooks, which makes me think they're purely tie-downs.

I'll tell them to bring a tow truck. That's most of what I see around here, anyway.

bigwhite

10-4 Rear sub woofer a good 5lbs., along with that crazy cd changer.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Did you weigh the CD changer to see if it really is the reported 10 lbs? I don't have mine to confirm. I replaced the sub with a better aftermarket one, so no weight savings there for me.

I did bump my savings estimate on the Nissan/Enkei donut spare up to 25 lb 1 oz (2.5 lb higher), given how low the tread was on my full size steel spare at the time of weighing, and a fully bald tire of that width supposedly being 4.1 lb lighter than new.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I removed my passenger seat recently and decided the pass. airbag is pointless with no one sitting there. Wait, what? Yes, I now have a three seater. I have a passenger maybe once every 3-4 months, so why lug the extra 59 lbs (estimated) around? They can sit in the back on such an occasion, and it's super easy to get in and out now! And trust me, there's nothing more comfy than a plush bucket seat with the ability to stretch your legs out.

Anyway, I pulled apart the airbag and figured out a way to make the cover and wood trim solid enough to reinstall without the regular mounting points that are part of the airbag itself. There are two plastic clips that hold the pieces together, but in a floppy manner. There's just enough overlap of the two metal sections on the back side to anchor them with a couple of sheet metal screws on either side of both plastic clips.

8 lb 15 oz complete, 1 lb 4 oz gutted = 7 lb 11 oz reduction.

The front pass. seatbelt is likely next, but I'll have to figure out a way to cover the mounting point in a pleasing way.



The angled tabs at the top corners make for a good mounting point. There's a hole in the dash support bar that lines up pretty well with each.




Don't worry, that's not the wood trim I'll be using! At the lower left corner, a couple inches in, you can see the metal tab that the front rests on. Anchoring the back via the two angled tabs thus locks it in nicely.


I need to add a second brace for the left side. I thought the right side brace might be enough, but it can still tip back slightly if you press on it. The front won't go anywhere because there's a metal tab that it rests on. I'll perhaps trim some of the lower metal portion (the "1155" sticker) off that's not serving any purpose.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I did some hood cutting today. For some reason, I remembered you saying you cut 17 lbs out of yours, so when I weighed my net savings at 3.5 lbs, I was a bit underwhelmed. Seeing that the number was actually 10-15 lbs, I feel somewhat better.



Cut #1: 1 lb 11 oz removed from center bracing.




Cut #2: 17 oz removed from front bracing.




Cut #3: 12 oz removed from rear bracing.


I stared at it for a while, formulated a plan for which pieces served no real purpose, then removed them one at a time. It really wasn't all that difficult with a good cutting wheel; almost meditative. The adhesive on this spare hood was quite soft and had actually separated in several of the spots. The bracing really wasn't doing much...

I'm curious what all fried_rice removed to come up with another 7+ lbs, though. Mine seems plenty rigid with those piece removed, but going much further would require very intricate cutting. I figure the perimeter provides most of the strength, and only a few inner braces are needed to maintain the corner integrity.

I'll probably cut another couple pounds out for the hood vent opening, but some of that will get added back in with the fiberglass vent once done. My car is sitting at a theoretical 3433.8 lbs right now (182 lb 4 oz reduction), so swapping the cut up hood on should put it right around 3430.

Edit: This is interesting... The stock hood supposedly weighs 58 lbs. I weighed mine at 56 lb 7, which is about right because I had removed the liner (2 lb 2 oz), struts, and radiator rubber strip. It's not easy to balance such a large object on a postal scale without supporting some of the weight in the process, so any such much measurement is going to be an approximation. After removal of the under-hood bracing and vent cutout (4 lb 9 oz total), and an unknown mass of paint/clear stripped (half of the primer remains), I weighed it again at 44 lb 12 oz. A small amount of that could be attributed to metal shavings that weren't weighed as part of the removed chunks, and the paint/clear could easily add up to a pound or two, but that's still 5+ lbs less than expected. Some will be added back with refinishing, of course, but at ~45 lb post-lightening, it splits the difference between stock and some CF hoods. While I'm skeptical that the difference is as much as 12 lbs, it does feel significantly easier to maneuver.

Edit 2: Back to reality... When I weighed it previously (44.75 lb), it was on a bit of a slope on the side of the house. I had to move the hood to the porch because it started raining, so when I weighed it again today with all the primer removed, it came in at 50 lb 12 oz on a flat surface. An object like that needs to be carefully balanced to not throw off the readings, but the 6 lb discrepancy is surprising. So, that makes it 5 lb 11 oz lighter than it started out, with a net savings of 4 lb 6 oz after the vent is added in. Paint removal and misc. shavings add up to 1 lb 2 oz. That's much closer to what I expected.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Here's another one that I may well be the only person who's thought to measure: '95-96 tail lights are 10 oz (combined) lighter than '92-94s. And since '92-94 accounts for 61% of SCs sold, that's a lot of people that can drop weight with an upgrade. I just had this funny feeling that the newer castings would be lighter despite incorporating an extra bulb. If anyone has a '97-00 driver's side tail light on hand, here's the comparison points:

'92-94 = 4 lb 5 oz
'95-96 = 4 lb 0 oz

Both weighed w/ harness and bulbs.