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Weight Reduction
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| I
once heard that a good rule of thumb is that every six pounds of weight
reduction is like adding an additional horsepower. So, weight
reduction is often-times one of the most cost-effective
"power-adders" you can employ. My current goal is to get the
Coupe down to 2500 lbs (as modified including all required safety gear:
cages, harnesses, driveshaft loop, etc). This page will detail the ongoing
battle to get the weight down...
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I never got a weight on the
car new, but suffice to say that it was quite a bit heavier then than it
is now... A couple of years ago, I removed the heat and air conditioning
systems from the car which netted a significant weight savings.
Click HERE
for an image of all the stuff that was removed (not including the wiring
which was removed later).
Over the last couple of years,
I've picked at the weight here and there.... deleted the door lock
actuators, some of the sound/vibration damping material, etc.
I have replaced the power
steering rack and steering shaft with manual parts from Flaming River.
Besides these parts being somewhat lighter, the manual steering conversion
allowed me to delete the power steering pump with its associated plumbing,
the huge aluminum bracket assembly, and the serpentine belt tensioning
assembly. I replaced all of this with the alternator brackets from a '91
Ranger (upper and lower). I weighed all the components involved in the
swap at the time and remember it being a rather significant front end
weight reduction, but of course, I've misplaced the figures since. I'll
try to keep better records from now on. 
Updates are in reverse
chronological order... |
02/23/2003
- Got the rest of the tar-based sound deadener removed from the driver's
side... Still need to do a lot of work to remove the rest of the seam
putty from the interior in preparation for welding all the seams, but the
work today reduced weight another 9.75 pounds... That makes the
sound deadener total to date about 36.75 pounds... not counting what was
under the carpet and in the fender wells... No picture, as it would
have looked remarkably similar to the other picture of a pile of tar-based
sound deadener.  |
| 02/22/2003
- Re-wired the power windows et al. to eliminate all the switches and
wiring on the doors. I moved the driver's door switches to the
center over the trans tunnel and eliminated the passenger's side switches
altogether. This netted and additional 10.2 ounce weight reduction. When I
get the door opening solenoids installed, I will be able to eliminate the
door handles and inside door latch actuators. This will make it posible to
use a simple blank door panel... much cleaner and lighter... |
| 02/13/2003
- been a while since the last update, but let me see if I can bring this
page up to date.
A while back, I began pairing down the
wiring harness to eliminate the "unnecessary" wiring, switches,
accessories, etc. I finally got back to it this past week. It is a
painstaking process. I refer to the "Electrical and Vacuum
Troubleshooting Manual" to verify each circuit that I want to change;
then modify it one wire at a time (remove/re-route); then document the
change on a scanned page from the manual.
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 The
reason it took me so long to get back to the wiring harness work is that I
dreaded removing the dash cover and support frame.... that alone
took me hours. You simply can't do an adequate job with it in place. Over
several days, I was able to finish the basic removal portion of the job
and re-route a few things. I still have many things I WANT to do to
the harness, but to date, I have removed 12.25 lbs of wiring switches,
unused electrical components, and other electrical flotsam from the
car. Check out the image (a large image is linked from the smaller
one): |
 Since
the dash is history (no weight figure for it yet), it seemed a good time
to remove the firewall and upper cowl blankets.... an additional
reduction of 15.25 lbs. Note that the image reflects some additional
electrical items that didn't make it into the bag above.
I had to remove the pedal assembly to get
all of it, but it was worth it. i needed practice at the task since
I will be doing some clutch, brake, and accelerator mods in the near
future. |
 Here
is where the weight savings start to add up (another 11.75 lbs). The
image at left shows the pile of tar-based sound deadener that I removed
from the passenger side of the car from the firewall to the trunk
(inclusive). It constitutes a little more than half of the remaining
damping materials as I went past the mid-line of the trans tunnel.
Additionally, I did a "first pass" at removing the seam putty
from the passenger's side of the car...
A heat gun and a putty knife are the main
tools, but a rag soaked in mineral spirits is great for cleaning up the
adhesive left behind by the black stuff. Nice clean fresh gay primer
under there. |
04/11/2002
- Pulled out a bunch of the interior today.... More will come out later.
Don't have a weight loss figure as I don't know whether this is a
permanent pull or not. I may replace the interior with stock parts, may
fabricate custom glass/carbon fiber parts, or may leave it bare... Just
haven't decided. This is what I removed today:
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Front
Headliner to Windshield Molding
LH A-Pillar Molding
RH A-Pillar Molding
Left side headliner molding
Right side headliner molding
LH kick panel
RH kick panel
LH Door edge plate
RH Door edge plate
LH quarter window panel
RH quarter window panel |
LH
upper seat belt mount cover
RH upper seat belt mount cover
Rear headliner to back windshield molding
Rear seat bottom
Rear seat back w/ bolts
LH rear seatbelt set
RH rear seatbelt set
Rear deck cover
3rd brake light housing assembly w/ mounting hardware
LH coat hanger hook support bracket (under qtr window panel)
RH coat hanger hook support bracket (under qtr window panel) |
| 04/09/2002
- I pulled the front clip off today so that I could drop the fenders (driver/passenger).
I removed the A/C vacuum reservoir and the external FM antenna (see
pic). I also removed the washer reservoir from the driver's
side (see pic).
All together (pic),
I managed to shed 8.25 lbs today in a little under an hour and a
half. Not bad. |
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04/08/2002 - Today, I
managed to get over to the public scales and finally got a weight ticket
to document the "starting' weight. As of this morning, the car weighs
2760 lbs (+/- 20 lbs). Click HERE
for an image of the weight ticket. Quite a bit above our goal weight of 2500
lbs, so I'll have to get to work. |
