Fat Car (note no "s" in "fat")
04-02-2007, 06:28 PM
#46
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Update: Well there really isn't any. Just a few pics. I was busy with other things over the weekend. I'll work on a DIY write up to remove this tar junk from the car sometime in the near future.
^^^ You can see the part in the lower left where I dook the tar out with the heat gun. The rest was done with dry ice. Looks much better with the dry ice.
^^ Thats all I have left to do yet. That'll have to be done with the heat gun.
That's what it should look like when I'm done. I think I said it before but the tar over the wheels is actually pretty easy to get off with the heat gun. It must be made differently then the rest.
^^^ You can see the part in the lower left where I dook the tar out with the heat gun. The rest was done with dry ice. Looks much better with the dry ice.
^^ Thats all I have left to do yet. That'll have to be done with the heat gun.
That's what it should look like when I'm done. I think I said it before but the tar over the wheels is actually pretty easy to get off with the heat gun. It must be made differently then the rest.
04-03-2007, 02:03 PM
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Nice work sir.
Hate to say I told you so, but dry ice is #1 for that stuff. Its too bad there is no way to freeze the material on the wheel well, that would make this 100x easier.
As for my removal, I removed all tar from the trunk as well as ALL adhesive. As it looks now you would never know there was any material there. Nice and clean.
I'm doing the material under the rear seat this weekend.
I'd say that the sound deadening removal is the cheapest weight loss mod that there is. You spend $20 on dry ice and lose more to 30lbs throughout the car. Just a wild estimate here, but there should be about 40-45 pounds total including adhesive.
Hate to say I told you so, but dry ice is #1 for that stuff. Its too bad there is no way to freeze the material on the wheel well, that would make this 100x easier.
As for my removal, I removed all tar from the trunk as well as ALL adhesive. As it looks now you would never know there was any material there. Nice and clean.
I'm doing the material under the rear seat this weekend.
I'd say that the sound deadening removal is the cheapest weight loss mod that there is. You spend $20 on dry ice and lose more to 30lbs throughout the car. Just a wild estimate here, but there should be about 40-45 pounds total including adhesive.
04-05-2007, 06:20 PM
#51
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wow this is very cool glad to see someone actually take this serious and weigh everything it is very cool to see that you hit the 200 lbs mark. Now that you have this all out how does the car feel, can you actually feel the difference with the weight loss. Thanks again for charting this so well
04-07-2007, 09:29 AM
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Originally Posted by GWord256
As some of you may already know I'm obsessed with taking some weight off of this car. So this is my first update. I opened up the trunk today and starting ripping **** out. I don't have a before pic but I hope you all know what it looks like in the trunk. I'll post some after pics after this post.
I don't have a postal scale so my bathroom scale was the only thing I had to get results. Using Engineering judgement on this, the loss of weight then comes out to 66 plus or minus 3 pounds.
Thats not bad but I was hoping for more.
I also took a gander under the hood and the only thing I could find was the battery cover and the engine cover. Though I was eyeing up some items items that the car could probably do without. I threw those two items in with a couple other items when I did the weigh in so I'd have to guess they come in under 5 pounds.
Pics to follow.
PS - Please no flaming, this is my car I can do what I want with it.
EDIT: Rate this thread with 5 Stars
I don't have a postal scale so my bathroom scale was the only thing I had to get results. Using Engineering judgement on this, the loss of weight then comes out to 66 plus or minus 3 pounds.
Thats not bad but I was hoping for more.
I also took a gander under the hood and the only thing I could find was the battery cover and the engine cover. Though I was eyeing up some items items that the car could probably do without. I threw those two items in with a couple other items when I did the weigh in so I'd have to guess they come in under 5 pounds.
Pics to follow.
PS - Please no flaming, this is my car I can do what I want with it.
EDIT: Rate this thread with 5 Stars
I once posted a response to a weight saving thread and I was flamed by some jerks. Each guy didn't read my statements properly.
One guy explained, "doesn't make sense that you said buying aftermarket lightweight wheels is a waste of money". Then he said" You don't know what you're talking about etc..." The reason I said that is because my OEM 19" wheels are already lightweight. It doesn't make sense to buy another set of wheels which may be 2-5lbs. lighter than the stock OEM 19" wheels.
This should be a sticky. Before you flame someone's thread or post, READ THEIR ENTIRE MESSAGE.
Another guy just insulted me for my typos. This is a car forum, not a college English composition forum. Then he said "how can I have an intelligent conversation with you". How immature is that?
Anyways, more power to you regarding your weight reduction. I've reduced about ~120lbs on my base coupe which came with no options brand new.
This is what I did which I spend no money to reduce weight in my car:
Bought a base coupe with no options. Weight of car was 3524lbs.
1. Removed all items in the trunk: ~60lbs.
2. Removed all mats which include floor and trunk. ~30lbs.
3. Drive most of the time with a 1/4 tank of gas. ~80lbs.
Car should weigh around ~3350-3400lbs.
In the future I'll start buying lightweight components:
battery, carbon fiber in the interior, exhaust, driver and passenger seats, and the list goes on. Additionally, remove the back seat.
Then I'll have to figure out how to distribute the weight properly!lol
This will be quite a project because I would like to drive it on a track someday.
04-09-2007, 08:51 PM
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Update time:
Basically just some pics on my progress. The fine tar removal processes is comming along (slowly). I came up with an idea on how to avoid putting the visor and holey shat bar back in. I'm going to stop my a hobby store and pick up some black or white leather and basically use double sided tape to cover over the holes in the headliner left over from the visors and "holey ****" handle. I think that should look nice. I'll get a peice of black and white (if they make it) leather and see what looks better. I'd love it if I could just make the whole headliner black to match the rest of the interior but that seems like to much time to me.
^^^ It's starting to look nice and clean vvv
^^^ this is where I want to put the leather patches vvv
Horay for the weather this week. I want to have all this cleaning done on Wedensday then get the oil changed this Thurdays so I don't care if it rains. Horay for DST and the 2+ hours of sunlight after work too!!
P.S. auto cross April 22!!!!!!
EDIT: HAHA I can't even post a link that has "****" in it. Oh well file name changed :-P
Basically just some pics on my progress. The fine tar removal processes is comming along (slowly). I came up with an idea on how to avoid putting the visor and holey shat bar back in. I'm going to stop my a hobby store and pick up some black or white leather and basically use double sided tape to cover over the holes in the headliner left over from the visors and "holey ****" handle. I think that should look nice. I'll get a peice of black and white (if they make it) leather and see what looks better. I'd love it if I could just make the whole headliner black to match the rest of the interior but that seems like to much time to me.
^^^ It's starting to look nice and clean vvv
^^^ this is where I want to put the leather patches vvv
Horay for the weather this week. I want to have all this cleaning done on Wedensday then get the oil changed this Thurdays so I don't care if it rains. Horay for DST and the 2+ hours of sunlight after work too!!
P.S. auto cross April 22!!!!!!
EDIT: HAHA I can't even post a link that has "****" in it. Oh well file name changed :-P
04-10-2007, 07:49 PM
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Update:
Huge win today! I picked up a stiff nylon brush and cleaned the **** out the the car. The brush works GREAT for the tar around the wheel wells, but not so good for the stuff below the seat.
I'm done with it, as you can see there are some spots that I couldn't get to come up. I'm not going to try and scrape them anymore. I just can't get them up.
An intermediate stage of brushing the wheel wells.
After brishing looks good!
Wide angle of the back seat area.
Huge win today! I picked up a stiff nylon brush and cleaned the **** out the the car. The brush works GREAT for the tar around the wheel wells, but not so good for the stuff below the seat.
I'm done with it, as you can see there are some spots that I couldn't get to come up. I'm not going to try and scrape them anymore. I just can't get them up.
An intermediate stage of brushing the wheel wells.
After brishing
looks good!Wide angle of the back seat area.
04-10-2007, 08:15 PM
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Since people keep asking me if I notice the difference.
Short answer: No.
Long answer, I really don't have a base to compare too. I baught the car in November and I've never had the chance to push it hard since I got it. Sure I can rip on the on ramps every so often but thats not a very controlled/consistant situation when I can compare easily. The suspension does feel harder (i.e. bumps are more pronounced) but I can't make a definatle call if that is helping/hurting the handeling.
One important thing to note is that all the weight I've taken out of the car is at or behind the rear wheels. Thats a hit to the Front:Rear weight ratio. Sure any weight you take off the car will help handeling but too odd a ratio can make the car unpredictable. It just so happens that I decided to work from back to front so I hope I can remove a decent amout of weight when I move forward. I know a few items that are going to go that will help significantly but not 200lbs worth of stuff from the front.
EDIT: I just want to make a little note. Using STOCK reported hp of 293 and a STOCK weight of 3524 give a weight
ower of 12.03 Now with 200 pounds removed weightower is 11.34. Do some quick math thats should "feel" like a 17.5 hp gain. Note the "feel" I know i'm not actually adding hp. Just letting you know the numbers.
Short answer: No.
Long answer, I really don't have a base to compare too. I baught the car in November and I've never had the chance to push it hard since I got it. Sure I can rip on the on ramps every so often but thats not a very controlled/consistant situation when I can compare easily. The suspension does feel harder (i.e. bumps are more pronounced) but I can't make a definatle call if that is helping/hurting the handeling.
One important thing to note is that all the weight I've taken out of the car is at or behind the rear wheels. Thats a hit to the Front:Rear weight ratio. Sure any weight you take off the car will help handeling but too odd a ratio can make the car unpredictable. It just so happens that I decided to work from back to front so I hope I can remove a decent amout of weight when I move forward. I know a few items that are going to go that will help significantly but not 200lbs worth of stuff from the front.
Originally Posted by ZXERT
Gword can you give us some driving impressions with all of that weight removed? How does it feel in the corners?
ower of 12.03 Now with 200 pounds removed weightower is 11.34. Do some quick math thats should "feel" like a 17.5 hp gain. Note the "feel" I know i'm not actually adding hp. Just letting you know the numbers.
Last edited by GWord256; 04-10-2007 at 08:27 PM.