help with lightening up my hatch

Hey, yet another thread started by the n00b :smile:

Was wondering what all you guys have / know of to do to lighten up yer car. I specifically have a 92 DX Hatch. Even better yet, what kinda stuff is there in that car that I haven't found that I can / would be willing to rip out for free or next to nothing?

All-in-all: I'm looking any and all lightweight mods and perhaps an estimate of cost for the change.

Cheers:bloated:

Will it still be your daily driver? If not, or you don't care, strip EVERYTHING except the necessities. Take out all carpet, seats, plastic panelling, spare tire, and if your ballsy get some plexy windows. They make some which actually look like stock windows but are a hell of a lot lighter. Glass is very heavy. You could also use a hammer and chisel to take off that black tar-like shit (it's for sound dampening, thicker on the EX/Si models) for a ~15 lb loss. For every 100 lbs taken off you will gain .1 seconds in the 1/4. It's not hard to take things out, just start stripping away and no you don't really have to buy lighter parts.

Well I replaced alot of parts on my 2000 Honda Civic Si: intake, exhaust, headers, suspension, wheels, tires, brakes, no spare tire and jack, and then added two amps in the back. Stock the car weighs 2612lbs. Now my car weighs about 2512lbs (without me of course).

Taking out the A/C, power steering might next you about another 70lbs. Carbon fiber hood is about 35lbs lighter than stock, racing seats shave off 5-20lbs depending on the model, carbon fiber fenders about 30-60lbs.

I was going to mention the a/c and power steering but didn't know if it's going to be a daily or not. Do it all at once to notice a significant difference, but realize the carbon fiber swaps are a bit pricey.

Its a daily driver like mad (tons of interstate drivin :frown: ). Once I get the $$$ I'm planning on c-fibering the thing to all hell since I figure I'll get better gains in dropping the weight than doing a nice intake (I have a pvc one now :tongue: ) and stuff until I get a swap... I'm wondering tho, will I see any gains in getting plastic parts replaced with c-fiber or is that just a looks thing at that point (ie stock rear spoiler with spoon c-fiber / spoon c-fiber mirrors)?

Side note Ricochet: this weekend my buddy and I were ripping stuff outta my engine bay (heatshield / old plastic stuff from the intake I didn't need etc) and I saw that black shit and we scraped some off, but stopped b.c we were worried it would make the car prone to rust... any worries there? Keep in mind I live in friggin Wisconsin :loser:

oh, another thing, how can I weigh my car? I was looking at one of those big Cat scales for semi's but the read out is like fucking 12 ft in the air and I haven't gotten the courage to ask the ox of a woman if I can weigh my friggin honda civic on the beast... how have other peeps done this?

I've never weighed my car. That black crap I was talking about is on the inside of the car under the carpet, don't scrape off the bottom underside coat...

Oh shit lol, thanks :tongue: glad you replied before I went to town on what I was talking about after work today lol, so I need to rip up all my carpet to do that? I may skip that just to keep what little I have blocking road noise still there tho... my car is loud as hell as it is; creeps my friends out b.c they hear so much of what's happening 5" below their feet :lol:

I wouldn't tear out too much, being a daily driver and all. Carbon fiber is a hell of a lot lighter than the huge piece of metal covering your engine right now. For cheaper you could get a fiberglass hood too which you can lift with your pinky, literally. I think they cost $300? I've seen cf hoods at $500. cf is high maintenance too.

know anything about c-fiber vs. plastic though? as the case is with my mirrors and spoiler thing?

eh, just for looks there. You might save .1 lbs...

I know someone who does corner weighing and alignments so he has scales that I use.

There's a place in town here that has a free scale for trucks and cars.

lucky sob... I wanna know my weight so bad

that black stuff under the rug is very easily taken out if done correctly... get a few bags of dry ice if you have access to any and put it on top of the panel with the tar stuff on it... after it sits for a while you can scrape it off in large pieces with a stiff blade putty knife

what do you have to do to maintain carbon fiber?

how much work does it take to clear out the interior to do that and how loud is the car afterwards? I'm big on my carstereo so I don't want too much road noise (I was even thinking of increasing the weight of my car for dynamat as it is). Also, where can I get dry ice lol? Finally, ditto on the c-fiber upkeep. What does that take
:smile: :tongue: :rolleyes: :frown: :mad: :redface: :wink: :eek: :confused:

if you want to keep road noise low then do NOT take out the tar sound proofing... dynamat is good stuff I need some of that right now...

lol :cwm27: so it gets pretty loud huh? you seem pretty adamant that I don't do it :tongue: DynaMat is pretty weighty isn't it? B.c I'd be doing the whole friggin car, especially floor and firewall... (if that's possible)

well it would be going against what you are looking for pretty hard. it sounds like if anything you want your car to have less road noise not more. i stripped out a 1986 Mazda RX7 and there was probably 25 or more pounds of that stuff inside of it but that was different. i was tearing all of the interior out of it anyway. if you are wanting to keep the carpet and things like that in the car let me just say that that stuff comes out MUCH easier than it goes back in and yes you will get extra road noise if you take out the tar.

anyone out there know what the weight diff would be if I replaced the tar with dynamat?

I'll prolly do that if I really get bonkers with the shit... no reason for that much redundacy in my baffling

I wouldn't bother with the tar stuff if I were you since it's a daily driver, it will look so friggin ugly with no interior... Just leave it alone and don't bother. If you were stripping the entire car and making it a race only vehicle you should do it, but the cost of having a disgusting interior will make it only about .5 - 1 second faster in the 1/4. Not worth it for a daily driver.

Originally posted by Ricochet
I wouldn't bother with the tar stuff if I were you since it's a daily driver, it will look so friggin ugly with no interior... Just leave it alone and don't bother. If you were stripping the entire car and making it a race only vehicle you should do it, but the cost of having a disgusting interior will make it only about .5 - 1 second faster in the 1/4. Not worth it for a daily driver.

a whole second faster jsut for stripping the interior? thats pretty huge isnt it?

I ran a 17.5 in my DX and by taking out the rear and passenger seats I ran a 17.1. Who knows maybe it was just a better run, but I'm sure stripping the entire interior would do more than that.

Anybody look at the Super Street about a year ago where they stripped that Nissan SpecV down to nothing but an engine and chassis? It went from running 16's stock to low 14's.

Originally posted by Ricochet

Anybody look at the Super Street about a year ago where they stripped that Nissan SpecV down to nothing but an engine and chassis? It went from running 16's stock to low 14's.

Seen it. Bad ass article.

Originally posted by moleodonuts
Keep in mind I live in friggin Wisconsin :loser:

hey now what the hell is wrong with wisconsin. u live in madison huh? i live in appleton. maybe u have heard of it? in 2 months i am moving to platteville, about an hour west of madison. maybe i will come visit?

as long as you clear your nos out of your eyes like in your avatar, I'm here and waiting:biggrin:

Originally posted by moleodonuts
as long as you clear your nos out of your eyes like in your avatar, I'm here and waiting:biggrin:

lol, anyway yeah give me a holler in like 2 moths when i am not far away, because an hour drive or less is better then a 2 and a half hour drive from appleton.

aight, can-do... btw where the heck you go cruisin in appleton?!?:sly:

we cruise down the main road, but most of the cool people drive up to green bay to cruise. we got kicked out of 2 parking lots last week, but then we went to a wal-mart there and i work at a wal-mart and i talked to a manager and he said it would be cool if we chilled in their parking lot, cops showed up said go talk to the managers if ya want they did, then cops left.


y u wanna come cruise around with me and my boys?

If I remember right for every 100lbs you shave off it's like 2/10ths to 1/2 second off your 1/4 mile times.

For every 100hp it's .5 second quicker or so.

I forget where I saw that.

The interior and tar comes out to like 40lbs only not a huge savings. Sport Compact Car did an interior strip of a 2000 Honda Civic Si couple of years ago. Stereo, heat shields, interior, tar, seats, A/C, power steering - and that came to around 112lbs.

:tongue: I was just curious, don't do much cruisin with my car... it really blows (check the mods and add 2 holes in the fenders from rust, white paint and a 4" deep dent from where my sister hit my car msome rusty rims, and some squeaky, brakes... its bad :headshake :thumbsdown:

fri I get my paycheck and get some repair work done and then in another 2 weeks the thing will be in tip top shape and rdy for me to start actually customizing it :bloated: then I'll consider cruisin without fear of getting laughed at all the time