Weight reduction bro Options

[Wannabesupra]

I'm new to this forum so hopefully im posting this in the right place. I'm looking to shed a few pounds in my 3sgte swapped 94 Celica st and I'm kinda wondering where to start. I don't want to completely gut the interior since this is gonna be a summer daily.

I figure since the back seats are practically useless in these, taking them out would probably cut down on weight drastically (anyone know how much they weigh?). I've got a leaking gas tank too so ill probably switch to a fuel cell to cut down on weight as well. I may chuck the spare tire too but this is a daily so I'm kinda iffy on that. Anyone have some more suggestions? Thanks!

[bryanf]

Search and you'll find many useful threads.
http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55177
http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=26572

[Box]

The rear seats really don't weight that much, they're just foam and cloth/leather and they insulate the back of the car from road noise significantly. Plus then you can't carry stuff in the cargo area safely since you won't have the rear seat to stop **** from flying forward and hitting you and a passenger in the event of an accident or hard stop. There's more weight in the rear seat belt assemblies anyway, so you could at least remove all of that I guess and if you don't care about road noise could remove the seat bottom for whatever minuscule weight is saved there. Maybe could replace the seat backs with particle board cut to shape if you still want to carry things, but that'd be a lot of work for little if any weight saved. Might as well chunk the doughnut spare since it's long dry rotted by now and replace it with a tire patching kit. Lithium battery as well as Carbon hood and lift gate would save weight without effecting the car negatively, but at a cost. Somewhere else to look into weight could be your rims, 14's are going to be lightest but won't clear some of the bigger brakes. I don't foresee a fuel cell really weighing much less than a fuel tank unless you go smaller, then you run into installation difficulties versus a stock replacement. Ehh, outside of that you're starting to make compromises to how comfortable and livable the car is. You could chunk the A/C(provided it has it), stereo and speakers, as well as the power steering system but now it's a miserable experience driving it unless you just don't care about those things for minimal weight savings. It's not like these cars weigh much to begin with, and any small losses will be barely noticeable in a stock ST much less one with 2-3 times the power in it now. You're better off putting any money that'd go into weight savings into good tires, suspension, and brakes to support the power it has now.

[Wannabesupra]

Fair enough. This may end up just being a weekend car as its already uncomfortable as all hell and loud when it comes to road noise so I'm not too worried about driver comfort haha. And I can't see myself ever putting much in the back since I have a station wagon as a grocerie getter. I totally get what your saying tho, the back seats seem like they'd be heavy but they're probably way lighter than they look. And as far as the fuel cell goes, I'd probably switch to an aluminum one that's less than half the size of the original. I'm likely going to upgrade the fuel system anyways so I'm alright with getting a new pump and whatnot. Gutting a Honda seems to make a world of a difference but maybe the rear seats and whatnot are alot heavier in those lol. Thanks for the info! I may just keep the interior after all.

[Box]

I took mine out once when I was in that age of, well that age where you do stupid things, and between the rear seat and belts it couldn't have been more than 20 pounds with most of that being in the seat belts and hardware. Not really worth it unless you're removing everything else as well, so it all accumulates into something actually meaningful. What happens is you get more noise so you think you're going faster than what you were, kinda the deal with most air intakes and exhausts. If the car is already to the point of miserable then might as well keep going if that's where you're wanting to go with it. Also if you remove the rear seat then you have a giant section of bare(painted) metal between the floor carpet and cargo carpet, though if you're removing all that then I guess it doesn't matter.

[Wannabesupra]

Haha I suppose I'm at that age. for 20 pounds or so I'll probably just leave them in. I figured there was way more weight back there but I guess not. Its gonna be driven pretty often so it would be nice for it to not be any harsher than it already is lol. Once I replace the beat out struts and quiet down some of the rattling trim it should be a bit more tolerable. I think it's gonna be loud either way since I'm driving on ****ty Canadian roads with low profiles. The trunk and hood seem to be heavy as hell too but I'm not willing to spend 2+ grand on carbon haha. I'll just spend that money to do some suspension upgrades and possibly up the power a bit. Thanks for the input!

[bryanf]

I saved about 28 pounds, most of which is unsprung, with coilovers, and I saved about 25 pounds by replacing my exhaust system (including eBay header and Magnaflow cat).

These are my corner weights with full tank of fuel and no occupants, after installing the coilovers but with stock exhaust.

[BonzaiCelica]

i spent countless hours weighing everything. your welcome!

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showto...49858&st=80

[njccmd2002]

Get on a diet