MX5 NA8 Weight Cut

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 2:33 pm

greenMachine wrote:If you were serious about this, you would strip the car down, remove every nut and bolt. Cut off every unneeded bracket (marked as you disassembled). Rewire with only absolutely necessary wiring in thin gauge (much $$). Every bolt is shortened to be just long enough to do the job. All brackets drilled for lightness. Windscreen replaced with thinner glass. While the car is stripped, you would get out the hole saw and lighten all non-structural steel. Something to do for the next Christmas holidays ...

All ready started on this. The shell sans windscreen is at 200kg, now to blast and paint then start putting things back in... in the process of having my other car rewired so i will copy that loom.

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:03 pm

RileyR wrote:haha wow!

Greenmachine: Your suggestions are awesome, but a bit too much hassle on a car that I still want to take to the shops. I think my title was misleading and got every one more excited than need be haha.

Yes, I knew I was going a little OTT :lol:

There is a long thread on MT.net along the lines of 'removing weight from a track car', worth a read for anyone looking at losing weight from their car, and has a lot of time on their hands :wink:

.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:35 pm

A BRG NA is worth a premium.

RileyR · Postby **RileyR** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:59 pm

bruce wrote:A BRG NA is worth a premium.

It is the best colour (not biased haha). How would a 170k with fresh full rebuild be worth?

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bruce · Postby **bruce** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 7:38 pm

Some forumites would pay too much for one.

RileyR · Postby **RileyR** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:11 pm

bruce wrote:Some forumites would pay too much for one.

Geez, now I see dollar signs

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RileyR · Postby **RileyR** » Thu Jul 18, 2019 12:54 pm

Subwoofer Amp and Cables (2.44kg) and Boot Carpets and perspex (to protect boot release catch) (2.14) taken out.
Total so far is 5.65kg, 94.35 to go.

Might use some holow flute plastic board (like cardboard but plastic) to protect the boot release catch and hopefully prevent it from getting stuck closed.

Capture1.JPG

Any one use this stuff for anything on their car?

3gress · Postby **3gress** » Thu Jul 18, 2019 10:46 pm

My stripped down door trims are made from the white plastic core flute material from Bunnings.
The boot lid could be replaced for a fibreglass lid.
It is stupid heavy, I procured a US racing sports frp boot lid from REV9. It is impressively light as with the lightyear carbon hardtop. If not running a h/top check how heavy the Frankenstein bolt plates are and replace with 3d printed versions or such.
The boot lid catch and support panel can be removed also if you're getting serious. A bloke called 'Ste' did this to his NA 'panda 2' documented over on clubroadster but I think the pics are gone now. In the epic roadsters section.
Ditch that heavy chunk of cast alloy on the inlet side of engine and fit Jenvey throttle bodies!
Remove the impact bars from behind front/rear bumpers.
Strip down wiring loom to run only the circuits needed. Quite eye opening how much can come out when hvac, stereo, creature comforts are gone.

apsilon · Postby **apsilon** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:11 am

If you decide to start stripping the interior and want to sell anything let me know. Especially interested in the panels over the seat belt towers, rear shelf carpet etc. Basically everything that has to be modified to fit a roll bar.

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:34 pm

Here is what your wiring could be reduced to. This is still operating the normal functions like indicators, lights (high/low), wipers, horn, heated windscreen etc... Still have the loom to the ECU and the Smartwire to be finished.

Engine Loom

2 x Body Looms

RileyR · Postby **RileyR** » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:49 pm

I HATE electrics haha.
That looks so nice and tidy, but there is no way im tackling that.
I helped some mates sort out wiring once and the beers provided hardly cut it haha

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RileyR · Postby **RileyR** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:18 pm

Under carpet insulation came out today (3.25kg). sun visors too (0.50kg).

9.78kg so far.
90.22kg to go

Slow progress, but its great giving the car attention again. Opportunity for a good interior clean today too!

under carpets.JPG

Custardtart · Postby **Custardtart** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:41 pm

If that's a Sparco Sprint it's a steel framed seat and is v, heavy compared to a fibreglass seat.

RileyR · Postby **RileyR** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:42 am

Custardtart wrote:If that's a Sparco Sprint it's a steel framed seat and is v, heavy compared to a fibreglass seat.

Yep 11.5kg with rails

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apsilon · Postby **apsilon** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:27 am

If it helps I weighed the ash tray yesterday and it's 248g. I swapped it out for one of the plastic storage tray/things at only 60g. Yes, my curiosity got the better of me and I weighed them. I've been keeping track of the weight changes of the little mods as I do them. I've taken just over 14kg out so far mostly due to the suspension and exhaust.