weight savings

[errjam]

how much weight can be easily taken out of the festiva
or
how much does the backseat/ pasenger seat weigh,
thoughts?
and buttometer diference...
also, opening up the airbox/ exhaust
just noise?

[TominMO]

1. how much weight can be easily taken out of the festiva
2. how much does the backseat/ pasenger seat weigh
3. opening up the airbox/ exhaust--just noise?

1. Depends on how far you want to go; what you intend to do with the car. Even if you pulled all glass, the doors, the hatch itself, and removed the bumpers, you would only lighten it ~300 lbs. The roof only weighs about 10 lbs. Most of the car's weight is in the unibody and the functional parts.
2. Pulling the rear seat will lighten it ~30 lbs. Passenger seat, 20 lbs. I doubt you would feel a difference until you made it 100 lbs lighter, or more.
3. Opening up the airbox will help the motor breath at higher rpms, say 4000+; I would imagine the same can be said for the exhaust.

These are just short answers; someone else can contribute with more knowledge and detailed explanations.

For most people in most situations, the answer is not less car, it's more motor.

[meyek91974]

All the info above is true. Further, I have to ask your end goal? If simply having the lightest weight car aside of riding a motorcycle the Festiva is a great platform. You can remove the carpet and shake can some clearcoat to lighten a hopeful five pounds. Remove the back seat to drop thirty-ish. Remove the passenger sear for another hopeful twenty. Bumpers are plastic and foam, but that'll get you ten to fifteen and then you're adding five pounds of fiberglass shaved, stub bumpers. A pull-off fiberglass front clip replacing the fenders and hood will knock down a hopeful thirty-fourty. Next, cut it to be a convertible taking it down to window lines and a uni-layer vinyl top will cut the most thusfar. Also, get aluminum rims in leu of steelies. And, if you're really into it, get a lithium battery. Now, THAT'S a light weight car. She would've dropped some pounds and bought new yoga pants!
Also, if performance or fuel economy is the focus, drill the hole in the air box and vent it to cold outside air as cold air is dense and leads to greater combustion in the chamber. Replace the air filter for K&N. Get either thinwall aluminum or molded plastic tubing to replace the accordian-tube intake, dropping the resonator and polishing the inner walls for faster air flow. Then paint this white as black absorbs heat which in turn heats the air. Also, reroute the windshield washer sprayer to mist the intake and fill the reservior with crushed ice the day you want speed as the ice will have a prolonged melt time giving you available cold water periodically over hours. And, replace the exhaust with a 2.5"-3" exhaust with the least bend to a flowmaster for greatest exhalation.
That's my two cents. What do you guys think? What are y'alls ideas?

[firebush357]

Remove the entire Drivetrain and cut a hole in the floor for your feet.

[TominMO]

Remove the entire Drivetrain and cut a hole in the floor for your feet.

And wear flip-flops; lightest shoes possible. Or duct-tape the bottoms of your feet.

[errjam]

ALL OF THIS !!!
WHOOT

All the info above is true. Further, I have to ask your end goal? If simply having the lightest weight car aside of riding a motorcycle the Festiva is a great platform. You can remove the carpet and shake can some clearcoat to lighten a hopeful five pounds. Remove the back seat to drop thirty-ish. Remove the passenger sear for another hopeful twenty. Bumpers are plastic and foam, but that'll get you ten to fifteen and then you're adding five pounds of fiberglass shaved, stub bumpers. A pull-off fiberglass front clip replacing the fenders and hood will knock down a hopeful thirty-fourty. Next, cut it to be a convertible taking it down to window lines and a uni-layer vinyl top will cut the most thusfar. Also, get aluminum rims in leu of steelies. And, if you're really into it, get a lithium battery. Now, THAT'S a light weight car. She would've dropped some pounds and bought new yoga pants!
Also, if performance or fuel economy is the focus, drill the hole in the air box and vent it to cold outside air as cold air is dense and leads to greater combustion in the chamber. Replace the air filter for K&N. Get either thinwall aluminum or molded plastic tubing to replace the accordian-tube intake, dropping the resonator and polishing the inner walls for faster air flow. Then paint this white as black absorbs heat which in turn heats the air. Also, reroute the windshield washer sprayer to mist the intake and fill the reservior with crushed ice the day you want speed as the ice will have a prolonged melt time giving you available cold water periodically over hours. And, replace the exhaust with a 2.5"-3" exhaust with the least bend to a flowmaster for greatest exhalation.
That's my two cents. What do you guys think? What are y'alls ideas?

[Team Lightning]

As light as the front fenders are, not sure you would save any weight by making them fiberglass

[blake4591]

There really isn't a ton of opportunity to get more weight out. Ditching the power belts if you have them is probably one of your best options. Other than that I pulled the rear seat, the radio, antenna, speakers, and all the A/C parts. Also the 93 and possibly other years have extra bracing under the dash that could be removed but it's there to improve crash test results.

[Advancedynamix]

The back hatch weighs quite a bit. if you want a quick way to see what the car is like with less weight in the wrong spot, remove the rear hatch, rear bumper, rear seat, spare tire, Jack, and rear carpet. That will probably all add up to nearly 200lbs off the rear of the car (which is the worst place to have weight on these cars).
Edit: maybe less than 200lbs, but it's a good way to judge if you want to go to any more trouble for a featherweight car. You can take all that off and put it back on easily with a Sunday afternoon to spare.

[Greywolf]

I wonder what it would save by replacing the rear side glass and hatch glass with plexi?

[mikemounlio]

I wonder what it would save by replacing the rear side glass and hatch glass with plexi?

I have been thinking this very same thing

[Icedawg]

I wonder what it would save by replacing the rear side glass and hatch glass with plexi?

A fair amount is saved by those steps. Charlie points out how much the rear hatch weighs, and most of that is the window in the hatch. Easily 20 lbs there, maybe a bit more. 3-5 lb in each side window.

Another high weight reduction comes from the window retraction mechanism in each door. More than the glass itself, around 10 lb each. And the windows just over 5 each.

Another 20 lbs or so from the front window.

The dash only weighs 3 lb or so, and anything you fabricate to support instruments and climate controls will weigh almost as much. But if you take out the heater core & blower then remove the dash there is about 12 lb

[harpon]

Always have taken the back seat out first thing- I'm single and its just in that way. I can always tell the difference-

I've taken the passenger seats out before too- hardly anyone ever in one- And you CAN telll the difference in acceleration and handling they weigh more than 20 pounds- more like 50 I think- I've seriously considered putting an aluminum beach chair there on the chance I might carry a passenger or to rest my arm on. I saw Le Mans on TV again last week- big film for me in high school in Indianapolis- I want one of those Gulf Porsche seats they take in and out for each driver!

Road cyclist for 14 years in my youth- we used to obsess over every few ounces- I do the same with my motorized bikes- try to stay light and get the best practical roll
"An ounce off the wheels is like two off the frame" we used to say- rotating weight has a gyroscopic magnified effect- aero-bike wheels are TRASH for anything but time trial- twice the steel-

Sure you can look at the total weight of the car and say it's all very little, but we have SMALL motors and so then every bit of gas and fluids needs extra steel, and it's all on the brakes and shocks constantly, the clutch and tranny move it from a standing start over and again and the brakes have to stop it all. The tires wear faster with more weight. I personally try to keep it light- luckily the engineering was of that mind from the beginning.

Some vehcles have huge motors and can't get out of their own way because they need a bigger frame, bigger mounts, and more fluids on board- and so then bigger brakes shocks wheels and tires- a diminishing return sometimes- twice the motor doesn't equate to twice the power and certainly not the same mpg.



The "Chinese Junk"

[theastronaut]

Lexan is half the weight of glass for the same thickness. I plan on swapping all of my glass except the windshield out for hard coated lexan. The windshield will will have some weight loss as well but it'll still be glass... Also planning on taking the window regulators out and substituting a pull strap with snaps to hold the window up.

I've already removed the rear seat but I left in the spare and jack in case I have a flat. Eventually I'll cut out the recess for the spare tire and make a flat aluminum floor. The current wheels are 14x5.5 "polycast" steel wheels with a plastic face molded on. I could lose a fairly substantial amount of weight by swapping to lighter 13" aluminum wheels.

[firebush357]

If you are going to go to those kind of measures for weight reduction you should invest in an angle grinder. They are like $15 at Harbor Freight and like $3 for a pack of cutoff discs. Start hacking any interior sheet metal that doesn't offer structural integrity. There is about 3-5 pounds of metal brackets that hold the exhaust manifold from flexing or something that aren't really needed. Take out any remnants of an AC system. Drill out the back seat support braces. Pull the Glove box out. Take all the speakers and stereo out. Find the Lightest Battery you can use to start the car with. Get rid of the window washer reservoir. Tear all the Carpet out. Get rid of any Wiring you don't need etc...