I'm starting to get some junk out of my car. Give me anything that can be removed with a cut-off blade and some work, that isnt too important. and perferably nothing that will hinder handling too hard. *I dont have much to spare*

 

kinda hard to say with your vague post but uhh..

spare tire well, cut it out, weld in a flat piece of sheet metal. probably drop 20'ish pounds doing so.

 

yes thank you paradox. if you need any answers to any questions, to help you post, ask. but manly whats anything i can take out to drop weight?

 

get rid of passenger seat, wipers, rear glass, doors, tail lights, anything with bolts, will be light in no time!

 

lol (looking to keep street legal)

 

after removing interior parts, spare tire, jack, sound proofing there isnt really much you can remove to take off weight unless you start replacing stock parts like the windows with lexan. im not sure how serious you are about this.

as for the engine, remove all emissions, heater, heater core, air pump, a/c, etc. use the lightest wheels you can find.

things like racing seats are only going to gain you weight, when mazda made these cars they made everything just about as light as possible, minus the fact the shells are made out of steel and are heavy. its highly possible to get a FB at the 2000lb area, even less with a SA.

none the less, finding another RWD car with a great weight ratio for the price you can pickup a FB is next to impossible
g'luck

 

thank you. and whats the difference between SA and FB i always thought SA is just a different code. the japanese one i thought. is the japanese version lighter or something?

 

SAs as they are referring to them are the '79 and '80 models. They are lighter than the FBs which are the '81 to '85 models. Mazda switched to the FB designation in '81 for their American imported first gens because the U.S. started requiring a longer vin number. The SA designation was kept in Japan and pretty much everywhere else first gens were imported (Australia, etc.).

 

not quite... stock fb seats are fuggin HEAVY. fc seats are even worse. i just put a set of bride seats in my friends rx8. i wish i had a set, prolly weigh 8lbs each if that. stock seats are atleast 30lbs a piece for all generations you can get some generic racing seats (fixed) that are very lite weight. this is next on my reduction list. other than that tho, remove the swaybars (heavy bastards), go to a 12gal fuel cell, lexan rear hatch glass, fiber glass hood (isc racing), build custom exhaust using normal steel (you'll be suprised at how much weight is in the stock/ RB exhausts).

definately get allll that tar paper out.

and if you want to get crazy like i am.... remove bumper supports and main supports in the doors but i dunno how much longer my car will be on the streets so you need to keep that in mind if you do those

 

you can make the car look stock without bumper supports, just make some aluminum brackets to hold them on or for the back bumper do what im doing and fibreglass it smooth,
on the dash i went the extra mile and took the support from behind it, and zap strapped the stock sterio surround onto it etc. looks good and saved about 40 lbs allong with the heater core and cooling fans taken out at the same time, you need to re mount a few things when doing this but im happy with it... and plus having a semi-stock looking dash is nice

i also removed some of the tar paper, and all the insulating foam from the carpet, ive got more tips for people with a sunroof and want to lighten it the cheap way, allot of this stuff you just gotta dive into and start tearing stuff out, and customise ways of keeping the parts/pieces that you need... tell us how it goes,

as for cutting stuff out, i would hesitate and think a long time unless youve modified a unibody car before as to which pieces are structural or not, ive always wondered about removing the inner rear double wall metal the the smeakers are mounted in and such but allot of that is structural to my understanding and i think i will leave it allone,

good luck tell us how it goes 2000lbs is in reach, when my car is on the road again ill wiegh it and tell yall my lightening mods and wieght,

Paul

 

thanks paul thats alot of info along with fbII and firstgens for life. thanks all

 

the tar sound deadening is really easy to remove, i just did it on my FB. get ~5 lbs of dry ice, use a leather glove to hold it, freeze the tar for about 10 seconds and hit it with the claw of a hammer. comes out in large sheets.

 

How long did it take you this way? I'm going to have to try it with dry ice. It sucks with just a chisel and hammer.