Lightweight reduction?! Carbon Fiber dash
 

Ok some people call me crazy for doing this to my cars but I like my cars to be light.

So far some of the things I have done to my 88 GXL is to remove the front and rear bumper beams, some of the interior, most the shit in trunk area.

But the things I have yet to get to, but will be starting tomorow is a Plexiglass rear window and removing most of the rest of the interior.

One thing I do plan to do is to remove the stock dasha dn pretty much everthing else in the interior that is not needed for me, mainly everthing that isn't needed for the motor to run and the car to stay together.

I have been on a lookout for a dash to put in the car to replace the stock one but only thing i could find is a universal dash that is sold on that speedperformance webpage or whatever it is called. But its a fiberglass dash and I'm not sure of the weight difference between it and the stock dash.

What i really want to do is to make a carbon fiber version of the stock dash. Since i like the shape of it anyways. I have a complete parts car that sits here at the house with the full interior and plan to pull the dash out of it tomorow and start working on the dash.

Basically I want to take the whole dash and make it a one piece carbon fiber one, I plan to make the gauge surround, shifter surround and the other parts to it molded into it. Also I want to make it so that I can remove the whole dash within aboout 10 mins.

I want this dash to weigh relativily light. I'm not sure of the weight of the stock dash but from the looks of it it doesn't look to light to me.

So basically I was wondering if I was to make these would anyone else be interested in them?

are you looking to kill yourself?

I think I remember weighing the dash when it was out and it was 20lbs.

Plexiglass looks shitty comapred to glass.. And no he's not trying to kill himself, bumper beams do nearly NOTHING after 5MPH..

yes escpecially considering that there made of many layers of fiberglass

there heavy though

put an aluminum pole in there. light as hell.

ha ha, nice idea

make one
post pics
make more
sell it
???
profit

my friend was thinking of fabing an aluminum casge around the engine.......i have no idea if it would work or how much it would weigh...

If you build it (and it looks good), they will come.

...and say it's too expensive.

actually, they'll commit to buying it, until it comes out, then note it's too expensive. :D

so if u removed the bumper bars then it wont make much diffrence if u crash

if you have a stupid little parking lot mishap, the bumpers will take up the damage. if you get rid of them, the damage goes straight to the unibody (it can make a small accident cheaper/easier to recover from).

I've taken out the dash and its not that heavy at all. Its up to you if you wanna go through all that trouble only to save maybe 10lbs at most.

i got an FC dash sitting in my driveway right now, it weighs maybe 30 lb's... maybe slightly more...

so it would have everything the old dash had a direct replica made in cf depending on the cost and quality i might be in on one after i get some engine mods done first

i was thinking of putting aluminum pungees in my bumpers.. that way if someone rearends me, theyll be a car-kabob

replacing steel with aluminum=good
replacing steel with CF, fiberglass, or plastic=verry good
replacing aluminum with cf, fiberglass or plastic=questionable, but ok for the hardcore.
replacing cf, fiberglass, or plastic with eachother=silly and a waste of time & money.

the dash is made of fibrglass and plastic; THESE MATERIALS ARE ALREADY LIGHTWEIGHT!!

for the money you'de spend on THAT much CF (the crap aint cheap), just the raw matterial, not to mention the time investment and all the other expenses, you could turbo your motor or do a TII swap or come by 50-100hp in more than a few ways, which will improve your power/wight ratio dramatically more than the MAYBE 10lbs a CF dash would save you.

likie those CF speaker surrounds people were talking a little while ago WTF is that about? a 2 oz. weight savings over the 3 oz stock peices????

cf has a place in making a leightwieght car, but its only worth it if used to replace SIGNIFICANTLY hevier items, like steel hoods or driveshafts.

not to mention the work it would take to get a contoured surface like that dash to actually look good... on a similar note tho, i know its a waste of time and money, but the reason i got an FC dash in my driveway is because i'm working on shortening it some to retrofit it into my FB lol... thus is my life when i have no motor in my car, and am waiting on parts to be cleaned

yea i agree with most of yous saying it would cost to much waste of time just for 10lbs lighter but for some people they might just like it for the style of it but if its to much money people will loose interest real fast

Yes that was mine :D

And yes the stock dash is like 20 lbs, pretty light already.

I think your insurance company would rape you up the butt if you tried to make a claim on an accident that happened with your bumper bars removed.

Just a thought, I'm not sure what year your car is, but the series 5 dashes are about 15-20 lbs. (guestimating) heavier than the series 4 dashes. I have one of each from old parts cars. There is no exterior difference between the two but the series 5 has much more plastic and metal bracing etc. under the 'skin' for some reason.

You could switch to the lighter if you wanted. Sure is a ton of work just for a few pounds though.

I'd be interested in a cf dash if you ever got one together.

those of you saying the s4 dash is light, check again. It may be lighter than S5, I cannot measure that myself, but it surely is not light.

I weighed the dash out of my 87 gxl and it was 40 lbs, with the gauge cluster and HVAC controls installed, the stock speakers and amp configuration also. no stereo/head unit.

You can get the weight down by pulling out the speakers and amp, but it's still relatively hefty. Even the steel frame it is built around is not that heavy. The bulk of the weight is in the dash itself. If you were removing all the HVAC stuff it would make sense to make a new dash that has only gauges and a switch panel for all the remaining accessories, you could do it in 10lbs or less if you keep it simple and use light materials.