the least effective weight to lose is from low and to the middle of the car.

If you want to diet, do it effectively. Start at the muffler and both front and rear bumpers.

I agree - I suggested fiberglass (FG) 'cuz it is cheap and can be painted easily (rubber can't I don't think) - not b/'c it is light...

I recently removed mine, for the weight-saving. Plugged the holes with stainless-steel screws, did some filling and sanding, repainted the area and finally polished the scheiss out of the now-exposed brass oil lines. Frankly, I love the functional, locomotive look of the exposed lines. No big deal, they're not that obvious, but it's sort of saying, "We don't need no phony vanity panels to cover up the workings of this car."

Makes me think of so many modern cars with really lovely, sophisticated engines that are entifrely covered with plastic panels designed by dishwasher stylists. Yes, I know that some of it is for noise-damping, but does it have to look like a kitchen appliance rather than a 400-hp, four-cam, 48-valve, twin-turbocharged gas engine?

Steve, got a pic?

Randy, fill the holes with fiberglass?

oops

oops again

I like the look without the rockers, exposed oil lines and all, but yes some people (like my wife) consider the whole naked look a little "ratty", especially with the unpolished oil lines and the open holes in the chassis. OK, I won't disagree and overall the 74-89 rockers are not that bad to look at, especially compared to the 964 rockers that came after (MHO).

Here's mine. Again, I think it's an improvement...it's retro. Perhaps this year I''ll take the oil lines off and polish them and maybe bondo up the holes etc.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161314681.jpghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161314735.jpghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161314784.jpg

No - I meant find something made of FG that is like the rubber strip you want to remove - somethng to interrupt the air flow up the body -- it will also keep mud off the doors and cover the holes.

Might try going thru the GT racing catalog. If it was me I'd just elave the rubber. But it ain't me...

Jasper, looks great. Could I trouble you for a close-up pic of the holes?

I suppose you can get real fancy with the holes--Bondo, fiberglass, whatever--but all I did with mine was to screw in the proper-size short stainless-steel sheetmetal screws till they were flush with the surface, before I repainted the area. (i.e. the screwheads are repainted the body color.) It's a bit of an industrial look, but so is the exposed piping, and it has the advantage of allowing the rocker panels to be quickly refitted if, say, a new buyer wanted them back on.

Very clever, Steve. Could you snap a pic for me one of these days?
Thanks.

A picture of a hole with a screw in it????? Ummm, it's raining mice and turtles right now, but if I get a minute later this weekend, I'll do it.

I understand the "screw-in-a-hole" concept, I was more interested in what the finished project looked like. Besides, I like looking at pictures.

Oh, and there is no rush with a picture. I know it is pouring today. (I'm at work in NYC right now.) I was thinking of this as a winter project.

Thanks.

It's nice and sunny here this weekend so I will try to remember to snap a few pics tomorrow.

It ain't all that pretty up close, especially since the car has been painted at least once without the rockers having been removed. Your car will undoubtably look better. Note I also removed the plastic plugs which covered the big holes. The plan is to get newer cleaner plugs for these.You could paint over them. I took them out for weight savings ;) Here goes:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161537454.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161537554.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161537581.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161537622.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161537652.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161537680.jpg

Bill Verburg, you're of course right about the "least effective" weight being in the middle of the car, but I've already done the bumpers, muffler and a dozen other relatively major things. And 20 pound is 20 pounds less to carry.

jwetering, Thanks very much. I appreciate the pics.
BTW, what tires/wheels do you have back there? They look huge!

9x16 on the back with 245/45 and 951 offset 8x16 on the front with 205/55.

Hard to find but worth the $ and effort. The best ******* setup there is for a 911 IMO. :D

BTW - there should be six pics in all, but everytime I load this thread I only see four or five, and different ones each time.

SmileWavy

Just had mine off to do torsions and thought I would like the look but it looks better on. If you have A/C you not only have the oil lines on the right but the A/C lines on the left. Also the way the front valance hangs down, the flow on the side of the car is just not right. Makes the car look like it is sitting higher than it is because the front and rear are sitting lower than the middle. If doing bumper replacement and A/C removal then it would look good.
Also the rubber was not to hard to put back on. Just put it on the front and slide it by hand toward the back. About half way this gets difficult so I released a few inches of the top of the rubber at the back edge and pulled on that as I pushed from the front and it went right on. Easy to put the top back in once it is in place. I never realized how flexible the rubber strip is till I took it off. Removal was real easy just peel it off.
Picture of mine with it off. The car is rolling slightly but you can see the front bumper is lower than the middle.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160447486.jpg

Here's one that really shows off the rear wheels.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1161566692.jpg

I do agree with dfink that the front valence, and rear side pieces don't line up very well without the rockers. And an interesting point thatthe car looks to ride higher visually, I've noticed this with mine but never connected the two dots. My solution ultimately is to replace th ebumpers, in the meantime, perhaps I should lower it some more ?!