porsche diet and weight decisions and advice

[marcsalleras]

Thinking about taking my 86 targa and pulling some stuff out for some quicker accel and slimming up............
A. What all do you think I should yank out (cruise and AC definitly), but what else?
B. how much weight do you think i can get off of her (pre-warning, Ive got no money to go out and buy carbon fiber this and that as of right now)
C. how much do you think I can get for said items removed from my car on the pelican parts site sellin them.....
D. any other advice dealing with weight is definitly welcome (does losing weight on the car have any downfall? etc...)

I appreciate all the help haha, entertaining the idea and right now and I'm leanin towards go for it.

[Rot 911]

1. AC = some parts you can sell like the front condenser fan. About 70 lbs if you get rid of EVERYTHING!
2. Spare tire and jack = serious weight loss. Close to 50 lbs.
3. Rubber pads on rear bumper. About 7 lbs each.
4. Unless going long distances, never keep more than 1/2 tank of gas. The Carrreras have HUGE gas tanks. 1/2 tank of gas weighs close to 50-70 lbs.

Congratulations, you just lost 200 lbs!

[Oh Haha]

Great list, Kurt.
Here a few things I could think of:

Mine was ordered without A/C so I had an advantage with that but I also removed excess front trunk "stuff". I also do the "half-tank" of gas trick.

My carpet is worn out so it's pretty thin(hehe). I went with an aftermarket muffler than weighs ALOT less than the stock version. I have the Eruo bumper pads with wiegh very little.

Manual, fixed back, race seats that weigh 15# each.

Mine weighed in at 2650 with me in it a few years ago. I haven't added anything to it since so it would be pretty accurate. I am running about 170-175# myself.

[porschenut]

Originally Posted by marcsalleras

Thinking about taking my 86 targa and pulling some stuff out for some quicker accel and slimming up............
A. What all do you think I should yank out (cruise and AC definitly), but what else?
B. how much weight do you think i can get off of her (pre-warning, Ive got no money to go out and buy carbon fiber this and that as of right now)
C. how much do you think I can get for said items removed from my car on the pelican parts site sellin them.....
D. any other advice dealing with weight is definitly welcome (does losing weight on the car have any downfall? etc...)

I appreciate all the help haha, entertaining the idea and right now and I'm leanin towards go for it.

A. Don't bother taking out anything that weighs less than 10 lbs.
B. A couple hundred without spending any money for new seats.
C. Depends on condition and what it is.
D. Be prepared to put everything back in the way it was when you decide to sell it. Removing all that stuff will severely devalue the car.

[911st]

Agree, the seats can be heavy. There is about 50 lbs in sound insulation, rear deck, and rear seat backs. Also, fiber glass bumpers are about 90 lbs less, including the bumper struts. If you can stand headers w/o heat and light weight mufflers there is some weight to be saved there to.

Thus, apx:

100 lbs with race interior (no roll bar).
50 lbs front trunk contents.
50 lbs Carrera A/C (lighter compressor and aloy mount)
90 lbs fiber bumpers
30-40 lbs with a light weight battery.

[Mikey83835]

Originally Posted by porschenut

A. Don't bother taking out anything that weighs less than 10 lbs.

Why not, 20 items weighing 10 pounds each will make a big difference

Originally Posted by porschenut

B. A couple hundred without spending any money for new seats.
C. Depends on condition and what it is.
D. Be prepared to put everything back in the way it was when you decide to sell it. Removing all that stuff will severely devalue the car.

Perhaps to someone who wants to have a Buick-ized Porsche, it would be welcome to me, and the clutteratura can be sold off

[Mikey83835]

Some of these stereos can be weighty, and not just the radio itself, when you include the weight of 6 speakers, amplifier, power antenna and it's motor...

[calling911]

Flag mirrors are heavy.. anybody ever weight those? MIne are friggen heavy.

[porschenut]

Originally Posted by Mikey83835

Why not, 20 items weighing 10 pounds each will make a big difference

He said he wants to take some stuff out, not gut the car. 99% of the gain will be in removing the heavier items.

Originally Posted by Mikey83835

Perhaps to someone who wants to have a Buick-ized Porsche, it would be welcome to me, and the clutteratura can be sold off

Depends on what you're looking for. Cars that are original always have much higher value than cars that are modified. Most buyers want original cars.

[pmason]

I've been on the same weight loss program, 84 targa.
Removed:
AC - everything lines, coolers, and fans
Back dated heat - blower
Bumperettes - initially
Spare tire & jack
Windshield wiper fluid reservoir
Interior stripped including sound deeding material (surprised how heavy those mats were) just have RS carpet and RS door panels, and Recaro racing seats.
Stereo gone

Right now I'm in the process of replacing the bumpers with FG and replacing the turbo tail with a FG carrera tail.

[AFCuk]

Went a little mad with mine.
F/G front and rear bumpers,engine lid,hood,and rsr fenders,rear steel arches.
Race seats, 4 point belts, stripped all carpet and sound pad, removed rear seats.
Heater backdate, strut brace.
Rs door panels,replaced washer bottle up front for smaller 1 under hood.
She has roll bar, spare tyre and tools sill in, 1/4 tank fuel and is 1020kg(2248pounds)

[911st]

Here is the grand daddy post on weight loss. This is a must read and has all the component weights displayed in table format.

438 lbs gone in 5 days - My Build Story

[island911]

Originally Posted by 911st

..., fiber glass bumpers are about 100 lbs less. ...

are you sure that you don't have an extra zero there? Even if you mean; replace the bumpers, valances, and mounting struts I still would think 100_lbs would be tough to get. ...Maybe on an early car, where they have that big chunk of cast-iron in the front bumper.

Of course taking a 100 pounds off the front causes other handling issues. Brake bias will be off; the effect of fuel load will be more pronounced...

[911st]

Example:

Originally Posted by ShakinJoe

...
Let me give you a run down on the weights. What I have been posting are numbers of all the items that can be removed from a car, and they are really freakin accurate! Not to mislead anyone, but there adders back in, like exhaust, Cat, and Seat to drive to PM. Here is a rundown of the TOTAL WEIGHTS OUT:



What we see is a loss of 521.81 pounds. Pretty good huh? The reality is that we have to add some stuff back in; and that total is 79.14 lbs. I needed to know this as we will find out what I started with originally!!

So.....521.81 lbs minus 79.14 lbs = 442.67 Net Weight Out

This is the weight I will add back to the weigh in amount to see where my fat 911 started. The WEIGH IN AMOUNT was 2,344 lbs.

[B][SIZE="2"]I really thought it would be lower!!! Take note of this for all of you that start with lighter cars!! I really thought my car started at 2662 lbs, and that I would be at roughly 2,220 lbs. Hmmmmmm. Why would the factory list the car at 2662? Did they not include sunroof? Do my 7's & 8's (and 16" at that) make the difference? If you can help....please answer!!

So here we are, 2,344 lbs plus 442.67 lbs = 2,787 lbs from factory!! So I look in my Owner's Manual and what does it say?? It says Curb Weight = 2,756 lbs!!! I am 21 lbs off somewhere which could easily be fuel. The bottom line is that I am very happy with my measurements as I am less than 1% off...

[RWebb]

an '86 is already a pretty heavy car so while the wt. removed can be large, you will not be a lot lighter than an early car w/o major effort & expense.

It is not hard to take 150 to 200 lbs. out of an early car, but after that, it gets troublesome. This summary of my '73 might be helpful:
The Diet

As always, you want to focus on the rear end. Bootie is good, but a fat flabby butt is not.

You might want to get a Mg cased 915 to replace your Al cased one - you should build it up and make it stronger at the same time. This does not add too much wt. but will add some cost. A lighter pressure plate is a good thing too. Does your car have the rubber centered setup?

You can use the European crush tubes in your bumpers and maintain parking protection - they just will need to be replaced each bump. FG bumpers will save more wt. Do a search to find this info -- after some years we finally got somebody to weigh and post the data.

Definitely get a CF or FG deck lid. The external hinges save a bit more but make it easier to break into the engine compartment - I am not real fond of their looks. Drilling the R hinges is not really worthwhile.

You should definitely discard all air blowers - front & rear, and strip off the sound deadener from the rear firewall area. You can replace it with something modern and still save 10 - 20 lbs., but it is some labor to remove it.

I hear that the a/c is about 70 lbs. so kill that for sure. Of course, can you still drive the car now??

[marcsalleras]

haha well my ac hasnt worked for a while since I've been fixing it and I only need one more part but Ive gotten used to no ac so I might as well yank it out of course, I enjoy the sound of the flat six so the sound deadening material I would happily yank off If i knew where it was all located - and I have going to get a light flywheel and magesium casing probably within the next six months or so........... Is there any change for the dash that I can do to cover up the vents? like a replacement dash with no vents or something?.......I mean having vents in your dash and not having ac or heat is sort of a contradicting idea hah

[Superman]

I work on my own car, which requires a certain amount of disassembly. When it comes time to reassemble, I tend to think: "Do I really need this part to be attached to the car?" Often, the answer is "No."

Bumper pads and rubber trim.
Insulation and sound proofing on both sides of the firewall.
Rear deck and various other upholstery.
Rockers and rubber trim.
A/C
Spare tire.
Etc.

[911st]

RW,

The cool things about the 86 is it still has the lighter 915 transmission but also has stiffer suspension and a lower drivers seat (helmet room).

I suspect it is very difficult to take even 100lbs for an early car. (I have done two.)There is very few comforts to remove and the stock non sport seats are pretty light. Even changing the bumpers out to FG dose not save much. Biggest savings is the tar sound mats under the carpet and the stock carpet. This and going to one battery. After that it gets hard and expensive. I guess one could go to a full race exhaust and save 10-15 lbs but nothing like a stock Carrera exhaust with three blower motors to assist and a heavy cat.

By just taking off all the things an early car did not have one can get to withing about 100 lbs of a 'stock' 72/3 and in some cases lower. Sunroof, A/C, power seats, impact bumpers, lighter battery, seats, insulation ...

With your car numbers if we leave out the 79lbs you attribute to the motor I did not think there was 75 lbs of weight savings and that is with a lot of fiberglass and expensive alloy suspension stuff.

I believe 2200 to 2350 is possible in a 915 Carrera or SC (with a no roll bar or big brakes) coupe with mostly a luxury, smog, and safety idem strip.

Originally Posted by RWebb

[pgeorgeson]

I would do this for a car that I was going to continue driving on the street (actually, I did, but then a lot more):

Free (or nearly so) without any necessary repair work:

-Remove AC, including all lines and hoses
-Delete rear seats, belts etc.
-Delete rear package shelf (I replaced mine with carpet from local fabric store)
-remove sound pads and insulation (including from floor of interior)

Some expense but no repair needed:

-Replace seats with race seats
-replace battery with lightweight battery

That is the easy stuff that makes the big difference. After that, you start getting into replacing parts that can either get expensive or require further work or repair. The next phase, in my opinion would be:

-replacing existing body parts with fiberglass (bumpers and deck lids to start)
-relplacing some or all of existing exhaust system (it is incredibly heavy!)

[NoLift911]

Originally Posted by marcsalleras

Thinking about taking my 86 targa and pulling some stuff out for some quicker accel and slimming up............
A. What all do you think I should yank out (cruise and AC definitly), but what else?
B. how much weight do you think i can get off of her (pre-warning, Ive got no money to go out and buy carbon fiber this and that as of right now)
C. how much do you think I can get for said items removed from my car on the pelican parts site sellin them.....
D. any other advice dealing with weight is definitly welcome (does losing weight on the car have any downfall? etc...)

I appreciate all the help haha, entertaining the idea and right now and I'm leanin towards go for it.

Back to the original questions - the first thing is to determine what you will be doing with the car. If its a daily driver and you need the car everyday in all weather conditions - there is not much you can do from a serious diet perspective - depends on where you live as also factored in with what you can live with - or without in this case.

Track car - easiest
Fair weather, weekend, part time track car - easier
Daily Driver - hard (again location, distance of commute etc - all factor in) (Phoenix for A/C vs. North Dakota for heat, vs. Cali - where it is all good...)

Figure that out first - then losing the weight is easy