With several road trips coming up next year through mirror-removal-unfriendly states, I decided to do something permanent with the mirror situation. So, the driver-side mirror is back on for good, and the passenger side looks like this:
Fun with bondo! We'll see how it holds up.
I've also started removing weight. First up was the spare tire and jack (I can always throw them back in for long trips), along with:
• Spare tire: 25.8 lbs
• Jack and tools: 8.2 lbs
• Rear wiper and motor: 2.4 lbs
• Passenger exterior mirror: 2.1 lbs
• Manuals and rear hatch lower panel: 5.4 lbs
• Passenger side wiper: 2.8 lbs
• Plastic engine cover and passenger kick panel: 2.0 lbs
• Trunk mat: 5.4 lbs
• Hood insulation: 1.2 lbs
...for a total of 55 lbs out of the car so far. In a year or two I'll replace the auxiliary battery with an Optima, which saves twenty pounds, and I'm thinking of removing the carpet entirely, painting on bedliner, and leaving the floor mats on top of that.
The headlight saga will continue this week; I'll update the other thread with progress on that.