Rotten Passat

[steddie]

G'day there
Just another thought, if you cut out the roof inside the gutters and put coroplast instead that will save again a lot of weight.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[steddie]

G'day again,
Another thought is, maybe take the bonnet/hood off and fill the open space with coroplast, that will be a real big weight saver.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[steddie]

G'day, me again.
Just an other thought again, what about those heavy back doors ? you dont need those anymore as you dont use the space behind the driver seat, why not take those out and fill the empty space with.........coroplast, that will again be a big weight saver.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[steddie]

G'day again,
I am realy in a thinking mode and think the floor behind the driver seat could be cut out between the chassis beams and put instead more.........coroplast, that will be a lot more weight saving.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[steddie]

G'day, an other thought, what about getting rid of those heavy wheels and get 4 space savers instead, the latest ones are made off plastic as far as i know. that will be for sure a big weight saving.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[steddie]

G'day, and now my grand finale in weight saving ideas.
What about getting rid of that big heavy engine and put in a Briggs and Stratton lawnmotor engine, that will reeeeeeeealy save a lot of weight.
Good luck with your project and i hope my input has helped you.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[Ecky]

That was rather unnecessary.

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by niky

If you're planning on taking it rallying, more welds rather than less are what you need. You may end up seam welding some of the panels for added structural strength... because that car is going to take a chassis-rattling beating if you drive it at speed over 3,000 miles.

Focus on non-essentials when lightening. I wouldn't touch anything structural until you have a chassis-stiffening cage in the car, already.

Thanks for the input. I'm still a year out from doing the rally if I choose to go that route. I've removed all the airbags so a cage will be required with some good racing harnesses in order to meet inspection requirements I am sure. In the next year of eco driving until I do the rally the car will be fine structurally. I'm not removing major components. I'll remove the full dash and weld in a 1.5" tube across to act as a brace to hold up the steering column.

I drove 40 miles yesterday and the car died. Turns out that the alternator signal wire is ran through the instrument cluster which was not installed so the entire time the battery was not being charged. I'm also removing the trunk floor with the spare tire hole in order to replace it with polycarbonate or something else that is much lighter. I'm going to remove the inside metal part of the doors since the structural bar isn't needed with a cage. It's very likely that the doors will be welded shut. I have the driver side lock set up so when I twist it to the unlock position it opens the front windows. Likewise if I hold it in the lock position it shuts all the windows. Since I plan to remove the front door cards and whatnot I will have to make a mount of some sort for the window motor because the inner door metal that the motors and locks are mounted to is pretty heavy. Another thing I could do is use the hole that is drilled into the lower part of the glass to hold up the window with a strong elastic cord. That would allow me to remove the cord if I want the window down. I'd just have to create a padded cradle at the bottom for the window to rest in so it doesn't shatter.

Oh man, so much to figure out still. I look forward to it though!

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by Ecky

That was rather unnecessary.

Nearly doubled his post count, and literally over night...

[freebeard]

steddie -- If you come back to the thread after 2 hours, or even 15 minutes, and no-one else has posted there is a green Edit button that's not available otherwise. You may have missed it.

You can add or retract anything you want, with only the time of the most recent edit appended. Within five minutes you don't even reveal that, although apparently it takes you a little longer.