So I have a completely bone stock 03.5 sedan and I wanted to do some weight reduction.
I was looking to strip the trunk, remove the back seat and im not sure what else.
Anyone have any tips?
Any links to a DIY to remove the rear seat? I looked in the 'FAQ & DIY' section and could not find anything about weight reduction.

Im trying to keep the car comfortable which would mean keeping radio, heat/AC, front 2 seats, carpet and headliner.

Anything would be great.

Thanks

 

Personal preference.

 

here is a diy for repairing the rattle from the rear deck.
rear deck removal
you can obviously use to go the whole distance. the rear bench seat weighs nothing and serves more of a buffer from road and fuel pump noise. stripping the car while remaining comfortable makes complete sense to me. i have stripped most of my trunk and typically go without the spare while in town. if you dont need the rear, i would take the back portion and the bracing behind it but leave the beach. that would just be my opinion.
i have a few links i can post up on monday that gives good ballpark figures of stock components versus aftermarket or even just removing them.

 

Pull the spare tire, jack trunk liners to start. The back seat is not that heavy and will make your car a lot louder.

If you want to remove it just pull the two tabs on the bottom and lift off the base. The back comes off with a few 14mm bolts.

A big weight savings would be to get a set of racing seats. The oem seats are very heavy with the airbags and all power. Also a set of light 17" wheels would help.

 

Would you suggest getting 350Z seats?
I would try to get leather without airbags and manual features.
By louder, do you mean more road noise or something else?
Do you have any ideas of lightweight 17" or 18" rims that are reasonably priced?
The main reason that I would like to remove the rear seat is that I really hate people sitting in my rear seats, they always track in alot of dirt and leave empty soda bottles and other garbage on the floor. And the first time I let someone smoke in my back seat, they burned the headliner, that got me super pissed.
Please also do post up that link of stock vs aftermarket components.
Thanks alot!

 

not sure on the seats. by more noise, I mean more tire noise, more exhaust noise and you can hear fuel pump whine, even more so if you have a walbro. i picked up some OZ cronos from tirerack when they were on special. not sure if they still are on sale but weight and price were a big consideration for me. they were 279 a piece in 18X8 and weighed in just under 19lbs a piece. my oem 18X7.5 were around 24 lbs iirc.

 

I wouldnt mind about the exaust or tires, but the fuel pump, thats a different story.
I cant hear the tires at all right now, but I'm running the stock 17" rims with 225/45/17 tires.

Any feedback on the seats? Im looking for black leather with manual controls and no airbags, if thats even possible.

 

you might not even hear the stock fuel pump whine or be as sensitive to it. the rear bench should take less than 10 seconds to remove so at least you can find out quickly and easily. the tire noise and hearing every little rock hit the inside of the wheel well was the deal breaker for me. the 17s shouldnt be very heavy but i am sure you can find that weighs less and doesnt cost a fortune.

 

Bro, you know I know how to remove anything in the car, after dynamatting the whole thing! No point for weight reduction, plus it'll look really ugly. Just keep a look out for the 350z leather seats and some light 18's

 

Only weight reduction I would worry about at this point is wheels/tires & brakes. They have the most impact on performance.

 

You can lose an easy 30 pounds by swapping to a coupe mid pipe. OEM 03-04 mid pipes are heavy pigs. The coupe midpipe can be lifted with 2 fingers.

 

if you got friends burning holes in your seats and leaving trash, I would suggest getting new friend too. just a thought.

 

^^^ wow...

looks like a mod and weight reduction done all at once... +1 on that..

 

I just replaced my stock mid-pipe with one from a coupe and couldn't believe how much lighter the coupe one was. Plus the deeper and a little bit louder exhaust sound is an added bonus.

 

What about stripping the trunk?
Do you think you could help me do the seats when I pick them up?


Does anyone have any ideas for rims?
My budget is kinda low since I am a full-time college student and also have to make payments for my car, so the less expensive, the better.