TeamSwift

Here's some info I've collected about swifts and weight of different body parts:

http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ssgti/

You can see this at the bottom of the page. I'll put some more stuff there, so stay tuned. Tell me what you think (and is it worth some karma points )

I would like to know how the poly windows in that group buy a month or so back can save 30lbs when the windows them selves dont even weigh that much.....I kept my mouth shut back then, but something dosnt work here.

Ryan

Well, this is the reason why I started weighting stuff. I knew that they don't weigh alot, but I also kept my mouth shut until I found some real info. I don't think that you could save any more then 1.5 kg for each window. That means that (if you can save 30lbs on all three windows) rear window should weigh about... 15 to 20 kg! And I REALLY don't think that it weighs that much, but I'll see that tommorow. I'll weigh whole rear hatch and I could bet that it will not be more then 20 kg. Oh, and BTW my information IS correct, I can guarantee. And BTW, my winter jacket with my keys, cell phone, shitload of crap and my wallet weights a bit more then 2kg. So, instead of buying rear side poly windows for alot of money, I can just take of my jacket for nothing .

It's easy to tell how much the rear quarter windows weigh because they are very easy to remove. Ive done it to clean the crap that gets in between the windows and the body. They are thin and light, BTW. Not much room for weight savings there. The hatch window is thicker though.

Yeah, that was my fault...I didn't check before I posted and then when I was looking at my car the other day I was thinking "how the hell could it save that much weight". Sorry for the misinformation.

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LNLC Founding Member

FAKE FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
REAL FRIENDS: Is the reason you have no food.

power to weight period. what ever you can drop off your car adds up to be alot of weight in the end... all the plastic pieces... carpet... sound deading material... back seats...

if you can spend $400 (or whatever it costs) to lighten with replacement windows and took the time to strip your interior and take out all the luxurys.. remove the body kit... power nothing.. no stereo...

I am sure it would be worth it because you just dropped a couple hundred pounds in the end...

the lighter the better.

gypsy

I agree w/ you 100% - that weight reduction is a worthy cause. Every 18lbs saved = 1hp equivalent gain on these cars.

It becomes more difficult though when you want to retain the stock look inside and outside of the car ...

That's why that info is there. So you can see where you can get, and where you can't get weight reduction. It will also show you which parts can be replaced for parts from some other swift to retain stock look. And there will be more because I've got two rooms with only suzuki parts. If there is something special that I could forget, just tell me...

i don't understand your point of "where you can't get weight"... if you take of something that weights 200 grams... is that not weight lost? It all adds up...

gypsy

The rear hatch is surprisingly heavy, I changed my rear hatch seal a while back, and in order to do it you need to remove both support struts. It also hurts when the hatch falls on your arm when you're reaching inside. .
I've been embarking on a project to strip every piece of dead weight from my car. My interior consists of only the dash board and the two front seats. All the of interior, rear seats, trim panels, carpet, it's all gone. Individually the pieces don't weigh much, but you'll notice the weight when you carry an armload of interior parts across the garage. I'm also planning to weigh everything when I get the chance (front seats are 32 lbs a piece btw). All the tar sound insulation that is glued down to the floor pan is enough to fill three Safeway shopping bags! That shit's heavy!

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I meant if you change body parts from a different model of suzuki. Like when you think: "this is a model x, it's not top of the line, so all the parts must be lighter"
For instance someone said that he THINKS that 1.0 doors are lighter then GTi doors because suzuki used thinner metal on 1.0. (I'll check that out, I've got a lot of doors ). In that way, someone could have said that he thinks that body part x is lighter on base model then the one on the GTi, but that does not have to be true (just like those rear windows, their weight is the same on all models, even on replacement windows).





Yeah, I know that feeling. I had my rear hatch fall on my head once or twice , sedan rear hatch had fallen on my back a few times , and of course, there's the time when I tried to remove the rear hatch on my own for the first time. I removed parts in this order: rear support struts, all the screws that hold the hatch... Now, if you read that carefully, you'll se that I didn't remove the wiring that goes to the hatch and water line.
And no, it wasn't funny...

Oh, yeah, I forgot one thing about how important the weight is. There has been a test of the ford streetka and sportka. same engines, same gearbox, only different roof. One is normal hatch, the other one is cabrio. Their performance and weight is similar to the swift, so this is why I took this example. Their weight difference is 50 kg and performance difference is more then a 1 second to 100km/h! I know that you think that cabrio has an aerodynamic disadvantage, but it cannot be really seen up to 120 km/h, and if you even take it in the equation, 50 kg gives almost a second...

keywords: FAQ, wieght,weight reduction, mass, how do I make my car light, lighter, part, parts, components, interior, tar sound insulation

In my quest to rid my car of unneccessary weight, I have compiled a list of the indivdual weights of different interior components so it can be demonstrated how a bunch of small parts can add up to a lot of weight. The parts on this list were removed from a 1990 MK2 Swift GT and weighed with a digital bathroom scale.
Everything on this list except the front seats have been removed from my vehicle. The worst offenders seem to be spare tire/jack, rear seats and the tar sound insulation. The tar sound insulation on this list is what I removed from the floor pan and rear quarter panels. There appears to be evidence that there may be some more tar insulation on the firewall in addition to the fiber/rubber insulation that is behind the dashboard.
So far the parts I've removed have allowed me to remove 134 lbs of dead weight from my vehicle! This is a very noticable improvement in performance and would also help fuel economy if I wasn't having so much fun with the car.

MK2 Swift GT part weights:

front seats (both): 64 lbs

rear wiper assembly: 2 lbs

floorpan tar sound insulation: 16 lbs

carpet: 7 lbs

door panels (both): 10 lbs

center console/bin/e-brake housing: 4 lbs

parcel shelf: 5 lbs

parcel shelf supports (both): 2 lbs

rear trim panels (both): 6 lbs

cargo trim panels (both): 2 lb

hatch trim panels (both): 2 lbs

rear seat base: 10 lbs

rear seat backs: 18 lbs

rear seat belts (both): 4 lbs

rear speakers & brackets (both): 3 lbs

misc parts & hardware: 2 lbs

spare tire cover: 5 lbs

spare tire/jack/wrench: 33 lbs

hubcaps (all four): 3 lbs (this is rotating weight too, BTW)

total removed: 134 lbs (not including front seats)

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did those door panels have the steel plates in them?

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NULL

Actually they do. So do the interior panels for the back seat area. It seems that the upholstered areas are backed with thin steel which has tabs that attach to the plastic panel. This applies to MK2 interior parts, not certain yet about MK3 parts.

Addition to my part weights I listed earlier:
I also don't have any front speakers or a stereo, so add another ~5 pounds of reduced weight.

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Wow - 134lbs - that's amazing. How does the inside of the car sound while driving wihtout the interior bits?

Well, the first thing that happens when you take out the back seat is you can really hear the fuel pump for the first time. You can hear it change RPM based on engine load and even from electrical load.
Once everything else gets yanked out, you can hear every pebble, stone or piece of gravel that bounces off the insides of the wheel wells. Rainy days have a constant rushing noise of the tires contacting the wet road.
If you have any loose parts or pieces that rattle, you'll immediately notice all of them.
The Swift I've done this too still retains its factory exhaust, so I can hear all the background noise. But if you change the exhaust system, I'm sure you'd only hear the muffler.
Without the carpet or sound insulation, the shifter tunnel also radiates some heat from the exhaust.
Another thing when you do get your interior out, you'll finally learn the real truth as to much rust your vehicle really has. Taking the carpet off will also reveal *a lot* about the history of the vehicle. Nobody ever cleans behind the carpet for the life of the vehicle. Expect to find several dollars in coin change, pens, business cards, receipts, bus transfers, broken glass, sand, gravel, pine needles and so on.

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Shedding that weight is the equivalent of gaining about 8% power at all revs

You must notice the difference!

Absolutely. It accellerates quicker, the stock brakes don't feel as scary anymore and it's effortless to quickly manoever around potholes, traffic etc.
When I have the time I'm taking the dashboard out next!

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Oh Man <green with envy>!

I'm doing it the hard way ... got the rear bumper member off and am drilling holes in it. I weighed it before I started and it was 5685g.

You can pick up a front and rear bumper from any over seas model to save a ton of weight. Of course it dosnt offer much in the way of crash protection.

Ryan

I had a look at a spare bumper that I have lying around here. I was very disappointed to find that you need the steel bumper frame to mount the plastic bumper skin. Also surprising is that the plastic skin accounts for a good percentage of the whole bumper weight. No weights yet, but I'm currently researching a solution to mount the plastic skin without the metal frame.

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DON'T FORGET to remove your girlfriend...thats good for another 115lbs!

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14.84 @ 93.89 with No ITB's, No standalone computer, No dog box, Stock MAF, Single TB and Street tires all in a complete mk2. not bad eh!

you know your from Mississippi if your girl and your car wear the same size bra.

Anyone know the weights for any of the parts of a newer model geo metro hatch?

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1996 Geo Metro LSi Hatchback [1.3L, 4cyl, Auto]
2000 Ford Focus SE 4door [2.0L, 4cyl, Zetec, Auto]
1986 Nissan Maxima 4door [3.0L, v6, Auto (300zx engine)]