Unofficial weight reduction thread

Well I revised my weight reduction plan to see if I really was going to hit 2750lbs and thought it might be nice to share in this thread. I even listed new part prices so if anyone wants to take the same process they are aware of the cost related to each stage. To my surprise I'm actually going to be lighter than I had thought when I complete stage 2. I have a couple more items (DF side duct, rear garnish, and type-R seats) coming in which will make me reach 2725lbs wet curb weight. I hope my list could be of some assistance for you guys.

Note: Some of these expensive items can be purchased used and provide a good savings to the large sum you are seeing. I pretty much have bought all the big stuff used and I'm assuming I'm at 2/3 the cost for everything I've done so far.

Also looking at the list it's entirely possible to get near 2600lbs wet curb weight if you start changing out fenders, trunk, spoiler, hood, headlight with Carbon Fiber pieces and that is still with AC and near full interior.

 
Last edited:
Nice work Anthony. Precise as usual. Typical engineer. :D
 
First time posting; Just read in NSX Driver; if I remove the spare tire, bracket, engine cover, jack, and tool set, it looks as though I'll take out about 60 lbs. (for free!), with about half from the front and half from the back, can I assume the handing won't be negatively affected? Will 60 lbs. make the car sit any higher? How much additional sound is there in the passenger compartment with the engine cover removed? I'm wondering what others have experienced.
 
There is definitely some extra high frequency sound but letting the beautiful engine be seen and saving the weigh is worth it. The targa cover is much heavier than the coupe cover BTW. and you can instantly save another 30-40 pounds with a shorai battery. Oem muffler... Another 20-30. Cats and headers, another 40. If your car is pre 1997, another 20+ with an aluminum bumper beam like in the 97+ cars (rear bumper). No your ride height won't change with such a small change.
 
Well I revised my weight reduction plan to see if I really was going to hit 2750lbs and thought it might be nice to share in this thread. I even listed new part prices so if anyone wants to take the same process they are aware of the cost related to each stage. To my surprise I'm actually going to be lighter than I had thought when I complete stage 2. I have a couple more items (DF side duct, rear garnish, and type-R seats) coming in which will make me reach 2725lbs wet curb weight. I hope my list could be of some assistance for you guys.

Note: Some of these expensive items can be purchased used and provide a good savings to the large sum you are seeing. I pretty much have bought all the big stuff used and I'm assuming I'm at 2/3 the cost for everything I've done so far.

Also looking at the list it's entirely possible to get near 2600lbs wet curb weight if you start changing out fenders, trunk, spoiler, hood, headlight with Carbon Fiber pieces and that is still with AC and near full interior.




Awesome spreadsheet Anthony!
Thanks for posting it.

I wish I had started recording the weights of all of my parts coming on and off of the car, but I've been a bit lazy. I weigh stuff but then don't record the results, lol.
The best thing for me will be to bring it to a truck scale or get it corner-weighed (hmm... I have a friend in TN with some corner-scales, time to schedule a visit, hahaha).
 
There is definitely some extra high frequency sound but letting the beautiful engine be seen and saving the weigh is worth it. The targa cover is much heavier than the coupe cover BTW. and you can instantly save another 30-40 pounds with a shorai battery. Oem muffler... Another 20-30. Cats and headers, another 40. If your car is pre 1997, another 20+ with an aluminum bumper beam like in the 97+ cars (rear bumper). No your ride height won't change with such a small change.

Where does one get the alu bumper beam these days? Will the 97+ bar fit on my 96? If so, should I go buy one off a wrecked 97+?
 
Awesome spreadsheet Anthony!
Thanks for posting it.

I wish I had started recording the weights of all of my parts coming on and off of the car, but I've been a bit lazy. I weigh stuff but then don't record the results, lol.
The best thing for me will be to bring it to a truck scale or get it corner-weighed (hmm... I have a friend in TN with some corner-scales, time to schedule a visit, hahaha).

When I get all the parts I'm currently waiting for and finish installing them; I plan to weight the car as close as possible with full fluids, to see how close I am to my calculations. Hopefully I'm really close to that.
 
Last edited:
Where does one get the alu bumper beam these days? Will the 97+ bar fit on my 96? If so, should I go buy one off a wrecked 97+?

I am not certain which year went to aluminum beams but you can buy the oem or fabricate one yourself if STMPO doesn't have one.
 
I am not certain which year went to aluminum beams but you can buy the oem or fabricate one yourself if STMPO doesn't have one.

Where does one get the alu bumper beam these days? Will the 97+ bar fit on my 96? If so, should I go buy one off a wrecked 97+?

Like Nero said, OEM aluminum rear bumper beams started in '95. I checked the part numbers of a '95, '97, and '05 and they all match.

So you should be good to go with your '96.
 
Last edited:
I have one quote to CNC the Mount (2 pieces) x 10 $750. ($200 just for chunk of Alloy) I don't think anyone's going to pay that much.
I'm waiting to hear back from another CNC company.

I'll take one, please! How soon can they do it?
 
When putting the parts back onto our rebuilt engine, I wondered why the heck Honda built such a massive steel alternator bracket.
Of course, the engine lift mount is connected to it......but I also wondered if it had something to do with damping unwanted harmonics or something?
I cleaned and painted it, then bolted that boat anchor back on :biggrin:

For weigh reduction, I was able to remove the A/C bracket and idler (A/C had been deleted years ago).
Since the rear swaybar had also been removed, I found a pair of bolts to replace the factory ones with the built in drop-links.
Cody built a dual Tilton brake master setup that deleted the ABS system (has a cockpit adjustable bias knob), so the rear sensors and harnesses went away.
Finally, there were 2 stamped steel brackets that were apparently for the long gone rear valance, so off they came.

Brian
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/J7yvJDy4SU9WYhRpKncgnBGW3cvc0Z5lcJSbjchpKY8?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5qptScgxKIo/U61zYHD6zVI/AAAAAAAAACk/eewRmHE1dmw/s144/Weight%2520Reduction.jpg" height="108" width="144" /></a>
 
Here we go lady's and gents. Finally finished cleaning off the sound deadening material from the floors and firewall. All total weighed roughly 55-60lb. Took a lot of time to do it slowly and turned out great. Now I just need to repaint the floors high gloss black to match the rest of the interior.

 
Nope that's correct I weighed it all. Sound deadening is made of tar and heavy plastic type stuff. I'll be generous and say 45-50lb because the tar remover soaked into the tar a little so probably added some weight. That weight if from all the sound deadening from the entire cabin. Floor boards firewall and other small spots. The trunk sound deadening was already removed so I don't know how much that would weigh.

- - - Updated - - -

It took 4 grocery bags to hold it all. Each bag weighed about 13-14lb

- - - Updated - - -

FYI if you want to do the same find a co2 fire extinguisher instead of using compressed air cans and flipping them to use the co2 in the cans. The price adds up.
 
Nope that's correct I weighed it all. Sound deadening is made of tar and heavy plastic type stuff. I'll be generous and say 45-50lb because the tar remover soaked into the tar a little so probably added some weight. That weight if from all the sound deadening from the entire cabin. Floor boards firewall and other small spots. The trunk sound deadening was already removed so I don't know how much that would weigh.

- - - Updated - - -

It took 4 grocery bags to hold it all. Each bag weighed about 13-14lb

- - - Updated - - -

FYI if you want to do the same find a co2 fire extinguisher instead of using compressed air cans and flipping them to use the co2 in the cans. The price adds up.

That's nuts. So what places exactly? floor, behind the seats on the firewall and any on the front?

The best way to remove this is dry ice.
 
So my wife's RDX battery died the other day and I got super excited. I gave her my NSX OEM specs battery and now I have all the reason to get another. After some reading and research, I am not a fan of a battery tender/maintainer so I had to find a compromise. With lots of reading about its set up; there is a long history and discussions of the Miata battery. I ended up with a compromise that I can live with. Keeping in mind that there is no need to set a trickle on this battery and my car will start up after parking for a couple of weeks, I ended up installing a 20lb battery from Autozone that is designed for the Miata. PC680 and Shorai is a nice setup but; not convenient enough for me. Here is a pix of it installed. Bracket and retainer rod had to be customized and that only took 45 minutes. Indeed I wanted to delete more weight; but, this was the best compromise.
 
I think all metal hold downs are a bad idea and a source for a fire in an accident.
 
Yes all 4 floor board spots including under the glove box area. Whole fire wall including up under all the wiring and computers, and on the sides of the center tunnel. And yes using dry ice if you can get it locally cheap is the easiest way to remove this stuff. I didnt have blocks of dry ice (AKA) Co2 or Nitrogen. I used compressed air cans that have Co2 or refrigerant in them and you just turn them upside down shake then spray and out comes Nitrogen dry ice. If you can get a Co2 fire extinguisher it would be cheaper i think and easy to apply. If you have access to dry ice you break it up into golf ball size chunks and fill up a bucket with them and then pour Isopropyl Alcohol into the bucket and ster it so it looks like a slushy then pour it on the area with sound deadening. It super freezes the material. Then all you do is let it sit a couple min. and use a hammer or rubber mallet and tap the edges in a circle working to the middle and repeat a couple times and then you can use a flat head to pry up the edges and it will come off in large pieces. What ever is left like some of the tar can be cleaned off with goo off professional grade tar remover from places like lowes and homedepot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FqkxgcjRQQ watch that video. He did it in record time but he had 15lb of dry ice to help. It took me about 6-8 hours to do it with compressed air cans and tar remover. I spent about $120 on materials so having dry ice locally would save soooooo much money but I wanted to do it myself so its worth it to me.
 
Back
Top