yeah I'm not a person for stereo stuff, when someone hit my car from behind, my bass amp and speaker cabenet flew forward and hit the back of my head.... which pissed my off as the police called it the car stereo!!! didnt help that the crash snapped the neck off my brand new 700 pound bass...=[

back on to the subject of interior, i guess ill have to face it that I'm to lazy to remove my back seats even if it does reduce weight haha. i guess I'm the type of person who would rather improve the performance of a car rather than shead a few kgs here and there. oh well.

actually thinking about it, didnt mercedes strip the paint from their race cars back in the day cause they were too heavy to compete?

actually thinking about it, didnt mercedes strip the paint from their race cars back in the day cause they were too heavy to compete?

Yep paint can weigh a lot. :)

I have totally stripped the rear of my car including the spare wheel, a CD Changer and Amp which in total weighed 37kg. Stripping the rear is very easy but you also might want to remove weight from the front as well, as all that you are doing is creating a nose heavy car. This may not be a problem on the drag strip but through twisty sections you might feel the rear end not being as 'planted' as you like. TBH I always felt the car handled better with a full tank of fuel.

So while removing weight from the rear of the car you would ideally removed the same amount of weight from the front. OR move some of the weight from the front to the back (normally within the wheelbase).

Obviously this might be a bit over kill for the road. Its all about compromise, you might notice a bit of different but you will get increased road noise, the car will be more tiring to drive on long distances but that may be a compromise that you are willing to take. Someone else might not.. :)

Mark

mines my daily runner "when its running" and so far iv stripped out

rear seats "heavier than you think"

spare wheel

rear qauter cards

all rear belts

all rear plastics

rear carpet

sub and amp "just have 6x9's in boot lid now"

ditched seats for gt ones "lower me a bit" lol

future plans are

remove roof lining

remove all sound deadening

replace all carpet with thinner acoustic carpet

maybe even get my hole saw out lol

perspex windows maybe

all in all if i make my goal of 100bhp and with all the weight loss it could be fun?

I stripped the rear of my polo out completely and sprayed the inside .

It made a cracking diffrence with the handling making the car alot nippier around the corners .

I removed alot of weight though no rear door cards no stereo system ie Subwoofer 6X9's no rear seats / seatbelts parcel shelf attachments .

It was noisey yes but thats all in the fun . You could hear the fumes passing throught the exhaust pipe a slight wirring noise i thaught it was exalent .

Here is a piccy of mine stripped from rear seats back ..

I left everything in the front just sprayed everything in the back clack to match the interior .

Jesus Stevie you got any more pics of that Polo?! Would like to see that interior!! I'm not stripping the rear seats just yet but got the parcel shelf and carpet out of the boot as I love how much noisier it is lol. Whats your steering wheel that thing looks great!!

The worst thing ever is driving a properly stripped out car on gritted roads

My ears

The worst thing ever is driving a properly stripped out car on gritted roads

My ears

I know man you cringe so much thinking of the underside of the car !

Jesus Stevie you got any more pics of that Polo?! Would like to see that interior!! I'm not stripping the rear seats just yet but got the parcel shelf and carpet out of the boot as I love how much noisier it is lol. Whats your steering wheel that thing looks great!!

Yeah man will have to hunt them out on the PC at home i have a few of it .

I'm at work at the min but can get them sorted over the weekend ..

It took a while.

The rear bench is just a big thing of foam anyway. Foam isn't heavy!

erm ... just buy a faster car

Not everybody has that option?

unless your were using the car competitively ie hillclimbs or the like is it really worth it?

you will just end up with something noisy and impracticable and i would say not that much difference in performance

Perhaps not but it does give an impression of higher speed - which is good if you are on a budget. If you aren't racing anybody, it's how it feels that matters

If you're interested in nurturing your own car - trimmed and preened by yourself, You have to start somewhere and make your mistakes and cock-ups somewhere, too. I've done what I've done to my car and the only thing that makes it uncomfortable are the unbranded rear dampers on the back which are made of stone. It DOES make a difference, it compliments every other modified sector of the car - engine, suspension, etc.

But the main reason behind everything is because I want to satisfy my desire to interfere with stuff.

unless your were using the car competitively ie hillclimbs or the like is it really worth it?

you will just end up with something noisy and impracticable and i would say not that much difference in performance

With my GT I noticed a difference when I stripped out the car. I used to have one drivers seat and thats it. Just before I sold it I put everything back in and I noticed a difference.

Considering front seat etc weighs 15kg and rear bench etc weighs about 24kg thats a total of 39kg. In a car that weighs 780kg thats about 5% weight reduction. Spare wheel, jack, doorcards and other bits and bobs can easily see a 10% reduction in weight for the sake of a few screws.

Not exactly going to set the world alight, but if like me your car was built to be a Traffic Light Grand Prix Racer then it works as you can get lots of traction over the driving wheels. When I learn to drive properly I am going to have a major shuffle with weight. Moving whatever weight I can to the back to try an balance the car.

EDIT TO ADD -

But the main reason behind everything is because I want to satisfy my desire to interfere with stuff.

and that

Edited 4 January, 200818 yr by GiorgioGT

Obviously there is also the advantage you don't have to put up with a bunch of knob heads in the car if people want lifts.

as some of you know I have a stripped out 1L mk2 polo, and I dont drive fast anyway, but stripping it out does mean that I get better fuel economy and the driveability of the car is better as I dont need to change down gear as often when going up hills.

I can also get something 8ft long into my car.

I can also get something 8ft long into my car.

Sorry, but that really made me laugh

There are definately driveability improvements, especially when you are running a small underpowered motor. Take my 1.0 breadvan, it never used to pull 4th cleanly from even 40 mph, but after it was stripped it shuddered a bit but would happily trundle around and pull from a Twenty's Plenty zone in 4th

I'm going to remove some weight...but prob. going to try and get the corner weight better...rather than the over all figure low.

did anyone have like these strange cube shaped bags of a salt/sugar substance under the carpets in the front? my floor is kinda sunk on either side and i was worried about it :p looks like somone tried to even it out :/

Edited 5 January, 200818 yr by scrobert

or8 m8

mines completely stripped with one seat and a harness haha

you can deffo feel the differance

the handes on the door cards srew into the actual door frame itsself so you still have some handles to grab hold of

i gave mine a good clean aswell after it got striped cause theres all stones and stuff

got some pics here for you

but you also might want to remove weight from the front as well, as all that you are doing is creating a nose heavy car.

dont remove it, spread it out to the back. to get the balance.

+ a 1.3 is not a nose heavy car unlike a vr etc

Edited 5 January, 200818 yr by polokid

taht looks col mate get taht glue off the fornt and it will look great not sure about teh noise of it though!

+ a 1.3 is not a nose heavy car unlike a vr etc

of course it is. not weighed a polo engine but its probably a healthy percentage of 780kg