how do you pull the passanger seat? I would like to do it for cleaning not so much weight savings?

 

You don't have to sacrifice ride comfort to drop weight. For everyday driving I go without my spare and jack which weights about 35lbs. I plan on getting a CF hood, trunk, and fenders. Just about any aftermarket exhaust will drop lbs. A lighter flywheel gives you more horsepower while reducing weight. Our 24 lb wheels don't help either. Drop down to 17s inch wheels for performance and find a 17lbers. That will save you 28lbs in wheel weight. A lighter battery would help. You get my drift,you don't have to go extreme.

 

How do you fill the water passages in the engine with cement? And cement is usually heavier that water. That would be fun to watch someone do this and the engine blow up.

 

Ok, took just the bottom piece of the rear seat out (what you sit on). To my surprise, it weighs 10 lbs! All it is is foam wrapped in leather.

I have one question though, how do you get the upper part of the rear seats out?

My a/c is shot. I think I have a crack in it. Plus, I NEVER....I MEAN NEVER use it. I didn't find out it was not working until my friends were hot and wanted the a/c on. A question about that, so I can't remove the a/c condnesor or the a/c itself because it's on a pulley?


Edit: Also, I'm trading all my seats for my brothers two front base cobalt cloth seats. I will be sporting cloth bottom of the line seats for a while until I pick out which racing seats I like the most.

 

There are just 4 bolts holding the folding seat back on. They bolt into the floor. You must disconnect the battery to thread the cable out. Also, since you now have no rear seat remove the seat belts and retractors and rear head rests and hardware.

If you haven't done so, remove the 2 engine hanger brackets and bolts (if you ever need to pull your engine, just bolt them back on,) the under-hood blanket and engine plastics.

See my sig for a pic of what it looks like completed.

 

Where are the bolts? And why do I have to diconnect the battery?

Oh by the way, your setup is exactly how I want mine to look. It looks very clean. Nice job

 

if your brother has an '06 w/ the airbag sensor in the passenger seat & your seats dont he will get a service airbag message in his DIC...

 

He bought seroiusly one of the first cobalts out there. He was going to buy an 04 cavalier when he saw the 05 cobalt. This was in early feb. of 05.

 

lol, oh. Well how bad do you want to make the car go faster.

Ok, I guess my suggestion doesn't work for you.

 

lol

Ok finally got the whole rear seat out. Weighed it. Guess how much???? 30 lbs. It weighed more like 32-33 but scales lie sometimes so i'm going to round it. I'm hoping i can pick up another 5 lbs with the rear head rests and seat belts.

Next on my list: Spare tire
Air conditioning
Swap seats with base model seats

oh and by the way, it was a BITCH to take out the rear seats, also because this is my first time working on cars. Everything I do to my cobalt is a first for me. Took me 2 hours to get the rear seats out lol. Took me 4 hours to install my zzp tensioner etc. you get the point.

 

I won't be taking the a/c out anytime soon though. The reason being is because of the compressor pulley. If I remove the compressor, i'm going to have one loose belt. My friend and I are going to try and figure out how to tighten the belt up. In the meantime, I probably will remove the a/c condesor.

 

i shaved 210 lbs off my focus...it made a huge difference...once i get another daily driver i will be ripping this car apart. cutting out the interior support, all panels except for dash and poor panels, blower motor, box, a/c compressor and lines...then go from there. im not looking for a good resale...its a chevy

 

HOW ABOUT you take out both seats and gut the interior and just make it into an RC car.... or ever think about useing a jockey or midgit??

-drew

 

I am sort of a midget. But that's not the point, i'm only looking to shave off close to 100 lbs or so. I just thought I would make a thread telling people what I have done and how much weight it saved me.

I'm keeping this car until the day it dies, and when it dies, i'm rebuilding the engine, and when it dies again, maybe i'll think about getting a new car, but probably will end up rebuilding the damaged parts again.

 

Floff's Weight Reduction Stage 1 is almost complete. I just need to remove the rear head rests and seat belts. I just took out the spare tire and jack. I didn't weigh them yet but I will soon. I'm estimating 20 lbs with the spare and jack.

I've gotta take a pic of my car soon as well. The rear end sits up like the srt4's now. I need springs lol.

 

Spare and jack are closer to 20lb each...unless that's what you meant.

Blown-4-Banger took out his spare, jack, seats, and some interior trim for his track day diet, and I think it cut a little over 100lb...

 

You ditched the rear seats? LOL, badass dude.. you need to take me for a ride one of these days.

 

Lexan windows are illegal.. just lettin ya kno

 

I definately notice a difference. In 4th gear at around 45 mph I hardly have to use the gas in order to maintain that speed. It's crazy how much of a difference it is. I'm hoping to get better gas mileage out of it as well since I travel 200-250 miles to school every week.

I just need to figure out a way to get the a/c compressor out. Anyone have any ideas on how to re-route the belt or custom fabbing a pulley?

Over time, I will be purchasing fiberglass front fenders, as well as possibly even the cf trunk. Does anyone know how much the cf trunk lid weighs compared to the stock lid? It doesn't look like it would save much though.

 

I don't know, the jack is pretty damn light. I'm guessing maybe 5lbs, maybe 10lbs the most. The spare is so small. 16 inch donut with like a 20mm wide tire lol. I will weigh the donut and jack tomorrow as well as take a pic of the ass end of my car. The only thing that sucks now is that I messed up the whole weight distribution of the car. It's light as hell now in the back. All the weight is in the front now. I already have a cf hood, and i'm planning on getting fiberglass front fenders.

There's a company that sold a whole fiberglass shell of a modern gto. It was priced at around $4,000. I'm going to try and find that company and see if they will make fiberglass body's of the cobalt.

 

Do you know how many more mpg you will get for like taking out 100lbs, or like how much you save for just taking out the spare and jack?

 

100 lbs probably like 1-2 mpg....just estimating though. I don't think you will notice anything with just the spare removed.

 

dude you take off the doors thats 200 lbs. thats 2 1/10s of a second woopty doo

 

What about aerodynamics though? All that wind will be building up inside of the car. It wouldn't help much. But I know you were just kidding.

 

Ok, I just weighed everything I removed. My scale weighs to the .5 lb so just to be accurate I added .5 lbs with each weighing.

Here's the breakdown:

Rear Deck lid 5 lbs
Spare Tire 27.5 lbs
Jack and Tire retainer 8 lbs
Rear Seat Bottom 9.5 lbs
Rear Seat Back 21.5 lbs
Seatbelts,R Headrests
and hardware 13 lbs
Engine & ECU Covers 3.5 lbs
Air Box, R. Mats,
engine hangers &bolts 11.5lbs
Total wt. removed 99.5lbs
Weight added:
injen CAI, new deck lid,
new flooring w/hardware 11.5lbs
Net weight savings 88lbs

This does not take into account exhaust system weight savings which I estimate to be 25-30lbs min.