haygeebaby

Hi guys - did the lower dash delete today and some time next week will be doing RS door panels.

Took me about 2 hours to complete this job. Lots of things to take apart - including the entire center console cover, CCU, CD player, etc. End result is some weight loss, more leg room, and a mess of cables and some chasis metal being visiable - which gives me a new project to add to the list.

Most insteresting part was the total weight of the removed components - including lower dash, glove box and lid, screws and covers, and three metal mouting brackets. Total weight of 5.4kg.

Rennline lower dash is a decent piece of kit. It's made of thin, light weight metal. A little fragile so you need to be careful how you treat it. Total weight was 580 grams.

So we've lost another 4.92kgs. (10.82lbs). Most noticeable difference is the extra leg room - very nice to have. Don't like the fact that you have to drill into the existing dash to mount. There is a little bit of a gap but its very small. No place to put my coins now. Pretty easy and cost effective weight reduction project.

RS door panels to come soon ...

jungleboy

Looks like an easy enough mod for some weight savings... So does the last pic show the rennline lower dash??

Macca

Haygeebaby. Great work. Have you have the car on the scales yet? What is your target weight? Easiest 20-30kg would be the seats? Im also on a diet but Ive struggled to get below 1328kg but have kept air con, rear wiper, sunroof, rear seats and belts, standard door cards (I have the CF inserts and the CF door release and find the storage really useful), and have added weight in with 18" wheels/tyres, stereo, dipping mirror, rai sensor, FE bracket and FE etc. Im running out of ideas now - want to put in a Lsd this year for +4kg so would like to find 4kg reduction.

Apart from the obvious changes youd think there was something on these cars that could be removed, replaced or drilled out to bring a gain. Its a shame there isnt a modern lightweight air con system we could all install when our evaporators inevitably pack up. After all at that time its usually a 3k fix and would make sense with the labour to rip out the old system (35kg?) and replace with a lighter one (15kg?). Would probably find a modern one runs better even if it were lighter and smaller....

Cheers
M

Roche993

I just did this and the fit and finish are perfect. It did leave some things under the dash to be seen but a few zip ties for the hanging wires and some creative use of cloth black tape hid almost all of it from being distracting. I took out the two plastic vents that divert air on the footwell sections and that cleaned it up a lot. As an added bonus, I put in two small lights taken off the ash tray light wires for footwell lighting. Very cool at night. I would guess 15-18 pounds put in the attic. Highly recommmended but storage for "stuff" now must go in side pockets. RS door panels will be next to really clean it up.

Bill Verburg

here's the break down for this mod, all weights on a postal scale(it's pretty accurate) in lbs.

passenger side A/B 6.94
passenger side A/B covers 0.75
lower dash & glove box w/o ashtray 11.50
Panasonic CQ-DPX151U 3.80
ashtray 0.75
dash brackets 3.25
hardware 4.00
add back Rennline dash -1.00
sub total dash 29.99

trophy

Rennline are out of stock of the lower dash's in Black at the moment.....

NP993

Looks much better if you replace the lower dash with the late 3.2 Carrera/early 964 lower dash (that's what I did). No drilling, same weight loss, and looks factory.

Nollie

I went ahead and ordered this last week... hopefully they'll get some more together soon. My weight loss program has gotten silly.

shu

Cool mod......

V

Macca, if you have not done it already you should consider replacing your bonnet with a CF one. Saves a lot of weight and really does not affect ride quality. Just a thought.

nile13

Question to OP. Is this a street car or race car? If a street car... I'd be a little careful. Lower dash protects your knees in case of an accident.

Viggo, about CF hood. Not sure how much weight would be saved over aluminum when all attachments and latches are figured in, but generally i would not want to further reduce weight on the front of a 993. It's fairly unbalanced F/R as it is.

Macca

Hi Viggo/Nile13,

Thanks for the suggestion. Ive done some extensive research on CF hood. With hardware installed Im seeing only 5-7kg/12-14lb saving over factory and have the hassle of storing the original (Ive kept all original parts since the beginning). With shipping, preperation and fitting we are talking a 750+usd exercise. Ideally id like to keep all original body panels.

Im looking possibly to change from HD+M030 to PSS10 as a matter of course and wondering if there are any savings there?

That air con must be able to be substituted for something lighter and more efficent in 2011 surely? Theres a project i need to research....

Cheers
M

axl911

Agreed. You can also keep the ashtray to carry your coins too. Knee protection is important with the padding in the later 3.2 lower dash.

NP993

Macca if you want to lose weight, there are no magic tricks. Don't know why you're getting yourself wrapped around your own axle over this. Fiberglass hood, lose the lower dash, etc. I'm at 2790 with stock sound deadening/heat/AC, and it's great fun. You just have to get rid of some stuff.

Macca

Noah. I think you might be right. Robert Lindon at Cartridge has shiw what can be done in selecting a few traditionally heavy parts and having them fabricated in carbon. His posts in this board are inspiring. Expensive business tho.

Maybe Ill just do the CF RS door cards and be done with it LOL!

Cheers