I've been poisoning myself with Cellulose thinners this weekend. Finally removed all of the tar sound proofing. I weighed some of it too. It appears that people have got a bit overexcited about how much it weighs. I would say that there's about 8Kg of it in an Astra.
Anyway. It looks much better inside the car now. If I can sort out the dash then I reckon it'll look great. I really like the totally stripped look. It looks, well, right. I took the passenger seat out. Went out for a drive at 9am this morning. A bit of drizzle had made the road surface a tad slippery. No traffic around. Sun shining. Ace. No speeding involved. Just happy with the way the car feels light. It moves, the brakes feel really strong and the car just feels pointy and controllable.
Yeah the thinners seem to have degreased my hair and bits of my face. Bad ****. Toluene, Xylene, Methanol. I was wearing a mask too. Driving round with the windows open all the time.
With the seat missing I was thinking "I've now crossed the line into bonkers land". People were looking. Nah, it's great, every drive is an event. I've also been entertaining myself with mini blips on the throttle when doing 30mph - each blip provokes a pop or burble.
assasin-your just an adrenaline junkie
Some of us- all though we all like a rush of the spicy stuff every now and again-prefer a car to actually handle and to get a bit of feedback. Its got to be a complete thing,wrestling a car down a road is one thing.....really enjoying the full 'flow' is another again.
I remember my first foray into tuning when I fitted gas shocks to the front of my 1.3 Astra. The first roundabout I came to I was whooping out loud. Never expected shocks to make that much difference.
My car handles too well ive not found the limits off it yet (well not really the power to fully exploite it)
Thats why im throwing a small fortune at it so it actually goes well as well as handle well
Its just that ive been driving a go kart with buckets that handles for too long (8 months) a car that doesn't with suficent traction and braking is too good to miss Its a hell of a lot of fun
My best weight saving was removing the spongy material above the tar mat because it was water logged and really weighed a hell of a lot.
And of course ditching these stupid rear passenger foot vents:
surprising really, that dense foam never dries out, which means constant wet for X years. took its toll on my pedal box area thats for sure and i had white mold on the floor pan.
I have had plates welded into that area circled, and had to have the bulkhead welded just higher up underneath the accelerator pedal.
Indeed, I must have been very lucky with this.
Also after washing the car there was a reasonable puddle of uninvited water sitting in the drivers footwell afterwards, so the drivers door seal leaks badly.
lack of plastic door liner might add to the problem then? - I dont have either left for some reason.
With a decent liner it should just drain out the bottom of the door shouldnt it?
nope, the liner will be just as bad. water is meant to drip off the bottom of the mechanism then out the drain holes in the door, but it doesnt it channels neatly down the door liner onto the interior side of the door seal, then straight onto the carpet by the chassis stamp.
I cured it by cutting out big cat flaps in the door liner, then poking them through into the cavity of the door. so water will drip off the bottom, then out the drains as it should.
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