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hey guys chris fix here with my e46 that
i'm turning into an endurance race car
and today i'll be stripping this car of
as much weight as possible for two
reasons one
weight reduction because it's a race car
we want less weight into the corners
less weight while braking less weight
while accelerating and it's a 16 hour
race
so every pound counts and two we have a
cage builder who's fabbing up a cage
and needs that entire interior gutted so
he could fit it and weld it into the car
so i thought it'd be cool to show you
guys how heavy different parts of the
car
are and how much weight you could
actually pull out of a car and to do
that
i have these really nice race scales
each one of these scales goes underneath
the tire
and that'll give us an accurate reading
of how much this car weighs
before and after and how much each part
we remove weighs
now not only do i want to get a before
and after weight but i want to see how
much quicker this car
accelerates from 0 to 60 before and
after our weight reduction
and breaks from 60 to 0 before and after
our weight reduction
and to do that i have a gps unit that
will accurately track
our results it'll give us our zero to 60
we could check our breaking from 60 to
zero
that way we could see the acceleration
before and after our weight reduction as
well as our braking before and after
so let's head to the track and put our
car to the test
okay so we're at the track and we're
gonna line up in the same exact spot for
each run
and to keep it consistent every single
time i'll drop the clutch at 4500 rpm
all right and this is so easy to launch
because of the all-wheel drive that was
an awesome shift in the second
and it took us 6.79 seconds
let's do that again
well that was a little weird not the
best launch good shift
and 6.88 seconds
one last time good launch
good shift into second
and six point eight three seconds
awesome
nice and consistent with all three
launches taking about 6.8 seconds
from 0 to 60. now let's test the braking
all right for the braking i'm going to
accelerate to 60 miles an hour
and then i'll hold it there until i hit
the cones once i get to the cones i'm
going to slam on the brakes and we're
gonna get a measurement i'm using a gps
to be accurate so let's see what we get
and we have consistent but horrible
braking distances
at around 170 feet but at least we're
consistent which is important so we
could compare this to the car
after we got it so now let's head home
let's see how much this car weighs
and see how much weight we could pull
out of it
all right i'm back from the track that
acceleration blew me away that is way
better than i expected for this 250
000 mile car but that braking well that
braking was pretty bad my hummer
breaks quicker than this car and that
could be due to just old brakes that are
worn out and
old tires that are worn out so don't
worry about it we will replace the
brakes and tires before the race but
right now
let's go see how much weight we could
remove from this car first we need to
get the scales under each tire so let's
jack up the car
then we can slide the scales under the
front tires and carefully let the car
down onto the scales
good and same with the rear slide the
scales under the car
and then carefully let the car down onto
the scales
all right so with the car on the scales
i've always wanted to do this see what
my car
actually weighs accurately okay so it's
a 330 xi we have a quarter tank of fuel
remember this is the all-wheel drive
version
what are your guesses what do we think
and this is brand new so we're gonna do
something that is very satisfying let's
turn it on
we want to see our total weight and we
have 3 370 pounds
and i have a goal of getting this car
below 3000 pounds i don't know if it's
gonna be possible
but let's get started and see so here's
the breakdown for the weight reduction
categories
first we're going to see how much all
the seats weigh then how much everything
in the trunk weighs then we'll remove
all the plastic interior trim and see
how much that weighs then we'll see how
much all the carpet and sound deadening
weighs
then we'll see how much the headliner
and sunroof weigh and finally we need to
remove the major components from the
dash
including the airbags and we'll see how
much they weigh so enough talk
let's get started and start removing
stuff from the car the first thing we're
going to remove
are the front seats and the back seats
and let's see how much they weigh
usually seats
are pretty heavy so to remove a seat
there's typically four fasteners holding
it in there's two in the front and two
in the rear so let's slide the seat all
the way back to remove the two front
nuts
located right here and yes i know i'll
be using power tools but i need to speed
through all this because there's tons of
fasteners to get the whole interior
apart
so let's get these back two bolts out
good and then we need to lift the seat
up to get access to one last bolt
which holds the seat belt to the seat
good
and with that removed we could tilt the
seat back and get access to the wires
under the seat and then we need to
disconnect this harness like so
and finally everything is disconnected
so we can remove the seat from the car
and man oh man is this thing heavy now
let's remove the passenger side seat and
you ready saw how to do this so
and what a mess hidden under those seats
don't worry about that we'll get to that
once we remove the carpets now let's
remove the rear seats and check out our
weight savings
the bottom bench seat pops out just like
that and then it could be removed
next let's remove the two side pieces
from the backrest and they just pop
right out as well
and then to get the two back pieces out
fold them down and then we need to
unscrew the one bolt that's holding
these two seat backs together
and now each of these pieces will come
out and these are actually surprisingly
heavy
and just like that we shed 180 pounds
just by removing the oem seats and oem
seats from all makes and models
are very heavy that's just how it is
there's a lot of safety items in there
airbags the structural support so they
don't just bend in an accident
and electric motors for the power seats
which is very heavy
so 65 pounds for the driver's seat 65
pounds for the passenger seat and the
rear bench seat is 50 pounds
so we removed 180 pounds in just seats
bringing us to
3 190 pounds and the good thing is our
new racing seat that we're going to
install
and all the brackets only weighs 30
pounds so we just saved a ton of weight
and it looks like we might hit that
under 3 000 pound mark so now let's move
to the trunk of the car so we can
disconnect the battery
and gut the trunk so let's pop the trunk
open
and there's a lot of junk in this trunk
to remove but first
let's go disconnect the battery and you
always want to remove the negative
terminal first when disconnecting the
battery
then we could remove the positive
terminal and let's get this heavy old
bmw battery out of here
which still works pretty good and is
valuable it weighs over 45 pounds and i
already sold it to buy this battery
it's a used battery i picked up off a
prius in a junkyard for 25 dollars
plus it only weighs 25 pounds a small
battery will work just fine because
we're removing most of the electronics
and we really just need this to start
the car
and keep it running and with the battery
disconnected and swapped out now we
could get all this junk out of this
trunk
and that was 25 pounds right there but
wait there's more
we have a trunk floor which is made of
wood and then we have our very heavy
spare tire which we're not going to need
as well as a heavy jack and this light
piece of plastic but every pound counts
and since every pound counts there's
some sound ending back here in the trunk
that we need to remove
and this stuff is what gives bmws of
this error that crayon and waxy smell
that you get every time you get in one
of these cars
all right and then finally all this
spaghetti here look at these wires
they're all disconnected they're
tapped this is a mess here hopefully
that doesn't cause any issues
but this right here is our factory amp
this is what we need
for our harman kardon system to sell it
which is gonna bring us
good money and this also weighs a good
five pounds
and don't forget about the back of the
trunk good and with that we removed
everything from the trunk except a
little bit of sound editing here
here and right back there but we'll
remove that when we remove the rest of
the sound ending
after we get that carpet out you have to
use dry ice and it should be done all at
once i'll show you that trick in a
little bit
so everything we removed from the trunk
right here weighed 75 pounds which is
awesome so we have about 25 pounds worth
of plastic
a little bit of sound deadening some
carpets and then we have about 50 pounds
worth of a spare some tools
and also some fluids because this is a
bmw you always need some extra oil
so with our trunk completely gutted now
let's move on to our next step
and remove all the plastic trim from the
interior and we're going to start from
the a-pillar up here
and move our way to the back of the car
there's a ton of plastic in this
interior so it's going to be interesting
to see how much weight we actually
remove
so this a pillar trim is held in by
three torx screws and with those screws
removed this piece comes right out
now we can remove the door sill plastic
by pulling up hard and for once none of
these plastic clips broke
next let's remove the plastic trim under
the steering wheel which also just pops
out
now down here we want to keep our hood
pull working but first we need to remove
it temporarily to remove the plastic
around it
then we could pull the trim out and then
we could screw that hood pole back in
so if we need to open the hood we can
good
next let's pop out the outside door sill
plastic and now we're on to the b-pillar
plastic starting with this down here
covering the seat belt
and the trick for all these plastics is
using a hard jerking motion
that way it pops right off and you don't
break anything if you pull slowly
you're more likely to break the plastic
clips holding it in now we can remove
the seat belt since we're not going to
need these anymore
and these are actually pretty heavy so
moving to the back door we have
our inner dorsal plastic and then the
outer door silk plastic
then finally we can move to the rear
deck and c-pillar
and then for the c-pillar trim we need
to pop out the light and disconnect the
harness
and then this trim comes right out as
well now to get this rear deck out first
we need to remove the speakers so pop
the speaker cover off
then unscrew the three screws holding in
the speaker and then the speaker trim
and speaker come right out and for
whatever reason the wires to these
speakers were already disconnected
now with all that removed that allows us
to remove the rear deck
beautiful and then we can remove all the
heavy seat belts back here
as well as the plastic trim this
insulation
and the crayon smelling sound deadening
and although these pieces don't weigh a
lot
when you add it all up it is a good
three to five pounds just back here so
it adds up quickly
all right so with everything removed
from the rear deck i removed all the
plastic trim on the passenger side the b
pillar and the a pillar now let's go and
remove the center console
we need to be careful with this because
it's in good shape and we're going to be
selling it to recuperate some of the
car's cost
so remove the rear tray and disconnect
the harness and then under there there
are two screws to remove
and this plastic trim comes right off
now at the front we need to get under
the shifter trim so pop up the leather
boot
unscrew the two screws holding the trim
in and now the trim could be moved
giving us access to two more screws
holding the center console in
now that the center console's free we
can lift it out like that actually
there's one more harness for the hazard
switch
so let's disconnect that and now it's
free and finally there's two bolts
holding in the armrest
then that could be removed good and now
we have to tighten back down the two
bolts so the e-brake is held in place
good all right so everything we have
here weighs a total of
50 pounds bringing our weight down to
3043 pounds we're getting really close
to that 3000 pound mark i think we're
gonna do it now look at this this is
mostly plastics
25 pounds worth of plastics to be exact
and our center console was the heaviest
plastic piece
at around 8 to 10 pounds and that's
pretty good because plastic pieces are
very light
there's just a bunch of them so it adds
up and then the other 25 pounds comes
from our seat belt pre-tensioners
from our speakers and our sound
deadening from that rear deck that we
removed so with all the major plastic
pieces removed from the car
now let's move on to the next step and
remove the carpets and with these messy
carpets i'm not even going to bother
vacuuming i'm going to try to pull it
all out and contain it
just save me some time now we're going
to start up here in the front
and we have to unscrew a couple things
remove the gas pedal and then we can
take the carpet out
so first we need to remove our gas pedal
and to do that there is a tab here so
get a flathead screwdriver and push
down on the tab and then that will slide
right out like that
then we can disconnect the harness from
the pedal and this plastic bracket has a
bolt at the top we need to remove
and then finally we could carefully pry
this from the bottom of the bracket
and pull on it without breaking it
perfect and then that'll pop out just
like that
now we have this one fastener that needs
to be unscrewed holding in the front of
the carpet and a plastic fastener on the
side that we have to pop out
and finally we need to cut the carpet
over here but don't cut deep
just on the surface because there's
wires under here and then that'll allow
us to remove the front driver's side
piece of carpet like so
and then under that we have a piece of
styrofoam that needs to be removed
as well good now let's remove the rear
section of the carpet by pulling it up
and out
sheesh this is a lot heavier than i
expected for just some piece of carpet
so get this carpeting out of the car
good and now we have one last piece left
and i already cut the edge of the carpet
so we could pull it right out like that
and don't forget that piece of styrofoam
and we might as well remove the rear
vent as well
and check that out we hit our milestone
by removing
45 pounds worth of carpeting that is
crazy how heavy this carpeting is but
we're below 3000 pounds now
and just take a look at this look at how
thick this carpeting is look at the
insulation on it no wonder this is so
heavy so
carpeting 45 pounds removed and we're
not done yet we still have to remove the
sound ending that's bonded to the metal
now it might be a little difficult to
see to the untrained eye but we have a
bunch of sound ending in this car you
can see right here this darker gray
that is all sound deadening that dark
grey right there that's all sound
deadening
sound deadening sound deadening all that
up there sound deadening
all that in there sound dangling that
all has to be removed
very important because this stuff is
flammable once there's a fire
also the welder who's putting the cage
in can't weld to this he needs bare
metal to weld to so it all needs to be
taken out
and in order to do that because this is
very tricky to remove this is
from the factory it's like a tar it's
glued on there
it's not coming off easily but the trick
is to use
some of this dry ice so that is 30
pounds of dry ice
and that is going to be enough to do the
sound ending in this entire car because
we have
a lot of sound deadening look at all
that there is a ton and that's a lot of
work to do
so let me show you how to do this now
before we begin make sure you open up
all the windows and all the doors dry
ice is carbon dioxide carbon dioxide is
heavier than oxygen
it'll displace oxygen so you don't want
to work inside a closed vehicle make
sure all the doors are open you'll have
plenty of air flow that way you don't
suffocate
very important otherwise wear gloves so
you don't get frostbite and let me show
you how to do this
all right so the first step is to dump a
layer of dry ice onto the sound
deadening so it covers it completely
and then a trick is to insulate it so
grab a couple of sheets of tin foil and
cover the dry ice and this gets that
sound deadening even colder
now after about 15 minutes this panel
should be frozen so remove the tin foil
and expose that sound deadening
then you want to use a rubber or plastic
mallet and just hammer away at that
sound ending
because it's so cold it becomes brittle
and it should break off in chunks
if it doesn't it's not cold enough and
then you could use a scraper
actually in this case we don't even need
a scraper all this broke off so we can
just pick up the pieces and throw it out
and then once you're done on one side
move over to the next side and follow
the same process
hammer the sound editing loose and pick
up the chunks that break off
like so now for whatever reason in the
corner where the seam
sealer is the sound ending sticks to it
and it takes a lot more effort to scrape
it off but nonetheless it still comes up
and then finally we're done with this
section so vacuum it all up and move on
to the next part of the car
so there you go it's that easy to do let
the dry
ice do all the work for you let it sit
for 10 15 even 20 minutes make sure it's
ice cold
you can't get it too cold the colder the
better loosen it up with a hammer
scrape it and pull it all up comes up in
big clumps if it's not coming up
it's not cold enough but you saw how
easy that came up and that's all there
is to it so
i have a lot of sound deadening to do
because this is a bmw they put a ton in
here
i'm gonna get to it you guys don't need
to watch me do all this that'll be very
tedious so with the magic of editing
boom all of the sound deadening has been
removed
from the trunk to the midsection to the
seats
all the way to the front the only spot
that wasn't removed
is this right here and the same thing on
the other side i ran out of dry ice and
i'm running low on time
so i just need to get this car ready and
get it to the cage builder that's not in
the way of the cage i'll get that out of
there once the cage is in
but all the other sound deadening has
been removed so let's go see what it
weighs
and at 2973 pounds
we have removed about 25 pounds of sound
deadening
which is pretty impressive and there's
still a little bit more left to do so
you figure about
30 pounds of sound deadening total so
now with that let's move on to the next
step
and remove the headliner and sunroof now
removing headliners in most cars is very
similar
we'll start at the front removing the
sun visors and you'll need a little pick
to disconnect the electrical connector
good then we can pop out the light and
disconnect that as well
and finally we need to use a pick to
give us access to the two hidden screws
that hold in the visor clip
and then just unscrew them and that
comes right out so with everything from
the passenger side removed
i also removed everything from the
driver's side now we have to work on the
center part
in the middle here we need to remove the
panel that gives us access to the
sunroof motor
so disconnect both switches from the
harness then we just need to pop out the
map light
and disconnect that and finally there's
one screw holding in the headliner up
here so let's remove it so with
everything at the front of the headliner
loose
now we need to start working on the side
of the headliner
and the sides of the headliner are held
in by grab handles so pop off the covers
and unscrew the two screws holding the
handle in good with some editing magic
the other one is removed as well
and with everything on the side removed
i did the driver's side
as well now we can move on to the last
step which is the rear
at the rear we have a third brake light
cover that pops off and then there's a
plastic fastener holding the rear of the
headliner in
so pop it out and then finally we need
to remove the motion sensor in the
middle of the headliner right here so
pop off the cover
and disconnect the wire harness and
we're good to go now the last thing to
do is to remove the trim around the
sunroof
and with that out the headliner is
completely free to be removed
and you want to be careful here because
it's basically just a giant piece of
cardboard you could easily bend it and
crease it
and if you need to recover your
headliner that's definitely not what you
want
so carefully remove the headliner and
with that we just removed 10 pounds
and not only was that 10 pounds but it's
10 pounds up high so that's pretty
good it also gives us access to our
sunroof and we have to remove the
sunroof because in a rollover it could
shatter and shards of glass could get
everywhere which is definitely a safety
hazard
plus this has got to be pretty heavy
it's made of glass which is heavy it has
a lot of metal and there's electrical
motors in there
all of which are heavy and it's heavy up
high which is bad for center of gravity
so let's remove it
so removing a sunroof is actually pretty
simple there's a bunch of bolts in the
front that we need to remove
and then there's bolts that go along the
edges on the side
that we need to remove and this should
come right out so let's first remove the
five bolts holding in the front of the
sunroof
next at each of the corners we have a
drain tube for when it rains this drains
the sunroof so if the interior of your
car is getting wet maybe the back
carpets
maybe the roof check these sometimes
they get clogged with dirt and debris
and leaves and stuff and then get water
backing up into the car
so let's remove the drain tube and then
we can unscrew the four bolts holding
one side of the sunroof in
good and to prevent this from falling or
potentially damaging the roof
use something to prop up the sunroof or
if you have somebody could help you have
them hold up the sunroof as you unscrew
the last four bolts on the other side
and on this last bolt go nice and slow
so you don't drop the sunroof
and finally you can get under and
carefully lower it down and this is
actually pretty cumbersome and heavy so
be careful
so with our headliner and our sunroof
removed we just lost
40 pounds our headliner is eight pounds
and our sunroof
is 32 pounds and that's really good
because that's weight that was way up
top at the top of the car and that's
going to help lower our center of
gravity now the only problem is now we
have a large gaping hole in our roof
but don't worry we have a lightweight
sunroof delete kit that fits right in
like that
so let me show you how to install it now
before we go and install this it's very
important that we caulk the outside edge
with an adhesive sealant
so when adding sealant it's important to
have a consistent thickness and make
sure there are no gaps
i'd rather it be too thick going around
the perimeter than too thin because we
want to make sure this seals all the
water out
so caulk around the entire perimeter of
the sunroof delete panel
good now before you go and just install
the panel it's very important that you
clean the mating surface with a solvent
like alcohol to remove any dirt or
grease so the caulk bonds to the car
properly
and we don't get any leaks so make sure
you clean this area very well
and check out all the dirt we removed
now with that all cleaned up let's
carefully get our panels seated in this
hole
just like that beautiful and then we're
going to use the stock bolts to hold the
panel in but i'm going to be using a
large washer to distribute the load
evenly on the fiberglass that way it
won't crack
so let's screw in the four bolts in the
front
then we can get our two bolts on the
driver's side and that bolt in the rear
and finally the two other bolts on the
passenger side and that last bolt in the
rear
so that's all there is to installing a
sunroof delete kit
now our big gaping hole is sealed and
this only weighs two pounds it's made of
fiberglass so it's pretty light
so in total we lost 38 pounds from our
roof which is huge
now the last part of our weight
reduction is going to be to remove major
parts of the dash
all right so let's start here we need to
remove this airbag it's going to be very
heavy also we have this wood trim
which we are selling to help recuperate
some of the cost of the car so we need
to be extra careful not to damage this
trim
and get the tool under the trim and pop
it out good
now we can remove the two screws holding
the vent in and then the vent comes
right out
next let's pop open the air bag cover
and in here there are four bolts holding
the airbag in
get those out and then we can carefully
remove the airbag
followed by the airbag cover good next
let's remove the wood trim over the
radio
then there's two screws holding in the
radio so we need to unscrew both of
those
and then now the radio should come out
like that and the last thing holding it
in is the wire harness so
pop the clip up and pull that harness
right off next we can get the climate
control out
and disconnect all the connectors on the
back of this and there's a bunch here
and then below that there's a tray that
pulls right out and then below that to
get the ashtray out we need to remove
the shift knob
and then the bezel around the shifter
and then we can unscrew the two screws
holding it in
now let's carefully pull it out good and
finally let's put that shifter bezel
back on
and for right now i'm going to keep it
like this because it holds the window
switches nicely and it's pretty
lightweight
all right so with all those pieces taken
out we removed
15 more pounds from our car and we're
still not done we can still do a little
bit more i'm not doing it right now
but we can remove the glove box i have
all the registration and paperwork in
there
which we'll need for trailering the car
and i also have to remove the steering
wheel but again we're going to wait just
because i need to do the 0 to 60 test
and it makes it easier to get on a
trailer when you have an actual steering
wheel but right now
the dash is ready to be removed with
just four nuts we have a nut here
and a nut there and then a nut there and
a nut on the other side
lower that steering wheel down and the
dash will come out so the cage builder
could weld up the cage and get it in
and the last thing to do is install our
racing seat perfect
okay with our racing seat in that looks
absolutely incredible let's go find out
what
our final weight is and it looks like we
are at 2940 pounds remember we started
at 3
370 pounds which means we removed
over 430lbs from
this car which is incredible that's over
10 of this car's original weight
gone and i cannot wait to see how this
car drives
now we didn't remove absolutely
everything there are other things in
this car
that can be removed for example the door
cards part of the rules for the race
we're in
says that when your windows are rolled
down you have to have door cards to
contain the glass just in case the glass
breaks in an accident
it won't go into the driver's
compartment so these are going to stay
here i will probably end up removing
the speakers though because those are
pretty heavy another thing is
the airbags so i didn't remove the side
curtain airbags because the dash has to
come out
for me to remove those so after the cage
is welded in i'll go remove those
airbags
and then one last thing excess
wiring there's tons of it we took a lot
of stuff out you don't need all this
wiring
i don't want to cut it right now because
i know my luck i'll cut it and the car
won't start
so after the cage goes in i'll start
cutting out the wiring that we
don't need and that's just more stuff to
save you some weight so let's head to
the track and go test this car out
so we're at the track and already this
car feels completely different
i cannot wait to see how much faster
this car accelerates so let's go do the
0 to 60 test
okay moment of truth
good launch good shift
yeah yeah
baby 6.17 seconds
okay run number two
6.09 seconds and we have one more run
let's see if we can get this below six
seconds
4 500 rpms
perfect shift in the second
whoa 5.97
we are below 6 seconds for that zero to
sixty
yeah yes
finally we finished off with our sixty
to zero brake tests and all three of
them were right around 140 feet which is
a lot better than 170 feet from before
i think losing the weight helped but i
also think we bedded in these brakes
during the before tests which gave us a
better braking performance since our
brakes are so worn out
either way this is a good improvement
and less weight to slow down is
definitely helping
now back from the track and all i could
say is holy smokes
what a difference not lugging around
430 pounds worth of parts makes
this car feels so much lighter and
quicker
i mean acceleration wise we saw it's
quicker breaking wise we saw it break
faster
and it just feels absolutely nimble what
a difference 430 pounds makes and i
wasn't expecting i wasn't expecting a
huge difference
and it just it blew me away i mean it
kind of makes sense the seats alone
60 pounds each the carpets 45 pounds
all the fasteners that holds all this
stuff in five pounds
it all adds up and man oh man when
you're not carrying that around
this thing is a rocket so there you go
that is how much weight you could remove
from your car and that's being pretty
realistic i could still pull out a
couple more pounds
and i will eventually but this car is
ready to go to the welder i can't wait
to get that roll cage welded in
and as always i hope you guys enjoyed
the video i hope you learned something
new if you did remember to give it a
thumbs up if you have any questions feel
free to comment below i'll do my best to
answer them
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and as always all the tools and products
i used in this video are linked in the
description
the race is coming up soon so stay tuned
