Does anyone have recommendations for lightening a Maxima? I'm going to be adding a full custom sound system and was thinking about the weight that it would add. NOw what would it take to lighten a Maxima? I've thought of the seats already, i have dual power seats, and thse will be replaced by racing seats when i redo my interior. I guess the real question is where could i remove weight without gutting my car and compromising (too much?) crash worthiness?

 

your best move is to design the system so that it's as light as possible.
The next step is to remove sound deadening materials from the floor and carpets and trunk.
other than that, there's really not a lot of weight you can pull off the car long-term that won't seriously affect the car's overall strength.

Just build the system as light as you can. (i.e. run a single 15" in a small box instead of 2 or more 12s in a huge 200lb box....
make the box out of fiberglass, or composites. Mine will be a honeycomb composite using kevlar and graphite.. should weigh under 10 lb for my entire box, whereas my old wood one weighed almost 100lb.

make the system removable too. My amp rack will have quick disconnects on all the wiring, and be extremely easy to remove- same with my subs..
that way when I get to the track, I simply pull the system out and save myself 140+ lb.

(the amps will weigh about 75 and I've got 50lb in subs. amprack will probably weigh about 15lb.)

 

Well unfortuantely running 1 15" is not an option, i'm running 3 12"s. And i was looking to have the system fiberglassed into the trunk, but i'm not set on it. you mentioned a kevlar graphite composite....what's the cost of that? Are you making it yourself? If so, do you want to make one for 3 12"s?
I was afraid that there was not a whole lot of "extra weight" to get rid of outside of seats. I guess my best bet is to lose weight where i can and just up the power on my engine.

 

KEVLAR!!!!! that way when you go on drivebys your subs wont get shot up!!! dude, that is so pimp!

 

I don't know if a carbon fiber hood is available, but if it is, then that's a place to save weight.

 

you can take your hood, make a mod of it, and make a fiberglass hood. . . . done it before. . .

 

composites of any sort are NOT cheap. enough material to do the box ONCE (i.e. if you don't screw up and use every bit of it to the fullest extent) will cost easily $400. that's not to mention the labor and tools necessary to do it.
I have a professor at school who used to work for the Dept of Defense in designing composite structures (you know, those big black planes that are invisible to radar? he designed lots of parts on them), and is going to help me with it. As for making another one for someone else, that won't be possible, sorry.
(btw, I'm using 4 12s. )

 

First place to start saving weight is the driver..

two words

Slim Fast

 

 

Damn, i need to lose more weight? I'm already at 160..

 

4 12's....nice what are you using? It's cool that you can't make me one....that wouldn't be you make sure you have the only one is it..


As far as i know a carbon fiber hood is not available for 3rd gen, i believe there was going to be some sort of group deal on one but i believe it fell through, so flyry what would it take to make a fiberglass hood?

 

it's 99% of the fact this stuff is EXPENSIVE and hard to work with and I'm only going to do it once. if I screw up, there's $400 in materials down the drain. you can't just bondo over this stuff and smooth out goofs like you can with fiberglass.
the other 1% is so I'll be original. The week I started posting pics of my polished aluminum false-floor amp rack, I had about 40 emails asking me if I could give them blueprints to the amp rack so they could copy it.. after I said told them it was simple enough to do without blueprints, I began to see almost identical copies popping up all over the place. I'm glad I did something everyone liked, but it ****es me off that EVERYONE tried to copy it. I did it to be original.

subs I'll be using are Focal 12" subs. amplifiers are:
PPI A1200.2 1200x1 subs
PPI A404.2 200x2 midbass
PPI A600.2 150x2 mids
PPI A200.2 50x2 tweeters
PPI A200 50x2 rear fill/center channel/ backup amp/ whatever I decide to use it for

 

Yeah i know what you mean, doesn't is Suck when peoplecopy what you do? You put in the time and effort and they copy, what you should do is say that you will make it for them....for a price since they're gonna do it anyways! You might as well benefit! Four Focal 12's? They only come in 11, 13, and 15 don't they? Either way damn, that will be one hell of a stsyem. Where are you located? I would love to hear it when ever you get it finished

 

these aren't the "regular" Focals. they make 10, 12, and 15" versions of some lines.
I'm in Tulsa. come to one of the dallas meets this summer and I'll try to make it. (You're in Houston, right?) I usually try to drive down to one or two Dallas meets during the summer, and it will be at least that long before I'm finished!

 

I'm in Austin actually, sweet, i'll have to be sure to be there when you're in texas. Not the regular focal? Hmmm...now you have my attention, what exactly do you have?
I have a very vague recollection of 12 inch subs from focal