Seat and Interior Panel Removal

Why

I knew once I got the car that I would have to remove the interior to fix some of the problems such as the surface rust in the rear. Also, the previous owner converted the car from an automatic to a manual and decided to cut out the entire section of carpet under the pedals for some reason.

I have already purchased a used carpet in decent shape, and I'm in the process of cleaning up all of the interior pieces before putting them back in the car. I also have to order some random bolts and screws that were missing or completely rusted.

In addition to cleaning out the interior, I was curious to see what difference the weight reduction would make in performance. The car did feel more responsive with less weight, but it also gained a slight tendency to understeer. This might be a result of making the rear lighter than the front. The weight bias toward the front should theoretically make the car understeer in long, high-speed corners.

The interior is going back in the car after I repaint the trunk. The full interior (except for trunk carpeting) is required to be legal for the STS class in SCCA autocross.

Seat Removal

  1. Unhook the hatch area cover from the hatch and remove it from the car.
  2. On the back of the rear seat, there is a metal trim piece secured to the seat with 6 screws. The trim piece holds a piece of carpeting onto the seat. Remove the trim piece and take off the carpeting. The picture to the left shows what it looks like with the carpet piece off.
  3. Now go inside the car, and find the two latches that hold the bottom of the rear seat in place. The picture shows the one on the right side.
  4. Pull one latch, and slightly raise the seat to unhook it. Do the same with the other latch. Now lift up the front of the seat and slide it out. The picture shows what it looks like with the seat bottom removed.
  5. There is a piece of foam padding underneath the seat (the black sheet) that can be removed.
  6. Now fold down the seat back and remove the two bolts on each side that hold it in place.
  7. Remove the brackets.
Hatch area cover removed Rear seat carpet removed
Rear seat bottom latch Rear seat bottom removed
Rear seat padding removed Rear seat bracket
Rear seat bracket bolt  

Cleaning up everything under the seats is a pain, but at least you'll probably find some change. I found $2.91.

Seat Belt Removal

I decided to take off the seat belts while I was at it. I need to remove the seat belts so I can take off the trim around the hatch. This is one of the places where water is leaking, so I'm going to remove the trim to find out where it's coming from.

  1. Remove the lower seat belt mounts.
  2. Pull the cover off of the seat belts near the rear glass.
  3. Remove the bolt that holds the seat belt mechanism in place.
  4. Take off the the seat belt latches bolted to the floor.
Lower seat belt mount Rear seat belt cover
Rear seat belt mechanism Rear seat belt latches

Interior Panel Removal

After taking out the seats and carpeting, I realized I needed to remove the panels as well to get to all the rust. I didn't have my camera while doing this, but the process is pretty simple.

  1. Remove the panel at the rear of the trunk that covers the taillights.
  2. Take off the plastic pieces that cover the speaker brackets.
  3. Unbolt and remove the large curved panels that cover the rear strut towers.
  4. Remove the plastic side panels that are normally next to the rear seats.

Weight Reduction

I weighed all of the parts on a bathroom scale to get a rough estimate of the weight savings. I guess this doesn't really matter since everything is going back into the car soon, but it will be useful to know if I ever decide to move to a class that allows more modifications.

Hatch area cover: 10 lbs.
Carpeting and metal trim piece from the back of the seat: 5 lbs.
Seat bottom: 10 lbs.
Seat back: 16 lbs.
Two seat back brackets: 2 lbs.
Two complete seat belt mechanisms: 9 lbs.
Two seat belt latches: 1 lb.
Total: 53 lbs.

I also bought the car with no stereo. The stereo and speakers weigh about 15 lbs. A standard chuki S13 240SX weighs 2,657 lbs., so the car should now weigh 2,589 lbs. By the way, it is not allowed to remove the stereo in the STS class, but I really don't feel like paying for a stereo system just to be completely legal for the class. Besides, it is only 15 lbs., so it shouldn't be much of an advantage.

I didn't weigh the interior panels, but I'll do that soon and post it here.

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