thinking of removing the spare wheel well and plating it over with a panel. is there much weight to be saved in doing this? any thing that i'd need to be aware of? Cheers in advance <returns to garage to continue attacking the golf with a hole cutter>
no i meant the other panels in the car already have lightened a few bits... want to offset the weight of the cage that will be going in. just think that there's a fair amount of metal in a spare wheel well so could loose that and maybe cover the hole with a carbon/aluminium panel.
yea mike, 3/4 double skins drilled, sunroof mech out, under rear windows drilled, front inner door skins removed, rear seat frame drilled, all sound deadening out, carpets, trim panels. getting there slowly.. getting a set of windows from pascal at the end of the month. but i can do the rear wheel well for free and make up a panel to cover it at work.
might be easier with the mk2. the mk1 has the rear panel attached at the bottom middle of it with a small extension plate to stop the panel flapping about. I'm hoping to do something with mine as well. Get a spotweld remover drill bit & drill out all the spots around the wheel well 1st & see if it is easier to remove. I kept this pic from a thread on here before (mk1 but you get the idea): He left the lip there to rest the lid on:
Removal may affect the structural rigidity and if so, would this be an issue ? In my Mk1 I`ve kept the `well` and fitted a fuel cell in there; then removed the standard tank
seems a bit pointless, and if you are going to seam weld all the way around then it'll probably weigh more when you have finished, the wheel well locally stiffens the panel can't see it being worth the bother buy a lightweight odyssey battery and fuel cell instead
If you put a aluminum lid there & just seal & rivet it there will be weight saved if your grabbing at anything to remove.
hmm interesting... structure shouldn't be a problem with a weld in cage fitted. Lightweight battery is already purchased and sat in my battery box where the rear seat used to sit, not sure if i'm happy with the position though.. it may get moved to the passenger footwell yet. i think i could save a fair amount of weight between the weight of a steel well and a flat carbon panel which is sealed and riveted on. however like the idea of a fuel cell... how much would a tank and suitable pump cost? and what sort of capacity are they? i've heard they're quite costly which is why i was looking at staying with a standard tank for the time being.
hmmm interesting. think i might stick with a stock tank for now. will knock up a carbon panel to cover it.
only problem with the fuel cells are the amount they hold in a wheel well, great for a track day if you bring loads of jerry cans but for daily use maybe not. take some pics for us of your progress please.
a pic of my tank in spare wheel well holds about 25 worth of v-max which doesnt last long when running a 16v on 45's
i was planning on moving my fuel filter and fuel pump into the wheel well and boxing it in, and fitting my spare wheel well onto that, with the fuel lines running inside obviously
Will do mike... i've not taken any of the lightening as yet. i'll get some pictures of my new door cards i've knocked up aswell
that's what i was worried about... on the road with the 20v that'd probably be about 180-200miles worth of fuel.. so not hugely bad but slightly less than i'd want in an ideal world.. i'd like to have a tank big enough to hold roughly 30s worth of fuel... or approxamately 35-40litres. do you work for Allard per chance pascal? had an intercooler made for my car by you guys last year (came up a couple of times to discuss designs etc with lloyd (i think) ).
I think if you could get 180-200 miles with a 1.8T on that tank you should be really happy. My mk1 only goes 220 on a standard tank.
