I am on the horns of a dilemma. Of all the car related decisions that anyone could have to make, I should be happy that my problem is relatively minor. But that does not make the solution to the problem any clearer. I have to make a decision about modifying my hobby car, I want to make the car as light as possible. It involves removing a fairly large part of the car. But I also want to the car to look aesthetically pleasing once the job is done.
My hobby car is a 1987 Honda Civic CRX . Essentially a stripped down two-seat version of the ubiquitous Honda Civic, it is a cute little car with a peppy engine and a sporty suspension. By no means a "sports car" as it came from the factory, the car is a favorite of enthusiasts who recognize the basic platform’s potential for performance enhancement. Light with a slippery shape, just a little bit of tweaking can turn a common commuter car into a fairly aggressive road machine. The key is to minimize the car’s weight and increase the engine’s out put.
At this point I have made as many engine modifications as I feel comfortable doing. I have maximized the flow through the head, raised compression and reduced rotational weight and stayed within the letter of the California Motor Vehicle Code. From a stock 91 horsepower, my engine is making somewhere in the region of 130 hp now. I could swap in a larger engine or add a turbo charger, but for my purposes this engine and its output are fine.
With engine issues put to rest that leaves weight reduction as the path to performance improvement. My car left the factory at 2050 pounds and I have stripped it down to about 1850 lbs. This was achieved by removing as many non-essential items as I possibly could and replacing some parts with lighter replacements. This leaves me with a lean, mean road machine with very few concessions for creature comfort.
Stripped for battle and the power up to maximum potential I have changed the power to weight ratio from the stock 22.5:1 to a much more appealing 14.1:1. A staggering difference when you think about it and I should be happy with the good improvement.
But good is never enough. I want MORE. Or in this case LESS. Less weight. And this is where my problem lies. The last non-essential part of the car that could be removed is the sunroof and its motor, tracks and controls. All together I can remove another 40 pounds from my car by 86-ing the sunroof.
Simple enough, the sunroof mechanism on my car is attached by 10 12mm bolts that are exposed by removing the headliner. The removal process only takes about 30 minutes… and that includes stopping for a soda in the middle of the process. The tricky part is filling the resulting hole in the roof of the car.
I could just lay a piece of sheet metal across the roof and rivet it down. Effective but hardly aesthetically pleasing to my eye; the result would look like my car has a boo-boo covered by a makeshift bandage. There is a guy in Utah who sells a sunroof "plug" to fill the gap. But the kit is very expensive ($300+) for a sheet of carbon fiber and some L-brackets that the home hobbyist has to drill and screw together. Heck, I could fabricate something similar out of sheet aluminum and hardware store parts. But I have been trolling the Honda enthusiast’s web sites and there are guys who promise that they will be able to create a fiberglass product that will fit flush in the hole and not leave any rivets in view. Oh yeah, and these are the same type of guys who will sell you a bridge in Brooklyn, some Florida swamp land and a miracle carburetor that gets 100 miles per gallon.
So what to do? Dole out the big bucks for the Utah kit? Fabricate my own clone for the kit using a sheet of aluminum? Or wait for the Easter Bunny to deliver a product that no one has built yet? Or stop being greedy and live with the sunroof as it is? What do you suggest?