Wait! Weight?!?

Well with the car down to a roller I decided to see what the weight was. Lesson learned from prototyping aircraft is to follow-up and check the weight periodically to avoid the surprise of having a 200lb useful load. :) The weight always creeps up and you have to deal with it, this car was no exception. :(

Unfortunately I never did get it to the gravel yard to weigh it before hand but the published curb weight is 2400lbs. Now that 2400lbs doesn't include any options and my donor was fully loaded with PS, AC, AM/FM/CD, leather seats with built in speakers, etc. I have been weighing all of my parts as they come off the car with a bathroom scale. I have been doing it in boxes so that the accuracy errors don't add up (errors are rarely linear). I did not weigh the engine I removed but research says it should be about 300lbs wet. I also did not weight fluids but everything else was accounted for:

3/15:
Exhaust: 36.2lbs
Spare Tire: 22lbs
Top and Frame: 34.6lbs
Top parts, rear compartment panels, rear carpet: 38.2lbs
131.2lbs removed

3/17
Radiator 17.6lb
Airfilter and Misc: 12.2lbs
Header and downpipe: 18.0lbs
PS + hoses, AC (partial), misc 24.6lbs
72.4lbs removed

Engine: 300lbs (est)
Fuel tank and hoses: 27lbs

630.6lbs removed
2400lbs - 630.6lbs = 1769.4lbs

Now how to weigh my roller? Well I could spend $1700 for a nice set of race scales that I would but under all 4 wheels but I don't have that money to blow so I went for a cheap solution. I bought 2 scales with a 440lb weight limit for $25 each (you can find them on sale for $17 sometimes).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00472I1V2/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

Now based on a few tests I would say the scales are accurate to ±5lbs but that is good enough for my for the car weight. So to avoid exceeding the max weight I put a 2x6 across the 2 scales and recorded both weights. I jacked up each corner and got 4 weights, one at a time.

FL: 248.6+220.0=468.6lbs
FR: 264.2+220.0=484.2lbs
RL: 293.6+212.8=506.4lbs
RR: 286.7+222.0=508.7lbs

That puts the roller weight at: 1925.9lbs :( I am 175lbs over my estimate of where I should be today!!!

Now adding up the weights of my other parts the weight will be ~2800lbs at in street form. Well above my final target of 2204lb (1 metric ton) but I do have some more weight reduction (heater, air conditioning, stereo, lighter seats, windows.....).  That 1ton goal is for a very stripped down version but all this doesn't fully add up since I know of people with ICE powered NA miatas at 1800lbs. Part of the weight increase is I have upped my pack size.  I knew it will be a struggle to get that low, but that extra 175lbs will make it virtually impossible.

BTW I apologize for using the antiquated units, my scale was in lbs but from now one I will be recording in the proper units, SI.

Hopefully next week I will have my PL6 battery tester back and a motor adapter so I can make some real progress.