I've dropped close to 800 lbs off my Dakota, maybe more now with the manual steering. Interior, before and after. The new steering column is steel, steering shaft is solid...Lot's left to loose. I'm at 3150 lbs without me in it, all steel body.
I've often wondered about how to handle the interiors in modern vehicles when turned into in race cars. Modern car architecture and all it's trappings can be overwhelming with all the computer age/OBD/air bag stuff. Even if electronics are designed to be low-maintenance and lightweight, adding more of it everywhere tends to make things more bulky and complicated overall. Removing all of it is probably the only reasonable solution.
I've worked on enough of them to know there is no elegant way to make it 'look stock', 'cool' or otherwise. I guess you found the answer.
