Metal removal at rear, opinions

[Ivan141]

As they say, it does not weigh much, I should know because I bought a new one once (they tend to do their own weight reduction, aka rust).
If you do decide to take it off, chop off the rear side pockets while you are at it.. those are only good for storing the jack and rusting anyway.

An ae86 is pretty light in the back, the only substantial bit of weight in the rear is the rear axle. To be honest, there is little weight to be saved outside of the interior, windows, and FRP body parts (if you do this, the doors are a great way to shave a lot of weight). Anything you do to reduce weight might bring structural rigidity (as far as there is any on these old cars) down or cause safety hazards (frp doors stop less than a metal one).

The plastic fuel tank might be a nice way to shave weight in the back, that's the second heavy part back there.