How to shave weight from my Marmot Precip? (and DWR question)

I too was in love my Marmot Precip (2004 model) and when it finally bit the dust last year I needed a new rain jacket for my thru hike of the PNT last summer. I bought another Precip and got crazy with my sewing machine.

First I removed the hood leaving a couple inches of fabric around the neck to seam shut creating a little collar. If I was to to do this again I would put a light piece of supple fabric to act as a bit of a stiffener in the collar. I should note that I wear a wide brimmed Tilley hat all the time when I'm hiking so a hood is unnecessary for me.

Next I removed all the annoying flaps of fabric that fold over the zipper and removed the zipper as well. I replaced the zipper with a Uretek waterproof model.

I also removed all the heavy rubber clasps and velcro aaround the wrists of the jacket. These seemed totally unnecessary to me.

Lastly I removed all the cinch straps and cordlocks because I typically wear the jacket loose like a shirt anyway.

I don't know about shaving weight, but I fixed the DWR on my Precip with a bottle of Nikwax TX Direct wash-in, designed just for this purpose. I got mine at REI but I expect it's sold at a lot of places. It worked great for restoring waterproofness. It made the jacket a little softer than it was before, which feels nice.

…and the final weight was?

Marmot has an extremely light rain jacket made for high energy fast moving activities. Has no bells or whistles. I have worn it on numerous backpack trips and hikes and it works outstanding. It has a higher price tag than the standard Precip; but I have found it to be well worth the cost.

Whats the jacket called?

Sam…. WOW!

so…two questions:

1) What was the final weight?

2) Will you do mine? ;)

Seriously though, thanks for the input, i may have to take mine to a seamstress……

Shame on you Sam for leaving us with a cliffhanger!

I'm sorry to have left out the weight of that. My digital scale was stolen last year so I weighed it on my 'mostly-accurate-analog-scale' and it came in at about ten ounces. Marmot lists the jacket as thirteen ounces (not sure what size though) so there was at least three ounces of weight saved – but more importantly unused functionality removed.

The lightweight jacket someone was asking about is called the Marmot Essence. I purchased one last spring and tore a hole in the armpit within a weak. I patched it and sold it on eBay the next week. I depend on gear that is durable and that is why I went to so much trouble to modify my Precip.