Thank you Sam for this advice! I really appreciate it. When I’m done with my ‘40 I’d like to hear a robust sound when I close a door. Do you think that adding rubbers all around the door inside edges will also help? Is there enough room to fit rubbers there? Regards, Chris Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
So there is no problem with putting the dynamat right over the tar coating? I'm thinking that I won't be trying to take out the tar since there doesn't seem to be a need to remove it. My car has little rust, few dents and if the dynamat sticks well to tar, why make work for myself (I'm doing a pretty fine job of making work for myself anyway)? Even in the trunk I plan to eventually line or upholster it in some way. So for me, the tar is strictly an esthetic issue.
When I got the car in 1966 the bottom of the tool box was rotted away. I ground it down and fiber-glassed it. I used body filler to get it nice a smooth. It still looks great (on the outside; however, I notice that the inside is not very smooth as I didn't try to sand out the heavy pieces of glass-cloth I used to make the repair).
Well.... The surface needs to be very clean. If the old insulation is very rough which it often is the dynamat may not adhere to the body as well as it would if you clean it first. I recommend that you get the surface as clean and smooth as possible within your physical and physiological and time limits of course. cleaning the inside of the car cannot be as bad as what you went through cleaning the bottom of the car.
Last summer I had to remove most of my trunk panels and found that where I had failed to use tape over the seams of the Be Quite (like Dynamat) where it ended below the rear window area some of the tar like stuff had seeped out. It had sat out in 100 degree temps a few days. Luckily it was such that no material was affected. In my 40 sedan project I will use some of the stuff that lobuckrod here on the HAMB sells. A few years ago I did some fairly extensive testing of various insulation products and found his to just as effective as the Be Quite stuff at heat reflection. It is very light weight and can be glued to the underside of the top. Nothing to seep out.
Before you start make sure you have whatever fire fighting things you have close at hand like fire extinguisher etc. ( I never had need for them but just in case). Would a heat gun, (not a hair dryer) work? Would be safer, no?
Yes it does. That's how I've done it, heat gun and a scraper followed by a couple of wipes with laquer thinner and a rag.
Mostly focused on the bottom of the package tray, so most of the work was with me on my back in the trunk and reaching up to wire-brush the bottom of the package tray and nearby areas. Wonderful work for a contortionist. Uggghh! Here's a "before" picture I took to remind myself of where the wire for the license-plate light was clipped to the trunk frame. You are looking up and can see the door to the house through the trunk frame opening: So, a lot of wire wheeling and hand-work with a scotch-brite pad and then clean-up to get this: And this (the yellow/brown tinge is reflection, not rust): And this: I've scrubbed off all the paint that I could and wiped everything down with degreaser so next will be After-Blast treatment. Happily, none of those areas are overhead but on the sides and bottom of the trunk.
My older brother, Mark, asked me an innocent sounding question after seeing my last posted pictures: "Interesting looking trunk hinge, are you going to remove it to clean under it? " He is obviously a trouble maker.... I was quite satisfied with myself until he posed that question. Afterwards, however, I kept thinking "hmmm?" So, here's the before picture - (actually not quite, as you'll notice that something is already missing: the trunk-lid! I had to get help from my highly-paid assistant to remove the lid...) But, it obviously had to be done: And now underneath the hinges it is nice and clean.... Here's the one on the driver's side: The mounts also were supported by carriage bolts through the channel around the trunk opening. Note the square hole for the left bolt was slightly mis-aligned when drilled so it was modified sometime last century (probably in the factory, I suppose): And now, everything is clean:
By the way, hoisting it like I did hasn't had any effect on it. I was sort of hoping that the doors would get pulled up and into alignment, but no (see the body line in the photo.) So, I'll have to monkey with the hinges later.
Got the After-Blast on the trunk. Scrubbed it down lightly with scotch-brite pad, wiped down with degreaser, vacuumed, taped off, and then out came the Rustoleum.... A real black-hole without flash: Okay, let's put some light on that sucker: From other side (like it makes any difference): No, I didn't paint the support rod because I haven't taken the time to clean the end that attaches to the trunk-lid. I'll have to get out an old toothbrush and degreaser for that. I'm also thinking it would be nice to replace it with some pneumatic lifters (what the heck are those things called?) like we have on our Equinox rear hatch. So next I start work on the cabin!
Sort of an afterthought, but if you sprayed some light gray paint on there, it would help lighten up the inside of the trunk.
My plans are to line/upholster it some time in the future. Maybe even add a light that comes on wen you open the trunk.
With the trunk painted it was time to get out the angle-grinder and wire brush and work on the floor of the cabin. It was hard to get a good, over-all picture, but here is looking through the trunk after I finished grinding and cleaning up: Looking through the passenger side windshield opening you can see the seat stacked on the right side. I first moved them to the passenger side and wire-brushed the dirver's side. Once that was done, I moved them to the driver's side and then did the side you are looking at here: While I was grinding today I had to take a break and vacuum up the area 4 different times to pick up all the crap (paint, rust, tar) that the grinder liberated. This was about as dirty as the bottom of the car! Here we are looking through the passenger side window towards the front. It's a bit hard to see but notice that rear metal is much nicer than that of the front of the cabin. There is a lot of rust pitting in the front floor area. I noticed a few pin-holes on the driver's side when I was wire-brushing it. I suppose I'll have to epoxy them or something just to make sure it is sealed there. Next step is to take the hand drill with small wire brush to get into all the areas too small for the angle grinder.
That's a pretty solid floorpan. I'd clean it a little more, wipe it down and paint it with Hirch's Miracle Paint; 2 coats.
I took the electric drill with a wire brush to get the spots that the angle-grinder with a brush couldn't get to. I just worked the passenger side of the cabin since the rear seat is stored on the driver's side. (Not really a problem as just doing one side was enough to give me an aching back.) This was followed by the usual vacuum cleaning to reduce the mess. My wife says it sounded like I spent almost as much time cleaning up as grinding! (She was in the kitchen cleaning the oven.) I then donned my Tyvek suit and treated it with After-Blast. Here's looking towards the front (that's my rear seat stacked up on the left): The After-Blast makes the good metal look pretty nice, but it also makes the rust really stand out. You can see that in this picture from the front: I'm hoping I can get this side painted before working on the driver's side, but it may not be warm enough for a while. In that case I'll just have to move on to finish wire-brushing the driver's side and then After-Blasting it. A non-heated garage creates some limitations....
Yes, thanks! But I was hoping it would have removed more rust on the front section. In any case, it is supposed to seal it.
I put the electric heater out in the garage (actually under the car) to warm it up. Took a couple of hours but it got warm enough to work and paint. I lightly scrubbed the passenger side surfaces with a scotch-brite pad first and then wiped it all down with cleaner/degreaser. Let it dry for a couple of hours and then went back in to paint. Here's a shot through the windshield opening: Hard to see black-painted surfaces. Here's from the bell-housing opening (which is how I get into the cabin to do all the work! I'm a part-time contortionist.) Lower angle makes the near-by black appear grey, but it's not: So once this dries I can move the seats over and finish the work on the driver's side.
Driver's side before After-Blast (you are looking towards the rear of the cabin with the fan sitting in the trunk area): And then, afterwards: But, looking into the light (as above) makes the front part of the floor look better than actual. Here is what you see looking straight down without the reflection. The front part had a lot of surface rust. Hopefully, now neutralized: Next I'll scrub it down lightly with a 3M pad, wipe it down, and then paint it with the rustoleum.
The Jalopy Journal
