Hi all,
Over the winter my friend and I ripped my car apart and patched all the rust we could find. It was mostly front battery tray stuff and some in the floor, as well as each of the studs holding on the heat shield just after the downpipe (on the passenger side of the car). These had become a trap for salt when driven during the winter months. I just replaced my firewall insulation with some dual sided aluminum foil thermo-tec stuff and am considering using the same to replace this heat shield. The other shields are in good shape, but the one under the passenger footwell has disintegrated. When we patched the rust we did not install new studs in the floor. The thermotec stuff is held on with a combination of their special adhesive as well as most of the OEM studs inside the tranny tunnel. I'm worried about gluing this stuff underneath the floor of the car as it will probably collect water and if the glue fails it will fall onto the exhaust. I don't want to put new studs in and buy a new heat shield because I don't want that to lead to the same type of rust we just fixed.
I'm considering taking the thermotec stuff and lining the inside of the floor board on the passenger side. That way there's nothing underneath to collect water and salt, and the floor is potentially more insulated than before. This is on my convertible daily driver so weight isn't a concern, but comfort is. Most of the insulation stuff in the car is more for sound than heat, and I'm not really worried about the exhaust baking the undercoating of the car. But should I be?
Another thing is I'm planning on wrapping my downpipe once we get to that. Should I wrap it all the way to the cat? Or will this again collect moisture? I love driving this car in the rain so I'm trying to consider all the options.. except of course the OEM solution
Over the winter my friend and I ripped my car apart and patched all the rust we could find. It was mostly front battery tray stuff and some in the floor, as well as each of the studs holding on the heat shield just after the downpipe (on the passenger side of the car). These had become a trap for salt when driven during the winter months. I just replaced my firewall insulation with some dual sided aluminum foil thermo-tec stuff and am considering using the same to replace this heat shield. The other shields are in good shape, but the one under the passenger footwell has disintegrated. When we patched the rust we did not install new studs in the floor. The thermotec stuff is held on with a combination of their special adhesive as well as most of the OEM studs inside the tranny tunnel. I'm worried about gluing this stuff underneath the floor of the car as it will probably collect water and if the glue fails it will fall onto the exhaust. I don't want to put new studs in and buy a new heat shield because I don't want that to lead to the same type of rust we just fixed.
I'm considering taking the thermotec stuff and lining the inside of the floor board on the passenger side. That way there's nothing underneath to collect water and salt, and the floor is potentially more insulated than before. This is on my convertible daily driver so weight isn't a concern, but comfort is. Most of the insulation stuff in the car is more for sound than heat, and I'm not really worried about the exhaust baking the undercoating of the car. But should I be?
Another thing is I'm planning on wrapping my downpipe once we get to that. Should I wrap it all the way to the cat? Or will this again collect moisture? I love driving this car in the rain so I'm trying to consider all the options.. except of course the OEM solution
