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Thermal shielding floors and firewall

Started by b5blue, June 23, 2016, 06:19:38 AM

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b5blue

  Thermal shielding, I've been looking at ways to block the incredible amount of heat I feel coming off my naked floorboards now that the A/C is working in my 70 Charger. I can't see the rubber/foil mat stuff hampering heat transfer and the cheap thin bubble stuff will just flatten out under foot pressure. I bought some 1"X2" sheets of thin fiberglass with foil on one side and will test this weekend with my heat reading gun. On Amazon I found 10 square feet of similar for 28.00 so ordered that also. The idea is cover the really hot spots with the 2 sheets I have and then overlay them and a wider area before installing the jute/foil insulation from DMT. My new carpet has a thin layer of jute under it so at each step I'll real world test each layer with my heat reading gun.
  I'm not worried about sound my car has stockish mufflers now and will get a stock system later. So far I've got 70.00 for the DMT jute/foil stuff/ 45.00 spray glue 3M-90 and foil tape/ 45.00 for the two 1"X2" stuff and 28.00 for the 10" square stuff. So about 200.00 outlay but not much weight added unlike rubber/foil matting. I've some other stuff used in thermal packing to try on the firewall, I'll post pics and report back over the next 2 weeks. Chime in with ideas/advise and opinions if ya want. (I didn't get much feedback from others on my earlier post.)

72Charger72


66FBCharger

I'm very interested in what testing results will be.
'69 Charger R/T 440 4 speed T5, '70 Road Runner 440+6 4 speed, '73 'Cuda 340 4 speed, '66 Charger 383 Auto
SOLD!:'69 Charger R/T S.E. 440 4 speed 3.54 Dana rolling body

Troy

If you are only concerned with heat, you can go light. However, the reason a lot of insulation is heavy is because it also reduces vibration/noise. If you ever have one of these cars completely stripped to the shell you'll notice it makes a pretty decent drum. This, I believe, is the reason for the undercoating inside the rear quarter panels. Road vibration, drive train noise, wind noise, sound systems, and so on all benefit from dampening the large sheet metal areas. Same goes for having tight seals.

Have you thought about shields under the car? Once the metal body gets hot the heat will transfer.

Troy
Sarcasm detector, that's a real good invention.

b5blue

Ah, phase 2...under the the car. That will be around new exhaust system time, not soon. ($$$) 

crj1968

I bought some rolls from Home Depot  (Lowes?)  This stuff- definitely made a difference...but I've nothing to compare to really.  $20 well spent though.

http://www.lowes.com/pd/Frost-King-R3-15-sq-ft-Single-Faced-Fiberglass-Roll-Insulation-12-in-W-x-15-ft-L/1081449

b5blue

R3 helps the foam blocks and foil reflects.  :2thumbs:

funknut

Insulation is good just about anywhere, but foil only really works when the shiny side is facing the thing that's hot with an air gap in between them.  Otherwise it just becomes a conductor and does not effectively reflect the radiant heat.

b5blue

I'll get some baseline numbers for naked steel this weekend.

b5blue

  Well I was going to post pics but that is not happening. (Nothing to do with forum.) Baseline about 85 today with rain. Within 4-5 minutes idle on carport I'm getting 130* next to tunnel/firewall area. Back by seats we are getting 107* in some areas next to tunnel. Rain screws my testing, it would lower real ##.
  So things start getting real toasty pretty fast, I'll layer shielding to see if it works.

b5blue

Okay getting readings of 15-20 degrees lower with just thermal shields installed. The stuff is like a heavy canvas ( But fiberglass.) stuck to foil with the glass side sticky. It conforms better than expected but can't quite handle the embossed ribbing on the floor boards all the way. I'll be watching adhesion durability over this week to see if the heat causes separation from floors painted with enamel. 



garner7555

Very interested to see how much difference this makes.    :yesnod:   I plan to do my floors, roof, doors, quarters, trunk, and firewall.   Gonna try to bring it up to a more modern level of insulation/comfort.   
69 Charger 440 resto-mod

b5blue

  Okay 2nd layer brings temps to about 97 degrees. Have carpet installed more or less and I'll see if that helps even more. The padded stuff in the link above is easy to work with. Cut with scissors and stuck down with 3M-90 spray glue. I did notice the foil pulls loose if your rough with it. I can tell if you used the foil/fiberglass stuff carefully and did 2 layers it would be really effective against heat and help with sound.  The cheaper stuff is just as good as the more costly for the most part.  :2thumbs:
  The tunnel area can reach just above 130 degrees with HP manifolds so Lord knows with headers! The heat is highest at the entire tunnel and about 8 inches to each side.

b5blue

3 days driving around with carpets mostly done and boy what a difference! Worried about adding too much thickness under the carpets this has worked out well blocking heat. Yet to take any real long trips it has proven effective in stop and go driving around town.  :2thumbs: