9/15/03
Prepping the Floors for Carpet

It was time to figure out what to use to insulate the interior of my car from heat and noise. When I looked on the Internet for suggestions, I found there were almost as many opinions what to use as what kind of motor oil to use! Since I am an audio engineer by trade, I felt that I could at least make a logical decision from my experience. To insulate from sound, I needed something that would stick to the sheet metal so that it would deaden the resonance of the steel. The insulation would have to be waterproof so if it got wet, it would not absorb the water and trap it and rust out the sheet metal.  I also wanted a foil backing that would help reflect some of the heat back down and keep it trapped in the insulating layer. I could have simply bought some commercially available sound deadening material, but products like “Dynamat” are pretty expensive when you have to cover the area inside my car, so I found this “Duct Insulation” at a “Lowes” home center for less than 1/4 the price. It comes in 12 inch wide rolls that are 15 feet long. It’s made from 3/8 inch thick closed cell foam, so it will keep water from collecting. The aluminum backing is pretty thick, and doesn’t stick very well to the foam, but will mold to the contours of the floor pan with some work. Other commercially available products are tar based, but I’m also trying to keep from adding too much weight to the car.

The plan is to cover the whole interior with this stuff, and seal the edges with another product called “Peel ‘n Seal. This is a tar based tape that has an aluminum backing as well, but is thinner than “Dynamat.” Some people use “Peel ‘n Seal exclusively on their interiors, but I feel it’s too thin to deaden the panel real well, but when using a combination of these products, they should give me the best results.

I basically stuck the sheets of insulation on until the whole floor was covered. Of course I used twice as much as I thought I would need, so I’ll have to make another trip to “Lowes.”

Since I had enough insulation to cover the right side of the car, I finished cutting the carpets for the passenger side of the car.

I promised to reveal the identity of the mystery Future Ferrari Part, so here it is. These nylon spacers will be used to hold the male snaps that hold the carpet in place on the floor. Since I’m adding insulation, and each piece of carpet will have a jute backing layer, the snaps will be too far apart to hold. This spacer will bring the carpets closer together when everything is installed. The original ones were made out of aluminum, but were wither lost when the florins were replaced, or rotted away. These nylon ones will last longer, and were ready made from “McMaster Carr.”

Another bit of detailing was to cover the seat rails with leather. I found some scraps of leather from my seats, and stretched them onto the rails.

Seeing how much leather could stretch from the door pockets, I decided to try and stretch these pieces onto the rails without too much cutting and folding. I may even leave some of the excess because they will be covered nicely by the bound carpet edges.

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