240z.drago.com.au - Adventures of rebuilding a 1973 Datsun 240Z

As we had to do some repair work to the floor (and had to make sure there was no hidden rust), I had removed the bitumen lining on the inside of the car. Today, we re-applied new sheets of bitumen to reinforce the floor and to help with the sound proofing. Even after the first sheet was laid, the floor already lost the tinniness when rapped with your knuckles. Once all of the floor was covered, it sounded very solid.

When I took the A/C and heater core out from the inside of the car, we found that part of the firewall covering had deteriorated to the point of uselessness. Dad got this material that is called Floor and Firewall Sound Insulation. It is two layers of fluffy material sandwiching a layer of bitumen. We used the old bits and pieces that I had kept as a “pattern” and cut a new piece for the firewall. Once all of the holes were cut we made sure that the new piece would fit and it was then covered in a black material. We fitted it to the firewall and it looks great.

The new insulation stuff looked pretty good, so we decided to take the old stuff off the tunnel and replace it. We took off the piece that is at the front of the tunnel (which would be under the heater core and dash. We used the old piece as a template and cut the new piece. The new stuff is a little thicker than the old stuff, so we wanted to make sure that the vinyls would still fit. I got out the old tunnel vinyl and it looks like it should fit over the new insulation without a problem.

While we had the old tunnel vinyl out, we decided that it was in pretty good shape and we might be able to still use it. The new one that I bought from the states would be no good to use as the hole for the hand brake is on the wrong side of the tunnel. Dad had a vinyl cleaner and a trim polisher. We first hit the vinyl with the cleaner and a scrubbing brush. This got the most of the dirt off but there were some more stubborn stains that need a quick going over with some turps. Once the dirt was removed, we used the trim polish. The vinyl came up really well and there is only a small tear that will be hidden by the hand brake boot.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 21:51 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.