floor padding RESOLVED

[RRoller123]

Yeah, it is about 3/16" of an inch thick, and slightly compressible. If it were placed between the vinyl and the fibre board, a small circular area could easily be cleared to make way for the window crank, so I m unconcerned about that. I am thinking that if it were sandwiched between the fibre board and the door frame, it would give a pretty good measure of water resistance. But I can't get out there to look at it for maybe a week, I just had double hernia surgery Thursday and it is all I can do to sit here for a few minutes a day on the computer! Thanks to the Good Lord for painkillers.

[4uall]

what is the best way to remove the factory tar/covering?


Rear passenger floor by itzebtze, on Flickr


Drain holes? by itzebtze, on Flickr

[DocGraphics]

I took a heavy duty putty knife & a hammer & chiseled it out. Alot of small chunks flying everywhere but got the job done.
It took about 2 hours per side but most every bit came up. Not all that hard just time consuming.

[blurple124]

Same here. I wonder if a heat gun would help at all?

[aj81spider]

Another post suggested a tool from Harbor Frieght that I bought.

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... ol#p118864

It worked great for me.

[dantye]

Same here. I wonder if a heat gun would help at all?

Not sure what was used on other years, but this is what I found on my '81: Heat was counter-productive for this job, as it just created an unmanageable "goo." In fact, the colder, the better, since it becomes more brittle and is easier to chisel out. A narrow, frequently re-sharpened wood chisel also works well, since you can take a hammer to it, and get it into some of the odd corners and indentations. Then, after cleaning, treating and patching the rust, I used a spray truck bed coating to replace the factory coating, then poly felt padding with foil thermal barrier down, adhered with spray adhesive.
Hope you find fewer rust holes than I did! (see album link in signature.)
BTW, in the bottom photo above, the left hole is the one you can use for a tube to refill the transmission if you don't have a pump. It, and other factory round holes should have a removable plastic plug. There are also little factory triangular drain punch-outs you should leave open.

[4uall]

thanks so much for the info. Every day I am thankful for this forum

[4uall]

well look what showed up today


EZ Cool arrived by itzebtze, on Flickr


EZ Cool by itzebtze, on Flickr

Now bring on the warmer weather (currently -34C)

[RRoller123]

very "cool"!!

[4uall]

what is the best way to remove the factory tar/covering?


Rear passenger floor by itzebtze, on Flickr


Drain holes? by itzebtze, on Flickr

Found a great tool on sale at Canadian Tire and it helps with the removal


Removing sound deadning by itzebtze, on Flickr

[TulsaSpider]

Doing this myself at the moment fun fun fun....

[124JOE]

i will be doing this as well in the summer

[burgandy81]

I used 10Kg of dry ice to remove my floor insulation. The rapid cooling makes the tar based material brittle. If you do it on a warm day when the sheet metal is reasonably warm you may get lucky and the tar will flake off as it cools and contracts. Mine did.

Wait for a really hot day (in Vancouver that is anything over 34C).

Pour half the bag of dry ice onto the floor and let stand for 10 min. Brush the ice to another section of floor to chill and get to work on the first section with a putty knife.

The cold tar came up in large flakes.

Pull out the big chunks and just keep sweeping the small pieces remaining dry ice on top of any remaining tar before attempting to scrape it off.

IIRC i spent a full afternoon getting everything cleaned and prepped.

Good luck,

Jordan

[dantye]

I used 10Kg of dry ice to remove my floor insulation. The rapid cooling makes the tar based material brittle. If you do it on a warm day when the sheet metal is reasonably warm you may get lucky and the tar will flake off as it cools and contracts. Mine did. ...

Jordan

That's a very cool idea.

I chiseled mine in the Winter when it was several degrees below freezing - but for Summer, your idea ROCKS!

[txSteve]

For those of y'all that have used EZ Cool, how much did you end up buying? And did y'all end up glueing the carpet down to the EZ Cool layer? Curious how that felt underfoot. Considering my Spider came with carpet glued directly to the floor, I can't imagine its any worse

Also, out of curiosity, anyone know if all the different products I find online named EZ Cool are the same product (just sold through different sellers)? For example:
http://www.ezcool.ca/ezcool/index.html
http://www.lobucrod.com/