I'd like to know who...

tronman · 11-18-2002, 07:50 AM

I'd like to get my hands on whoever it was, way back when, that decided it was a great idea to use horsehair and tar as sound dampening and insulation on a car!!! I spent the weekend ripping the interior out of my car(yeah eveything looked good, but I was worried about rust) jeez that stuff is a pain to scrape out. I finally broke down and used the 'ol Aircaraft Remover on it and that worked very well even if it is a bit messy...(if you haven't used this stuff before...be sure to wear gloves!!! That stuff burns!!!)
I have everything out and am about a quarter of the way done with the stripping job...and yepp there is rust. My inner rockers are solid except for one hole about the size of a quarter...along the floor pan to side pan weld in the rear floorboard the are a couple of holes right along the weld that are about 2-3inches long...and one spot along the side of the front floorboard where the seam is about the same size. Underneath the bottom looks ok except right under wear the jack holes are on both sides...this is in the piece that goes betweeen the outer rocker and the floorpan. Next job will be fabricating patch panels to weld in place once I have all the rust out of there...might as well do this stuff in the winter...so I can cruise next summer!!!

craign · craign's Garage

You can probably thank Hanz and Otto for devising that scheme during a drunken holdiay party or something.

I sometimes think German midgets built these cars cause it is sometimes impossible to get hands in to places where they really need to get to.

Craig
www.bay912.org

bmwloco · 11-18-2002, 10:30 AM

I've restored not one, but two 912's in the last year. My '67 Targa, and a '66 Coupe.

Both had the same horsehair & tar you wrote about. Evil stuff, but I used Aircraft stripper too.

You're right - it is scary, but it flat works. I got shiny, gleaming metal - which I cleaned and cleaned again, then coated with POR-15 - top and bottom.

After that, I painted the outer pans with a "gator guard" like coating. The result? A beautiful job that should help preserve both 912's for many, many years to come.

skystryd · skystryd's Garage

I knew the floor pans were...'past prime'. PO did an easy way out repair. looks kinda sad under there.
couple days off coming up. hope to make some progress. before work tonight messed around a bit.. think I hear a bit of ..piston slap in # 1.. thats where the bent plug was I think. this cant be good.
wish I could continue working nights and remain up days.. get more done. just that sleep thing getting in the way.
chuck

Griznant · Griznant's Garage

I've managed to tear off the "tar boards" from the floor and whatever the hell the excuse for insulation is back in the engine compartment. Talk about a mess. I'm sure 33 years ago this stuff made good sense, but by today's standards, it's crap. The stuff under the floor was on good and solid though, at least where the floor hadn't rusted through. Had to go at it with a claw to get it out. The garabage in the engine compartment could be sucked out with the shop vac. I wonder how much ended up in the carbs when the PO didn't run air cleaners during "tuning".

Oh well, dynamat should fit the bill.

Later,

G

Big D · 11-28-2002, 08:16 PM

Have you found the guy yet? I just dug out some sort of mat from my engine compartment that between catching fire and being 36 years old was really something to behold. Whats left is the tar you mentioned. Really need to pull the engine to fix it right but will need colder weather before I put it away for the winter. Just replaced the whole front end and got it running good so I want to enjoy a little more.

Green 912 · 11-29-2002, 05:38 AM

Check the fan. Loose stuff ends up in it, can cause it to be unbalanced and in the worst case fly apart, trashing your motor and tin. Someone told me how he spent 2 weekends tinkering and tuning his motor to find why it was running rough around 3500rpm. He finaly "fixed" it when he found a big wad of sound deadener in the fan.