Has anybody found a decent replacement foam product? It is NLA at Ferrari. If not, it looks like some paint is in order.... BUT the glue must then be stripped off. The underside of the fiberglass seems relatively porous and acetone will likely cause damage. Does anybody have some tips for glue removal? Thanks for your experience, Vincenzo Maybe this... Image Unavailable, Please Login
try first normal fuel, if this will not work fine try then brake cleaner and if this will not work try carb cleaner or take a hot air gun
My go-to for that type task is medium acrylic enamel reducer-flashes pretty quick & less aggressive than lacquer thinner. Available from an auto paint store, but sadly this product was recently outlawed in parts of CA (at least) so I can't get it anymore. Neither the reducer or lacquer thinner should have any affect on the fiberglass/resin (if not allowed to pool) though it may strip or alter the sheen of the paint--would be a good time to re-spay some semi-gloss black anyway. Mineral spirits is probably a better choice if trying to preserve your paint, and the hot air gun is another good idea. My foam was either previously removed or never installed (not all US market cars had the foam) so mine is bare. I'm told knowledgeable judges won't deduct points for "missing" foam (I've never lost points). If you still have some of your foam I think you'll see it was dark gray in color, pretty closed-cell, and also pretty thick--maybe more like 20mm than the 10mm listed above. Unfortunately I don't have a good source but there have been a few previous threads on this topic if you search. Regardless, good luck and show us your final results. Photos of NOS OEM foam (not mine): Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
US cars are supposed to have foam but in the real world they had foam, no foam or the dynamat type stuff that was supposed to be on Swiss models so all are considered correct. There are no short cuts. I take the fiberglass piece off. It is very easy. Use 3M general purpose adhesive cleaner and coarse Scotchbrite. Its made for this and is safe for the paint. Several of us have looked high and low for a bulk rubber product that looks correct with no luck. If you really want foam BMW and Mercedes have over the years had some models with big foam hood pads that look similar and can be bought cheaply. Best you will wind up with is something that looks kind of correct and if shown would be a deduction. Or you can paint it flat black and be correct. One of my sources shows the OE foam is still available but it's over $700.
Thanks guys.... I need to get a few of your favorite products and then dive into it. The surface appears to be unpainted fiberglass which seems to absorb the chemicals I have tried so far. I fear solvents soaking into the fiberglass and softening the substrate. The Amazon foam is on the way - but it sounds doubtful. Unfortunately paint seems to be the best solution. I’ll follow up soon.
I wash it thoroughly multiple times when done with hot water and detergents then let it bake in the sun or under fairly hot lights to get the chemicals out. People wonder why it costs so much to replace a piece of foam. It is a few hours of work.
The foam lined leather in my hood was falling off when I bought my TR. I have three of the five panels replaced but damn its a lot of work, just like the engine cover. It took at least an hour a panel to scrape all the old glue and dried up foam off, plus drilling out the rivets for the angle channel that holds it in place. I laminated new foam onto the leather and it looks fantastic... Image Unavailable, Please Login
I am surprised that there is a not an OEM style of foam that has been identified and can readily be purchased. Surely Ferrari used foam that other Euro manufacturers like eg. Porsche or Fiat would have used in the day.
Plenty of them They just look different. The cars were built 30 years ago. The world is full of things that were around 30 years ago that you can no longer get.
I am not a frequent poster here. But my 1989 car's foam disintegrated. It was brown, but I think that was from age. I found the NOS stock piece, but I assumed that it was pre-rotted after all these years. So I spend forever looking at every vintage photo I could find. For some odd reason, photos of the underside of the engine bonnet were not the most popular views of the car back in the day. I learned of Swiss, US, Euro cars, the wisdom of foils and all manner of solutions. I think my car had black foam, 1/2 in (actually some metric approximation to that) thick. I just wanted my car to look like I think it looked when it was new. And I didn't want to ever have to do this again. I did not consider the virtues of alternative approaches. I did not try to resolve why the foam was there in the first place. I am not a materials science person, but I learned all about foams and the materials of various foams. I read innumerable spec sheets on the properties of foams. I did not want it to be vulnerable to the chemicals in the engine bay, and I did not want it to melt on my engine. I decided I didn't want it to catch fire and burn. I spent several months and looked at every commercial product I could find for a car, or a boat, or a plane. The previous sentence is as minimal a description of what I did, and that's all I'm going to say. IMHO, the best product to replace the (black) foam under the engine bonnet is Aeroflex AeroCell. I will try to post a photo below. It's fairly impervious to chemicals, good to like 600 F, not flammable, insulating and sound deadening, and it's a closed cell surface black foam. I had some problems obtaining it, I had to buy like 6 sheets or something to get it. It's like "not sold in stores!", you have to go to a distributor (or my barn, where the unused sheets sit today, I guess). I spent several months and looked at every adhesive I could find for a car, or a boat, or a plane that would bond foam to metal and meet the same performance specs as the foam. The previous sentence is as minimal a description of what I did, and that's all I'm going to say. I found (and can try to find the receipt) for an adhesive that is good to extreme temperatures. It's not LVOC, came from Germany, is illegal in the US, and sold on EBAY. Worried that it might not be enough to complete the job, I then bought a can of Aeroflex Aeroseal, I think it found it by accident at Home Depot. It's legal. Just buy that. I took these materials to Brian Crall Company, Inc. in Lakeway TX. You may know that there is someone who posts here a lot that is involved with that shop. I will try to post the photos of the result. I am happy with the result. I know there are many advocates of many solutions to this issue. Many are wiser than me. I am sure their solutions are as good if not better. I will never have to do this again, and my car looks like all the documentation I could find said it looked when it was new. This whole affair was a few years ago and not being a foam or adhesive person my knowledge has faded over time. I don't post here often, but if you have questions you can ask and I will try to remember to look here and do my best to answer them. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That is fantastic information. I really appreciate not having to duplicate all the research you have done.
This came out of the car. It is 15mm thick. Crappy, old brown colored foam with a thin ‘cover’ on only one side. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Cleaned the old glue off with Brian’s suggestion. A PIA but it worked as well as can be expected. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Cleaned off the final bits of glue and adhesive remover with a scraper and then followed up with kitty litter. It soaks up the cleaner well and clumps up the final bits of glue. Sanded with a coarse 80 grit to knock off the really rough bumps of fiberglass. I did NOT try to make it body perfect. I imagine that Ferrari did the same. Filled the low spots with glazing putty and sanded it back with 150 grit and then a final shot of 220 grit. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The results are a little bit more glossy than the surrounding OEM paint, but given that it is rattle can paint, I expect it to soon become more dull. The harsh lighting makes the gloss differential look more prominent than it appears in person. With the light off, it looks very similar. Foam? Maybe next time. The aerocell looks like a pretty good solution. Benny - Thanks for the foam info. Had I known that three weeks ago, I would have tried it! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hello Folks! I found this thread doing a search... I have a Mondial but this thread applies to my situation. My 3.2 was built in the same era as the Testarossas, so we have similar issues. My engine lid foam has just about all disintegrated also. This foam just falls apart. It's in pieces all over the engine compartment. So my question is...and after seeing all the responses... why do we have the foam there anyhow? This cannot be enough to shield the engine lid from heat... Can't possibly be a noise/vibration reducer. So whats the point of the foam? I may be naïve, haha, as I am a first time Ferrari owner - 86 Mondial 3.2, and please forgive me for posting a different model in the TR forum.
I know that on some of the Porsche's of the era the foam was fire retardant and designed to melt and help smother an engine fire. But probably just for some sound deadening, eg. the Swiss Cars had lots of extra foam of the same type in the wheel well liners, and various engine bay baody panel areas to meet the more stringent noise regulations in that market. Might be for outside noise abatement, rather than less noise in the interior of the car as the objective, as the Swiss sound regulations included drive by sound levels.
