Engine compartment foam - R&R

About a year ago, my original TR engine bonnet insulation got so bad and crumbly that I had no choice but to scrape the rest of it out. The underside of my bare chiclet wasn't just sort of ugly -- it was truly hideous so I finally got around to doing this project. I knew this wouldn't be easy (it wasn't), and had some trepidation going in that it would become a Shipwright's Tale (and it did ), but, first, I'd like to give a big "thank you" to Benny Souder for helping me with the Aeroflex material and to Brian Crall (Rifledriver) for letting me use his template to trace out the shape.
Where it went wrong for me was when I unbolted the front frame piece 61498200 and realized that it was partially cracked on the LH side and completely cracked into two pieces on the RH side. The only reason it didn't fall out is the crack just happened to be located under one of the flat washers. This photo shows where the cracks were located (of course, this is actually a picture after repair and repainting, I just drew in with red where it was cracked):
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I have to blame this completely on the Designer for having sharp zero radius internal corners in both places (and them lining up with the holes didn't help). This pic shows the instructions that I gave to the Welding Shop to add some reinforcement pieces (there really isn't an option to add anything on the "inside" so it's all got to be done on the "outside"):
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and some close-ups after the repair and repainting:
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And the final result:
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I opted to use this 3M 08090 spray contact adhesive as it specifically stated that it was appropriate for attaching "hood silencer pads" in a high heat underhood environment:
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Now I look forward to smiling whenever I open my engine bonnet rather than cringing in disgust

 

Yes, no problem there at all. Here's a shot after gluing it in (I used wax paper as a temporary separator to help not have it all stick at once, but it's still very challenging since it's so flexible/stretchable):
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It's a darker grey (almost black) than the (light grey) OEM material -- but most OEM pieces have turned brown by now . It certainly looks OEM in form IMO -- such that someone who doesn't know stock TR wouldn't ever think it wasn't stock.

 

For that support to be broken is pretty common. As I recall there was a TSB on it. Good fix. If you look in the mirror while driving that piece shakes up and down quite a bit. Little wonder they break. Was not real well designed to support the weight that it does.

Benny just gave me more rubber. He was holding out on me. Turns out he had to make a minimum order and he had quite a bit of it.

We went to the game and just spent the money yesterday actually. Thanks.


From a color aspect it will not pass for OEM but it is a good product and should last a long time. I looked extensively and never found something I felt would be concours correct if that is a concern to anyone. The factory did deliver cars to the USA with no foam the way that the European cars were finished so I advise people concerned with absolute correctness to do it that way. The foam was installed for sound deadening reasons only and they were inconsistent about it. Some US cars even got the silver Dyna Mat type material meant only for Swiss cars. .