FAQ: Underhood Insulation Pad/Liner

i agree with AJ, if you look closely you'll see that there is a nice air gap between the outside and the inside. so IMO there is no threat to paint embrittlement from the heat.i have not purchased the metallic liner ,money issues. that stuff is expensive. but i think I'm leaning towards no material at all. when she goes into paint ill paint the underneath as well.....

That said - between the heat of a sunny day and the heat of an engine, the stick-on stuff (butyl/aluminum sanwich sheet goods) might not work that well under a hood.

Albertj

ZEP wrote:

Hey robotennis, I'm interested in if you took the insulator off or not, or if anybody else has and has had any problems w/paint or the like.

I'm either going to clean mine or remove it. Sorry to revive an old topic, but I'm interested in doing this.

If it's not physically damaged, I found in cleaning mine it takes a while with a wet-dry vac -- but it looked so nice once I was done, I considered painting the Riviera script silver.

Thing of it is, what I did was to sort of tap it without denting or damaging it to loosen the dust, while vacuuming and brushing gently (with the grain) using a brush attachment on a vac hose. If you do a section about a foot square at a time you can *really* see the difference.

Albertj

Well, I removed it, but I could probably put it back on if I wanted to. I'll be going to the ROA meet in June and kind of assume they might frown upon the bare metal being exposed (even though it looks so clean, unlike the liner!), so may just throw it back on when the time comes and clean it like you suggest, Albert. My garage vac would probably work great for the job.

I didn't read this whole thread from the beginning, but I thought i remember Randal saying he washed one with low pressure sprayer and some soap, rinsed and let it air dry, then painted the logo.
I could be wrong on this, but.......

Which one are you taking to the meet, the 95 or 98.
Can you swap hood liners from car to car or are they different.?

I am going to take both to the meet with my dad. My 98 is not here at the minute, but as I look at the 95's liner, it looks to be almost the exact same as the 98. There may be one more plastic push-pin thing, but maybe not. I will compare when the 98 gets back!

Rickw wrote:

I didn't read this whole thread from the beginning, but I thought i remember Randal saying he washed one with low pressure sprayer and some soap, rinsed and let it air dry, then painted the logo.
I could be wrong on this, but.......

Which one are you taking to the meet, the 95 or 98.
Can you swap hood liners from car to car or are they different.?

If it got oily for some reason a washing with Dawn dish soap for instance might be better than just vacuuming.

For that matter a carpet shampooing appliance (one of those things, looks like an upright vacuum cleaner, has a wet hose attachment with upholstery brush) might work too. Have not tried that though.

Albert

I just might remove my hood liner as well. I put a new one on just 2~ years ago, followed quickly by a broken SC belt that took out a large chunk of the liner. Looks like crap now, may as well take it off and see what I think of noise levels. I don't take any long trips in the Riv anyway, and it's still gotta be way quieter than my 68 with headers that I've driven to OH and back.

It's not bad, and I drive 70% highway. I think when you take off the engine cover, it makes more difference. What I noticed was more detail of the sound - you can hear the belts whir as you increase RPM. I like it, and helps to detect problems, useful at 200k miles.

I'll add it to the list of projects:

Remove hood liner
Swap on chrome wheels
Swap in PIAA bulbs
Change oil.
Clean inside & out.
Clean up flaking paint and touch it up.

1998 Riv wrote:

I just might remove my hood liner as well. I put a new one on just 2~ years ago, followed quickly by a broken SC belt that took out a large chunk of the liner. Looks like crap now, may as well take it off and see what I think of noise levels.

FYI, that hood 'liner' is an insulator for the hood paint...

albertj wrote:

If it got oily for some reason a washing with Dawn dish soap for instance might be better than just vacuuming.

For that matter a carpet shampooing appliance (one of those things, looks like an upright vacuum cleaner, has a wet hose attachment with upholstery brush) might work too. Have not tried that though.

Albert

Soap yes, motorized brushes no.
With 2 bad water pumps back to back, my belts threw a "stripe" of coolant on the hood insulator. I washed it with Simple Green and just a sponge and a rag, and I still pulled the fabric apart a little...

Quote :

FYI, that hood 'liner' is an insulator for the hood paint...

The hood also has an extra layer of sheet metal (and air between layers) to help shield the heat (hood is dual layer, vented construction). Mine has not built up enough heat to peel the paint on the underside of the hood, let alone the top side.

Eldo wrote:

albertj wrote:

If it got oily for some reason a washing with Dawn dish soap for instance might be better than just vacuuming.

For that matter a carpet shampooing appliance (one of those things, looks like an upright vacuum cleaner, has a wet hose attachment with upholstery brush) might work too. Have not tried that though.

Albert

Soap yes, motorized brushes no.
With 2 bad water pumps back to back, my belts threw a "stripe" of coolant on the hood insulator. I washed it with Simple Green and just a sponge and a rag, and I still pulled the fabric apart a little...

I agree with No on motorized brushes. My shampooer's upholstery attachment does not have motorized brushes, probably for that reason.

Albertj

AA wrote:

Quote :

FYI, that hood 'liner' is an insulator for the hood paint...

The hood also has an extra layer of sheet metal (and air between layers) to help shield the heat (hood is dual layer, vented construction). Mine has not built up enough heat to peel the paint on the underside of the hood, let alone the top side.

The hood is also thin, light aluminum and painted with GM paint - it doesn't have to peel to be damaged... I'm sure the General wouldn't spend the money on that liner just to make the engine compartment prettier.

albertj wrote:

Eldo wrote:

albertj wrote:

If it got oily for some reason a washing with Dawn dish soap for instance might be better than just vacuuming.

For that matter a carpet shampooing appliance (one of those things, looks like an upright vacuum cleaner, has a wet hose attachment with upholstery brush) might work too. Have not tried that though.

Albert

Soap yes, motorized brushes no.
With 2 bad water pumps back to back, my belts threw a "stripe" of coolant on the hood insulator. I washed it with Simple Green and just a sponge and a rag, and I still pulled the fabric apart a little...

I agree with No on motorized brushes. My shampooer's upholstery attachment does not have motorized brushes, probably for that reason.

Albertj

Ahh. Our Hoover SteamVac has rotary brushes that are powered by the air rushing through the hose... When you said "upholstery brush" that is what I thought you meant.

Eldo wrote:

The hood is also thin, light aluminum and painted with GM paint - it doesn't have to peel to be damaged... I'm sure the General wouldn't spend the money on that liner just to make the engine compartment prettier.

Do you know why it's there? It may well be partly for heat insulation, and maybe sound deadener to keep the cabin quiet for all the older gentlemen who purchased these cars when new. Like all the noise suppression on the air intake.

Anyway, I wouldn't remove it if my car was NEW, but at this point... the overall paint is getting crappy enough that I'm not all that concerned about heat. Plus I remove the rubber seal along the back of the hood in summer to help let some heat out. Let's say that evens things out, eh?

Eldo wrote:

albertj wrote:

Eldo wrote:

albertj wrote:

If it got oily for some reason a washing with Dawn dish soap for instance might be better than just vacuuming.

For that matter a carpet shampooing appliance (one of those things, looks like an upright vacuum cleaner, has a wet hose attachment with upholstery brush) might work too. Have not tried that though.

Albert

Soap yes, motorized brushes no.
With 2 bad water pumps back to back, my belts threw a "stripe" of coolant on the hood insulator. I washed it with Simple Green and just a sponge and a rag, and I still pulled the fabric apart a little...

I agree with No on motorized brushes. My shampooer's upholstery attachment does not have motorized brushes, probably for that reason.

Albertj

Ahh. Our Hoover SteamVac has rotary brushes that are powered by the air rushing through the hose... When you said "upholstery brush" that is what I thought you meant.

no prob, different ones have different designs. I have a bissell, it supposedly heats the water... if you put it in hot already. Works fine, nice to have the hose gizmo. However, the shampoo champ is the shampoo attachment for my wet/dry vac. That thing connects to the tap, and does an amazing job of pulling the water back out. It is clumsy in a different way than the bissell - if you are not careful you end up with a *lot* of water in the vac and no way to lift it to empty in to a sink.

Only did that once...

Albertj

1998 Riv wrote:

Eldo wrote:

The hood is also thin, light aluminum and painted with GM paint - it doesn't have to peel to be damaged... I'm sure the General wouldn't spend the money on that liner just to make the engine compartment prettier.

Do you know why it's there? It may well be partly for heat insulation, and maybe sound deadener to keep the cabin quiet for all the older gentlemen who purchased these cars when new. Like all the noise suppression on the air intake.

Anyway, I wouldn't remove it if my car was NEW, but at this point... the overall paint is getting crappy enough that I'm not all that concerned about heat. Plus I remove the rubber seal along the back of the hood in summer to help let some heat out. Let's say that evens things out, eh?

I'll give you the bonus of the sound-deadening, but I want to keep MY paint looking new as long as possible...

Let's give the Factory Manual the final word(s): "Hood Insulator"

Making the engine compartment prettier was also part of it. Otherwise, GM wouldn't have spent the extra adding "Riviera" script.

Eldo wrote:

Let's give the Factory Manual the final word(s): "Hood Insulator"

I don't see anyone here trying to tell us all we should remove our hood insulation. But it won't be the end of the world if someone does. Like I said, I wouldn't if my hood paint was nice. It isn't. And my insulator is ripped to shreds and not keeping much heat away as it is. And I'm not spending ANOTHER $90 to replace it again.


in·su·la·tor (ns-ltr, nsy-)
n.
1. A material that insulates, especially a nonconductor of sound, heat, or electricity.

I had a mishap and damaged my hood pad. Tried to order it thru Monster, Patrick would not do it (yes they are available but costs too much to ship) Went to a GM dealer.... wouldn't you know it turns out replacements are available thru VPI and for whatever reason (this dealer's volume? phase of the moon?) they did not charge much for shipping.

So if you need/want a new hood pad you might want to partake.

When I get the new one I will likely paint the "Riviera" script. May paint the whole thing to make it easier to clean. May "convert " the damaged one into a trunk lid insulating pad (wish me lucK).

And hats off to Patrick for being fair about the whole thing.

Nice!

I was able to snag a near perfect one at a junk yard some time ago. Painted the Riviera part white and it really stand out in a clean engine bay.

Never heard of VPI? Google didn't turn up anything that looked likely. Who are they?

I believe its Vintage Parts Incorporated. I think GM sells off a lot of old stock to them.