We’ve been doing periodic updates on our 69 Camaro’s build progress heading into the Death Valley Challenge. The 2012 Death Valley Challenge will test our ability to keep drivers cool in the western hemisphere’s hottest spot. The insulation project on the Camaro is done and it seems like a perfect time to share our thoughts on insulating your classic car.We like to use the refrigerator analogy. You buy a nice, new refrigerator….a well-made, state of the art cooling system. It’ll work great. Then, take off the door and see how long your food lasts.
The best AC system in the world (and we like to think ours are pretty darn good) can’t cool the whole world. The better the passenger compartment is sealed off, the easier it is to keep it cool. The most common passenger compartment issues leading to poor AC performance are cracked and weathered seals on the doors and windows and no or poor insulation in the firewall and floorboards.
To help our 69 Camaro survive the Death Valley Challenge, we went to our friends at Dynamat and selected their Dynamat Extreme and Dynaliner products. We completely gutted the interior of our Camaro and covered the Firewall, floorboard, door panels, and roof with Dynamat Extreme. The Dynamat Extreme will take care of road noise and harmonics created by vibrations while cruising down the road.
Because our primary insulation objective was keeping the cool in, we laid Dynaliner on every surface we could find. Dynamat manufactures Dynaliner in 1/8”, 1/4”, and 1/2″ thicknesses which are applied on locations where heat loads are highest. We applied the 1/2” Dynaliner to the firewall and the roof, the 1/4” material for the floorboard and quarter panels, and 1/8” insulation to the door panels.
We covered just about every square inch of the interior with both Dynamat and Dynaliner. You can hear and feel an amazing difference…the sound and firmness of the body panels is noticeable when just tapping on the roof and shutting the doors!
We can’t wait to test it all in the Death Valley Challenge. Stay tuned.
Tags: 1969, Air Conditioning, camaro, classic car
Posted in: Shop Car
