Luis de Prat

Well, I finally got around to removing the old, crumbling hood insulation that came on my 951, removing the glue and fitting the new OE insulation pads.

Washed the car yesterday and followed the handy advice of using the vacuum at the car wash to remove all of the old insulation foam down to the glue:



Then came the hard part. Removing the glue! I cut one open one of the bags the OE insulation panels came in and used that to cover the engine. This is a must, because the mess is considerable.

Doused the whole surface with WD-40 to soften up the adhesive, but like I feared, that was not going to be enough to get the glue off. Using a plastic kitchen spoon, it took some proper adhesive remover, scraping the surface and alternating with a citrus degreaser to get the gobs of glue off. It's pretty tedious and takes lots of elbow grease, as I expected.

The best way to do it is to work in sections. I started on one side and did half a panel at a time. I found the adhesive remover worked best applying it with a rag, then scraping with the plastic spoon, and then using paper towels with the degreaser to clean off the gobs of glue.

Here's the the clean surface:



The trickiest part, however, was fitting the adhesive pads with the hood on the car, since you only get one shot at it. Made a small tear right above the washer tank, but the overall result is 100 times better than what I had before.



If you haven't done this yet or are putting it off, it really is worth it. I took my time and spent nearly 4 hours doing it but I'm quite satisfied with the result.

It's stated throughout the 944 forum archives that you can do without the hood insulation because the factory did away with it on the late cars. Apparently, however, this was only the case on North American cars through 1989, as my 1991 RoW 951 had insulation and I've seen other '91 cars with it as well.

I think you can probably do without it on a NA car, but I would definitely use hood insulation on a Turbo. My 1990 S2 is US spec and came without it, however, over the years paint on the hood has faded somewhat, while the paint on my 951 is still very thick and glossy. YMMV

potent951turbo

Thanks for the tips and pictures, and the finished product looks great. Just think in 17 more years you can do it all over again, lol.

F18Rep

Looks good, nice post Luis...Bruce

Luis de Prat

Yeah Colin, can't say I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks Bruce. Next up is a retension on the S2 with that great tool set!

FRporscheman

Thanks for the "diy"! It will be handy when I turbo my 968. Since 968s didn't come with hood lining.

Luis de Prat

You're welcome. Not sure what insulation you'll fit on the 968 hood, but you'll definitely have a lot less harder time since there won't be any glue to remove!

If I had to do it again, I would have someone help me fit the new pads. Doing everything solo has its shortcomings!

kevincnc

Nice work, a lot of guys would have glued over the old glue. Now, we need to talk about that old coolant tank in your nice cleane engine compartment..

Luis de Prat

Thanks. You know, what keeps me from replacing the coolant tank is I hear the new ones turn brown again after only a few thousand miles, is that true?

eshane

Luis,
There is a thread in here somewhere with a guy who has a 1/4 porsche shield decal for his overflow tank. Looks OK, but, hey, everyone I've ever seen is brown

jtsporsche

very nice. how much did the new insulation cost? and what kind of glue did you use?

Luis de Prat

Roughly 60€ for both from the local Porsche dealer. The OE panels are self adhesive with paper backing that you peel off.

jtsporsche

the sticky paper is good, i hate having to spray on glue, gets everywhere

kevincnc

Mine's been on over a year and 6k miles, and it's still pretty white. Not as bright as it was new, but close.

J Berk

I purchased a set of hood insulation pads from Perry951 here about 3 or 4 years ago...when I still had my NA. Thankfully I never installed them (NA was sold) and they're in the box on one of my workbenches in the basement.

I am considering installing them on my S2.....nice write-up Luis!! Will be a big help if I do the install !

Keithr726

My PO replaced mine 2 or 3 years ago and I'm still finding pieces from the old one around the engine bay. I remember there was hardly any left on my old car. Replacing these is for sure one way to make it look nicer when you open the hood.