SloMo228

Well, kind of on a whim I removed the carpet from my 944. I bought it with a hacked-up hatch carpet, presumably for a previous audio install, and it's always bothered me. So I figured I'd just yank everything. I had planned on re-carpeting with a lightweight plush or Perlon-type carpet eventually anyway.

I found a lot of felt, crumbling rubber and foam, and that tar stuff that's stuck to the sheet metal of basically every car ever made. I'd like to remove it. I plan to add back some sound deadener when I reinstall carpet, but the 30-year old stuff is degraded and janky. The 30-year old adhesive, on the other hand, has only gotten better with age. I'd prefer not to damage the paint with a lot of scraping with sharp objects, and I was hoping (against hope) that someone has had luck with an alternate approach. I've heard dry ice works well, and I'm assuming there must be some kind of chemical that can remove the adhesive without damaging the paint.

On a more technical note, removing all carpet and most of the sound deadening provides approximately 62 pounds of weight reduction, according to my little postal scale. I think scraping the rest off will bring the total closer to 70, especially since I was already missing a decent chunk of my hatch carpet. Not a bad weight loss plan for a few hours' work.

V2Rocket

Yea, that glue is serious stuff.
Years ago when I first removed it I think I just went crazy with the goo-gone or mineral spirits or something.

I highly suggest wearing a breathing mask (even one of those mouth-and-nose dust masks is OK) while messing with carpet and sound deadening...there is likely some mold under there. I got really sick while doing my carpet from breathing the **** underneath...I lost 15 lbs in a few days, mostly in liquid form

I recently re-did my carpet with a perlon-felt like stuff and the whole car's worth of carpet is about 8-9 lbs. I used basically what is used to wrap speaker boxes and line trunks, but thicker/nicer (remarkably similar to perlon felt)...total cost including shipping, glue, new scissors, etc was under $100, and a few days of spread-out work.

As for durability, I rented a car in Mexico a few weeks ago, a 2014 Nissan Versa, and its carpet was the same exact material.

SloMo228

Thanks. I am looking at various options for sound deadener now. I think Spectrum looks like a good candidate, and I should be able to soundproof the important parts of the car for ~20 lb or so. Add 10 lb or less for carpet and I'm looking at a 40 lb weight loss while still retaining some creature comforts.

Where did you get the carpet you used? I've seen unbacked carpet in a few places that is supposed to be easy to form around complex shapes.

V2Rocket

For my sound deadening, I have "40oz" (about 1/2" thick) jute padding in the floor pan, and then some self-adhesive foam-backed foil stuff (meant for insulating AC ducts, Home Depot/Lowes $15/roll ) on the trunk floor, topped by more jute.

Here is where I bought the material. VERY easy to shape and work with around bends and such. Take your time with it...these guys sent me samples beforehand, and then when I ordered the roll it was fast shipping. I bought 10 (!) yards and the whole roll was 11 lbs...I used about 2/3 of the roll for my whole car, but I had a lot of scraps.
http://www.yourautotrim.com/black8.html

Arominus

We used this in the back of the S2 and in the doors/quarters. It is highly effective and improved the sound quality and reduced road noise quite a bit at highway speed. Also did the "ensolite" foam they sell over the top of it.

http://www.raamaudio.com/

SloMo228

I spent basically an entire day on this and I got just about everything out. There are still some remnants stuck to the body, but since I'm going to be coating and re-carpeting, it's good enough for me.

I tried extra-strength Goof-Off and it didn't do much. I got my best results with denatured alcohol and brake cleaner. A good respirator and good ventilation is a must here!

Noahs944

Welcome to HELL SloMo.

RoyaleWithCheese

Did you get a weight on the tar mats that you scraped out?

I have bee curious how much those weigh. When I removed mine I filled a plastic grocery bag with the tar from the passenger side floor pan and I would guess just that bit weighed around 8lbs (a gallon of milk is around 8-9lbs and felt similar, technical I know lol).

Just curious what all of the tar in the car weighs together. If just the passenger side floor is 8lbs is it safe to assume 20-25lbs for all of them (driver floor, passenger floor, tunnel, rear deck, rear quarters, spare tire bottom)?

333pg333

Heard people use dry Ice to remove that stuff.