LFZ

I bought the aftermarket underhood insulation and was going to put it on..the green side faces the engine, and the black side goes against the hood...well it really looked ugly when i sat it up to put it on...so i decided to leave it off...for now? is there any other material i could use that would look decent or could i get away with leaving it off...it shouldn't hurt the paint or hood...68-72 vettes didn't even have the insulation. what about you guys with 73-up??

HawkIVette

My '75 doesn't have any insulation. One of the previous ownwers repainted it and probably took it off. Didn't look any worse than the rest of the car when I bought it, but car needed to be repainted again. I painted it two years ago and still no problem showing up. I say leave it off.

Now that I think about it, maybe it didn't come with insulation. '75 and older had cowl induction and don't know if it had insulation? Anybody verify this?

jonny4523

My '77 has it. It is old and in need of replacing. I'm sure i'll get around to it, but I will replace it. When the paint job finally comes around, I surely do not want to take any chances. I do agree that a green underside would look ugly. I would probably try to spray paint it or something.

Black Snowman

It's amazing how much a little High-Temp Silver Rustolium can improve the looks of something.

I picked up a badly rusted full exhaust for my motorcycle cheap and brushed and blasted the thing down and shot it with the afformentioned paint from a rattle can ( be warned it's really thin and runs easily) and now instead of rusty steel I'd swear the whole thing looks like cast aluminum. Much :cool: er!

Not sure how well it'd stay on something flexable. But can't look worse than green :U

groovyjay

I've never had any underhood insulation in my 79, not even with the BB installed. Just paint the underside of your hood with black or body colour, it's gonna look :cool:

SanDiegoPaul

My '76 has it. Yea it is ugly but it's intact. I am wondering what to treat it with myself.

cookin1979

I don't know about leaving it off. Seems like the engine bay gets pretty warm. I'm worried about the paint on the hood. I put the aftermarket stuff on.
It actually lost some of that green color after a short time, and gave me some piece of mind! :thumbs:

vettfixr

I've had mine off for probably 10 years with no damage whatsoever. And my car is painted in lacquer on the top of the hood and underneath. Lacquer isn't noted for it's longevity in harsh conditions and I haven't seen any damage at all.

LFZ

i think i'm going to leave it off...for now...for awhile probably... :D

dogr74

You can still get hood insulation from GM (~$70) that is at least molded to fit the hood. Insulation in general is not the prettiest but the GM version looks a lot better than the aftermarket flat style. Let me know if you need the GM part number and I'll look back in my notes and send it to you.

LFZ

dogr74....reallY?? that part number would be great...any pics of this GM underhood insulation?? i'd really like to see it first..see how it looks...and where could i buy it (any place but Mid America)?

OkeeGuy

i wondered about this at 1st too because when i bought my car i thought it looked ugly too...
i bought a new one from Zip for about $35 and it was as ugly as the "old" one...turns out the "old" one wasnt old at all! :lol: its just that they are ugly...period...
after asking around here and seeing SO MANY of them without it i removed mine,,,looks much nicer...
as far as heat goes....i even put a vinyl image on mine and even being here in florida...it hasnt even effected the vinyl, let alone the hood...
i say leave it off...
i have 2 "like new" ones in the attic now that i will probably never use...



[Modified by SIGNGUY, 11:05 PM 4/26/2003]

LFZ

signguy, did you cut off your clips on the hood?? see, i already got the studs on the hood still and the whole hood is painted.

OkeeGuy

mine had them too...
i sharpened a reg sized putty knife on the bench grinder and took a small ball pean hammer and tapped the putty knife under the edge of each one...
working my way around each one of them in a circle and the pooped right off...
a little sanding and touch up paint and your good to go...
i had repainted my underhood so it wasnt hard to match color...
gotta love that semi flat black! always matches perfectly when you have to touch it up! :yesnod:
BTW...i resharpened the putty knife several times during this procedure to keep it sharp...and before sanding each one i found that i could scrape a lot of the stuff off with the putty knife...
hope this helps!

Dk Met Grn 80 L82

The PO had her painted about 6 yrs ago. No insulation on the inside of the hood. Hot here in Florida, no paint problems to date. :D

dogr74

Redshark,
I took a picture but making it viewable in this post is a different story. Maybe I'll take time and figure out how to do it another day. For now, I'll take the easy way out and e-mail it to you. The part number is 08021/6263599 (I think you only need the last 7 digits), you can order it from any GM dealership, and when I bought mine a year ago it was $69.10.
:cheers:

LFZ

thanks guys...i appreciate all the info!

nitrocharger

Aside from the rare possibliity of burning off the paint on the hood, would'nt you want to leave the insulation off? Insulation prevents heat from dissipating from the engine compartment. I'm not an expert on this subject so I might be totally missing something.
~Christian

Big Fish

My 75 has it. Bought a replacement hood mat from GM Parts Direct. No problem with fit at all.It is molded to the contour of the hood. Only problem is these things ship oversize, but GM had the very best price of anyplace I tried. Sounds like it isn't really needed, but if you are showing the car it will probably cost you some points by not having it.

dudeskie

:iagree: