Trying a new product
Now that the interior of the body shell is painted, we need to make sure there will be no resonance from the sheet metal panels when driving. We can dampen the noise in the cabin with different materials. One of the products is sheets of self adhesive bitumen dampening plates. This is one of the products that are used by the factory. These sheets come in different thicknesses, and range from approximately 1mm up to 5mm in thickness.
The one I've used are 3mm thick and are brittle when cold. It is therefore a good idea to preheat them with a heat gun, just to make them soft enough to fit where you want them. Once placed where you want them, you heat them some more (approx. 40-50° celsius), and the it's easy to press them down in the pressed shapes of your floor pan or other areas. For vertical and upside areas, I usually use thinner sheets (1mm), because the sheer weight of them will cause them to fall off when heated by the sun.
The, for me, new product, is a product called Lizard skin. I think that Eastwood sells it in the US. This is a water based product that is sprayed on the primed metal surfaces. Again, it is a question of restoring the original look of the car with the slopiness that where used on the factory floor when the car was build. On this car, the product is applied in the boot and on some areas of the footwells. I found some videos on YouTube about the product, and I followed the procedure as explained. This is two cotes of liberal amounts of the product, and it behaved very nicely and with the expected finish. So I'm very satisfied with it.
Now, the body shell is as close as ready to get a cote of spray filler to take care of the small imperfections and most of all, to get a perfect surface for the base coat and clear coat.
More about the paint job in the next article.