I tore apart the interior of my Fiat today to make way for repairing the rusty floor pans. I'm wondering what tricks/advice everyone has to remove the factory rubber sound deadening material? I suspect it's going to be a royal pain to get off but seems like it must be done before I can really assess the damage.

The gory details:

I used dry ice on a hot day.

Dump pellots in one section, let cool, sweep to another section, used puty knife to scrape up frozen tar from original section. Repeat.

Worked well.

Not sure I'd spend the time removing the old sound/"rust"proofing material. I see some pretty big holes on both floor pans. My driver's floor looked like a twin of yours, and we didn't bother to remove the old coatings; just cut it out and replaced it (along with both sets of seat rails). Passenger side was closely inspected, and found to be fine. THAT needed scraping!

I tried a couple of different methods, but a powered multi-tool with a scraper blade worked best. For large flat areas, I used a spider blade, which fits in a recip saw; but when that blade hits a seam or a transition, it can buck pretty bad. Small, narrow areas got the cold chisel/ hammer routine. Did mine in midwinter Wisconsin, so the dry ice method would NOT have worked... .

However much you do, it's some work, and takes a while. But well worth it once it's out, and you get those first coats of stabilizer and primer on the tub.

Neil

I was really hoping to avoid replacing the whole pan. That job intimidates me (I've never welded). However, if I do have to go that route do I need to pull the engine & transmission to get it out of the way of the welding (I'm thinking mostly of the transmission in the tunnel)?

I don't weld either (though...it IS on the "list of things I want to learn when I grow up"). A friend rebuilds/restores vehicles for a living, and I spent $1600 for his labor and materials (new driver floor pan, new seat rails, etc). He asked me to strip the interior (was gonna do it anyway), then he used welding blankets to protect stuff from the heat. There was no need to drop engine or tranny. However, I did not see what he had to do under car to keep things "cool" as it were. He also asked me to bring it back for a structural checkup in '17 "just to be sure". He did comment it was the most solid Fiat he'd ever seen, and ruled out needing to do anything with shock towers or passenger side, so I guess I'm lucky.

I'd at least get some local quotes on having the floor pans replaced.

Neil

Go to harbor freight and buy an oscillating scrapper. A cheep on is $25. It will really make the job of removing the old sticky insulation a breeze. Doing it on a cold day when the goo is brittle makes the job even easier.

Remember that the fuel lines run INSIDE the passenger compartment, along the driver's side. Careful with heat.

My dad left me a cordless oscillating tool when he died that he bought on clearance years ago (he had tons of junk from deals like that!). This tool has worked AMAZINGLY well! Good call whoever mentioned that above! Only problem is that it was a clearance deal because it only came with one battery. Have to stop & recharge every 10 minutes! Oh well.

Passenger side pan is cleaned off except for the catalytic converter hump & tunnel sides. Good news is that the pan is in better condition than I thought. I think I can salvage it if I can come across a welder & learn.

If the holes remain as small as they are pictured above, you can apply some fibreglass cloth and top with Por 15. The surface will become rock hard when cured. It will definetely save you alot of time but on the downside the repair is not as prestigious as a cut-match-weld procedure. It all depends on your objectives and expectations with this car. A few of us have gone that path, but like i said, the perforation must be minor. A search on this site will yield that documentation.

Ditto

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