So this adventure started back when I first bought Conrad. I checked for rust everywhere, being sure to use a hammer to test the integrity of the metal everywhere on the body. For a car that (I think) lived it's entire life in Oregon before I brought it to Utah, the rust was surprisingly limited. I knew there was rust around the gas tank, and a little probing of the front valance revealed rust in the usual spot. The floors however, felt sold.

A year later, during a thorough cleaning of the underbody, I began to investigate under the tar-infused cardboard soundproofing on the front passenger floor. I was pretty surprised to see two good sized rust holes in the floor... Dang!

So, before ordering my replacement panels for the passenger floor and around the gas tank, I figured I should go all the way and remove all of the tar, just to make sure I had a complete look at the floors.

Many posts and how-to's on this topic agreed that dry ice was the best way to remove the tar with as little effort as possible. Dry ice is available at a lot of grocery stores and maybe some Walmarts.  I paid $1.35/lb.  So, with that in mind, let's get to it. 

Here is what I used to remove all of the tar soundproofing inside the cabin:

   - 50 lbs dry ice

   - several hammers of different weight and shape

   - hardened chisel

   - putty knife

   - garbage bags

   - 4 pillow cases

   - shop vac 

The key with the dry ice is that you can move it to another area as you work in one area. You don't need enough ice to cover everything at once, and if you are doing this in a cool place, you will have plenty of time before it completely sublimates.  The 50 lbs I bought was more than enough. The outside temperature was about 35 degrees and after I was done, I probably had 40 lbs left.

I started by breaking up the ice into small pieces and placed the bags that it came in inside pillow cases. About 10-15 lbs per pillow case. It helps keep everything contained, especially if you plan on moving the ice around as you work. I placed the ice in one area of the floor and let it sit for about 30-45 minutes. Then I moved the ice to another area as I worked on the frozen spot.

Using various hammers, chisels and putty knives, start breaking it up. It breaks up really easy, especially if you leave the ice on there longer.  A putty knife works well to scrape up any remaining residue. Garbage bags and a shop vac will help with the cleanup.

The rear of the transmission tunnel was much more difficult to remove.  I am not sure why.  Below was as good as I was able to get, after leaving ice on there twice, for a total of more than an hour.

After removing some of the tar in the driver side floor, I noticed another hole in the floor... Dang again! But, to my surprise, it was localized to just the circular plug in the floor pan (Yay!).

After all was completed, the two holes in the passenger floor was the extent of the rust through the floors, so that was good.  Overall, it took about 2-3 hours, starting when I laid down the first bags of ice.  Not a bad job at all!