This worked so well, I had to post it.

[Polymerjohn]

I was dreading the removal of the rubber sound deadener in preparation to weld in the floor piece.  I would like to claim credit for this idea, but it was a guy I work with who said, "why don't you use dry ice?"

 

See the pictures.  I strategically placed medium pieces along the edge and covered the bottom and top with a towel.  Wait 30 minuted and viola!  This is one of few times when procrastination helped me.

 

Polymerjohn in OK

[Polymerjohn]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I scored the rubber where I wanted it to break before I placed the dry ice on it.

 

John in OK

[TobyB]

I found the smaller 'gravel' worked  better.  I'd let it sit until frost formed on the floorboards under the car, and one

whack with the deadblow later, off most of it came.

 

I forget if the 2002 has any of this, but on the E30s, what the dry ice won't touch, the heat gun will make short work of.

 

t

add lightness.

[John_in_VA]

22 hours ago, Polymerjohn said:

I strategically placed medium pieces along the edge and covered the bottom and top with a towel.  Wait 30 minuted and viola!  This is one of few times when procrastination helped me.

 

Yep, a well-documented method used here over the past decades.

 

 

 

[ray_]

42 minutes ago, John_in_VA said:

 

Yep, a well-documented method used here over the past decades.

 

 

 

Copycat!

 

[Polymerjohn]

Jeez man!  I didn’t know.  That’s one search I didn’t do.

 

John in OK.

[Mark92131]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:23 AM, TobyB said:

I found the smaller 'gravel' worked  better.

 

+1 on TobyB's suggestion.  You can crush it up into small pieces and pour in a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol and it makes a nice slurry that you can pack right on top of the insulation you are trying to remove.

 

Mark92131

[Polymerjohn]

Thanks for the added technique.  I have a hole right of the gas tank I will need to patch.

 

John in OK

['76mintgrün'02]

Just now, Polymerjohn said:

 I have a hole right of the gas tank I will need to patch.

 

So does almost everyone with a '76 (possibly other years).  They put a reinforcing boxed in section there behind the wheel and it gets filled with crud and rusts out.  I will be leaving that boxed section out, when I finally get around to patching those holes.  I've simply covered them using aluminum sound dampening sheets for now, to keep the mice out.  

[Polymerjohn]

I know the box you are talkin about but this hole only touching the box a little on the front of the right side end of the box.  The box is going to complicate the repair.

['76mintgrün'02]

14 minutes ago, Polymerjohn said:

 Removing the box is going to complicate the repair.

 

(what I would do)