Rubber Sound Deadening Material, how much weight?

[90mustangGT]

I am refering to the rubber layer all on the inside of the trunk and all under the carpeting. I am thinking of going in there and taking all this stuff out if the weight savings is worth the effort. A few questions?

1) Where all is the rubberized sound deadening material located?

2) What is the best way to get it out? (heat gun?)

3) How much total weight? (ballpark estimate)

 

[89MustangGX]

All of the material together is actually quite heavy...rough estimates when you remove the stuff from the carpet, plus all the rubber stuff is around 40 pounds or more I would say. Some cars it will all just peel up, others like mine (ugh!) need to be chiseled up or use a heat gun. It is in the trunk, back seat area down to the floor, then the front footwells, as well as the transmission tunnel.

 

[Rick 91GT]

I had to use a scraper and heat gun in places, just the deadener and the black mat that is under the rear seat, and the pieces of foam that were behind the rear plastic pieces was over 56 pounds in my car....

My new ACC carpet I left alone, the backing is less then factory....

Save everything in a box and weigh it on a home scale that will give you a fairly good number, it is very surprising...

 

[90mustangGT]

That's a lot of wieght. The foxbodies' main edge is it's weight, and the more edge of the sword we can give other cars, the better. Thanks for the info, heat gun shopping time!

What heat gun works well? Brand, cost, ect? I want to tint my windows also and it is a good tool for those kinds of things.

 

[Rick 91GT]

I have an industrial model goes to 1400 degrees I believe...but I never have to use it wide open or it would melt the stuff...and it will make the electric meter spin very fast.

You may find you only need to heat a few spots, if you use a putty knife most of it will pop off from being old.

 

[89MustangGX]

I watched the stuff on another car almost completely peel up by hand, just grabbing it and pulling up in big chunks...so you might not end up needing one at all.

Afterwards (even though I know it partially defeats the purpose), I laid down a qucik coat of paint to seal up the primer. I also had to fix a coupel holes in the floor that were pretty much invisible until I pulled the stuff off, so it was a good thing to do. Do a good inspection of the floors at the same time!