What was left of my trans tunnel and under body insulation was soaked from leaking oil and power steering fluid. I tell my wife to throw some dough in a plastic bag by her feet and we'll have hot fresh bread when we get to where we're going and I'm only half joking. Really hot and stinky.

Leaks fixed (for the moment, I know how that goes ....). I pulled the metal shields. One side was riveted to the cross member, the other bolted. Don't know what's original but I left the one riveted bracket alone as it was perfectly tight and bolted the other three. This isn't a restoration, it's a repair. Wired wheeled the metal shields, primed and painted them gray. Degreased everything and where I had clean metal I sprayed some flat black primer and paint. Quite a few pointy clips under there intact - good. I eventually needed all of them. That piece that goes around the shifter was intact so I just cleaned it off. Ordered two new plastic shields and the insulation from a supply house.

Never did this before and it isn't intended to be done with the transmission and engine in the car. I spent some time locally looking at the big box stores hoping to find plain old insulation to use. I did find the Reflectrix stuff but neither it or anything else I found turned me on. So I eventually bit the bullet and paid the $$ to get the fitted pieces from a supply house. OK, so between them and the piece around the shifter, and lacking that big foam thing that belongs on the trans bell housing there were still areas left uncovered. I wanted to add something to it. Found this:

Inexpensive, seems to have the temp resistance, so I tried it. Easy to work with, fits well. Happy with it so far. And then I was in Home Depot the other day AFTER i had done this and walked past their ceiling tile stuff. Guess what? The fitted insulation I bought looks identical to those ceiling tile panels. The plastic backing peels away easily and you're left with what looks exactly like what I paid ten times as much for minus the foil. So if I had to do it again I'd do that plus the US Energy reflective stuff from Amazon.

Also had to use a fair bit of that HVAC aluminum tape even after using all the pointy riveted connectors. Says it's good for all weather and 200 degree F temps. There is another version with a 325 degree rating but I already had the other roll so I used it. That's the weak link in the chain I think and I wonder how it'll hold up. I see a lot of guys use it for this purpose so I have my fingers crossed. Everything seems to be tucked up there pretty well. Managed to fit it through the area above the bell housing too. Wasn't easy. Shifter and clutch aren't affected although it's much tighter in there now than before. I still have to edit and wrap the wiring harness and put the side pipes back on.

Somebody somewhere is probably thinking about doing this too and I just thought I'd pass this along. Sorry for the length. .


PS - I HATE chrome oil pans and chrome timing chain covers. Already there when I bought it. P.I.T.A. Just saying .......

 

I did exactly the same thing back in the late seventies with my '72.
I'm running the Hookers and wanted to stop some of the heat from coming up off the 4 tubes where they cross underneath.
I even painted the two panels like you did using white VHT. Anything to stop that heat, LOL.