After waiting 2 months for a back ordered tunnel insulation from zips I cancelled the order. After calling half a dozen places that also had it on back order I finally found one at Corvette America. It was $9 more expensive than Zips but sometimes yo gotta do what you gotta do.

I didn't take a picture of the insulation that I received but this is pretty much how it looked.


I'm not sure what the purpose of the side cutout is, maybe it is for a vette with a manual transmission. I didn't need the cutout so I patched it with some fiberglass ductboard that I had from a house project. I also wanted to protect the exposed insulation on top of the tunnel insulation so I taped it up with aluminum tape that I got from Home Depot. Then I used wetherstripping cement to glue pipe insulation tape around the outer edge to help seal it to the tunnel and add a little bit of dead air space between the insulation and the tunnel.

Here is a picture of the modified tunnel insulation.


This is what I used to modify it.


I peeled off the yellow backing strips on the pipe insulation tape and installed the tunnel insulation.


I probably could have stopped here but nooooo.
I built an insulated cover for the lower shift boot.


I taped the cover into place and then sealed the insulation to the tunnel with more aluminum tape. Then I added another layer of aluminum tape to the underside of the insulation to clean it up a bit and add a little more protection.

I was a little concerened with dirt atracting to the glue at the edge of the tape and the edges curling if exposed to lots of moisture, so I roughed up the surface with 400 grit sand paper, cleaned it with laquer thinner and painted it with industrial aluminum paint using the same technique that I used to paint the floorboards and tunnel.

If you missed the painting thread here it is.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=710816

I added stainless steel fender washers under the battery cable clips, so that the clips would not tear the aluminum tape and installed the battery cable.

Here is a picture of the finished installation.


Now, as soon as I round up enough help I can put the tranny back in. :party:



[Modified by GATOR454, 3:22 PM 2/4/2004]

 

that is so clean and great looking, you make me sick.

nick work tho
:D

 

Very nice! :cheers:

 

The cut out is for the speedometer.

 

Chad if you can actually drive your vette then you make me sick. :lol:

I'm trying to convince myself that I'm building a driver and in that case I'm probably getting it to clean. I'm sure as soon as I get it back on the road and get some dirt on it I'm going to cry.

Peter, Thanks. I have a TH 400 and the speedometer is on the other side from the cut out so it must be for a manual tranny. When I placed it on the transmission to see where it fell, it was way back by the universal joint. I'm hoping it wasn't to clear that, luckily the ductboard is softer than the tunnel insulation and I have some room if I need to smash it down a little.



[Modified by GATOR454, 3:06 PM 1/26/2004]

 

You got it, for a manual tranny speedo.

 

Yes, do drive it man, drive it hard as it was supposed to be......
Otherwise, you've got yourself one expensive and fancy paperweight !!
:steering:

 

nice work :cheers:

 

Nice work! Super clean, wish mine was that clean. :thumbs:

 

Is that the underside of your car or the surface of your stove? If you don't drive it perhaps you can prepare food on it. :lol:

Seriously, nice work!

 

Your serious that's the underside of your tunnel????????

:eek: What did you polish the damn thing? My friend you have it bad, and I mean real bad. I remember the days with Cali-1 polishing the suspension/ oil pan/ braided lines to perfection for a car event that no one would ever see the bottom of my car. Yeppers you've got the bug bad!

:jester

David

 

Eric, That's pretty funny, Ive been telling people that you can eat off of the bottom of my car now.

David, I don't think I'm going to go as far as to polish it. This is the first nice car that I have or will ever have. I've always had old beater trucks because of house renovations. I only started to refurbish the worn out suspension and the "while you're there" monster got me to this point. Once I got everything off, I promised myself that nothing would go back on that looks old.

There is no way I could leave the only corvette I will ever have like this.

 

You are doing one heck of a job there. Plenty of reason to be proud of your work. :thumbs: