Dyamatted

[Luke1]

I would also suggest you coat the entire floor pans and underneath the car as well, can't go wrong with it.  How did you put your padding down over the dynomat, adhesive?

[flutes]

Tim that's a good point re weight - it's very a dense material, the carton is heavier than it looks.

Luke - the padding is just resting there at the moment but I do plan to glue it at some point, probably when I do the carpets.  I would like to do the underside of the car with the paint as well, the stuff seems impenetrable to chips.  I dropped a screwdriver, blade end down, on a painted area on Sunday and it just bounced off without leaving a mark.

Question on doing the underside - it already seems to be coated with some sort of "grey gunk" let's call it, does that need to be removed first?

[oscar]

Awsome job flutes.   I was impressed you got the seat out without too much trouble.  Agreed that putting them in is a PITA and the driver's seat is the worst to line the holes up.  There's a sequence to make it easier but I can't remember which way I've tried out works the best.   

Back to the dynamatt it's good to hear a review on it.  When we started this track car bizzo I was blown away just how loud the car is without an interior.  And the noise from the rear end...man I was surprised.  It reminds me to ask if you planned on doing the rear firewall behind the rear seat and under the rear seat?

In my 280S, I've noticed that the under side of the right hand side (passenger's side in the Philippines, opposite of your car) carpets are getting burned because of where the exhaust pipe passes through. Also, I have problems with interior heat, I'm worried about the AC overworking. Is dynamatting will solve these problems I have?

Regarding the burning mat....There should be a heatshield attached at the bottom of the firewall to where the exhaust goes under the car.  There's heatshields pretty well all the way to the back but I'd check there's one there first. 
Having said that, I have got that shield and was racing the 280S one day when half way round the track I noticed what I thought was smoke thru the cabin.  It wasn't smoke, was just steam from water that had leaked into the same footwell and was being turned into steam from exhaust heat.  There's no carpets or foam there on the inside, just metal.  I felt the floorpan from inside when I got back to the pits and it was too hot to touch but not hot enough to cause material to burn or the soles of my shoes to melt.

[Luke1]

Flutes, the underside is probably the factory rubberized undercoating.  If yours is still there, then I wouldn't cover it with the miracle paint, only when it starts to where off, then coat with the miracle paint.  There is also a nice black under coat that you can use to dress up the miracle paint to give you a much more factory look, its called Transtar, Tex Coat Chip Guard, excellent product to top coat the miracle paint.  It is made by Autobody Technologies, INC.  I purchased my 13oz can from Mercedes Source out of Washington state.  Another awesome product good for older Benzes.

Luke
'77 280SE
'97 S420

[flutes]

So Oscar I'll be going into the driver's seat removal with false confidence then!  I may do some damage yet!  What I found with the passenger's seat was keeping the front bolts loose enough to nudge everything in place was the only way to do it.  The bolts go in at slightly odd angles as well, so the universal joint attachment for my wrench was essential.

I haven't Dynamatted (I like verbing nouns) the rear firewall and under the rear seat yet but I am planning to once I have the right hand side floorpans done.  The rear bench seat is easy to remove, but how about the rear backrests?

Luke - I think the rubberised coating is mostly intact, but when it's up on a hoist next I'll get under there and inspect it properly.  That Tex Coat stuff looks good.

Cheers,
Matt.

[Takernz]

In my 280S, I've noticed that the under side of the right hand side (passenger's side in the Philippines, opposite of your car) carpets are getting burned because of where the exhaust pipe passes through. Also, I have problems with interior heat, I'm worried about the AC overworking. Is dynamatting will solve these problems I have?

Regarding the burning mat....There should be a heatshield attached at the bottom of the firewall to where the exhaust goes under the car.  There's heatshields pretty well all the way to the back but I'd check there's one there first.  
Having said that, I have got that shield and was racing the 280S one day when half way round the track I noticed what I thought was smoke thru the cabin.  It wasn't smoke, was just steam from water that had leaked into the same footwell and was being turned into steam from exhaust heat.  There's no carpets or foam there on the inside, just metal.  I felt the floorpan from inside when I got back to the pits and it was too hot to touch but not hot enough to cause material to burn or the soles of my shoes to melt.

I checked the underside of my car and was missing it's heat shields, is the heat shields placed along with exhaust system components all the way at the back? I knew one hardware store here that sells aluminum sheets in various thickness and I'll fabricate one.

[oscar]

I can't get under to show exactly how many there are or what they look like but they're attached to the body and don't touch the pipes at all and they follow the exhaust to the back.  There's even one over the top and the side of the rear muffler.  There only very thin sheets of tin/metal and dont fit flush to the body.  I think there's washers that give the heatshields some breathing space between them and the body to help cool them.  I was going to suggest it might be easier to make some up but not sure what metal I'd use though.

[wbrian63]

In deconstructing #1164, I seem to remember the heat shields are stamped aluminum.

They're most certainly not steel, as they are very thin and would have long-since rotted away from corrosion.

Oscar is right - they don't touch the body except at the few places where they are attached. The stamping process creates little "bumps" at the attachment points that hold the bulk of the shield away from the body. The reflectivity of the aluminum, coupled with the air gap between the shield and the body is the primary insulating factor.

[Takernz]

In deconstructing #1164, I seem to remember the heat shields are stamped aluminum.

They're most certainly not steel, as they are very thin and would have long-since rotted away from corrosion.

Oscar is right - they don't touch the body except at the few places where they are attached. The stamping process creates little "bumps" at the attachment points that hold the bulk of the shield away from the body. The reflectivity of the aluminum, coupled with the air gap between the shield and the body is the primary insulating factor.

Thanks for the tip mate! the burned mats are the original ones from the factory, ggrrrr....