The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk How REMOVE hi-tech sound deadening material?

The previous owner of my truck applied a sound deadening product, similar to, but not the brand name "Dynamat Xtreme". This is the material that has a foil aluminum facing backed by a sticky 1/16" or so thick black layer that seld adheres to any metal floor, door inside, cab back, firewall, etc that you apply it to.

Now that I am stripping everything off to facilitate repainting, this material is a big problem, as it does not want to come off the metal surfaces to which it was applied.

I am able to pull MOST of it off using lots of muscle, supported at key "sticky points" by a putty knife, but it has been a bear of a job. I am down to just a few fragments, some of which still have the metal facing on them, and some that have only the gooey black residue.

I checked the Dynmat website, thinking they might have posted in their FAQ how you remove this stuff when necessary, but they did not.

I tried a bit of heat from a good, controllable heat gun, but while it helped in a few cases, in more cases it enocuraged the black compound to simply begin softening and sticking harder.

I have not tried solvent yet, as I don't want solvent residue leaking down into crevices, from which it could emerge during painting.

Has anyone out there had any experience removing this stuff? What is the easiest and least-residue-left method?

By the way, this stuff weighs about half a pound per square feet, and I figure I removed about 40 to 45 square feet of it - the trash bag was heavy!

Jim G

I would call up any sound deadening product manufacture, doesn't have to be who makes what you are trying to remove as they are all the same and tell them the situation and ask them whats the best way to remove it. Hopefully someone there would know. You could even try a Automotive sound system installation shop, they deal with that stuff non-stop and probably have had to remove it at some point.

That stuff has some amazing hold, my brother was applying it to the interior of his 94 Pontiac Trans-am and even after just putting it on, it was almost impossible to remove.

If you can find it use a hot razor, its like a saudering iron with
an razor attachment. it works good.

What ever you find out Jim, make sure you post it so the rest of us don't have to go through the same thing. I was thinking at one time about using a few squares in the doors and maybe roof just to get rid of that tinny sound whan you close the door. However, I was reluctant because of the very problem your going through. I'm wondering if what you have is was some of the roofing material that some of the guys have been touting as an inexpensive sub for Dynamat? If so you might try kerosene since it is usually tar based.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I believe I would try a little lacquer thinner. Should dry and not leave residue. If that won't cut it, you got problems. Joe

David Horner, owner of Restoration Specialties, being the quiet modest guy he is, educated me privately via email on this, and gave me permission when I asked, to share it if I wanted to.

What he told me first is do not use heat. It will soften the material and just encourage it to pull apart into a mess, rather than come out as a sheet. When the material is cold and less flexible it will come off easier.

Restoration Specialties itself uses a scraper as much as possible. 3M brand adhesive remover sparingly around the perimeter of the piece will cause the adhesive to loosen. It evaporates very quickly so it does not soak into the porosity of the metal or leave much solvent residue, which would interfere with painting later. A sharp putty knife style scraper and a lot of elbow grease is about the best method overall. David told me that he will use nylon roloc stripping wheels on pneumatic tools to remove any remainder.

David says he would encourage anyone with the self-motivation and energy to try and tackle as much of this type of job as they possibly can. If done CORRECTLY it should save them labor dollars they would spend with an honest shop.

David prefers customer knowledge and involvement, as customers who KNOW the work involved have a better understanding of why refinishing labor tasks can be so expensive. As I myself am rediscovering, despite all the technology, it's still plenty of hard, muscle-aching work to do the prep work RIGHT.

Folks who think it's simply a matter of aiming a soda blaster at the vehicle and then spraying paint, and faint when quoted a cost to do it all the actual right way, have no idea. Swapping the engine is easy in comparison.

Jim G

So maybe it is like chewing gum?
At the janitorial supply, they have cans of freezing stuff.
Beats me it has been along time ago.
Anyway we carried it.
Just sprayed it on the offending goo, it would turn rock hard and come right off.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that would work reasonably well on this stuff too, but I'm nowhere near a janitorial supply place, so my wife is trying to find the 3M adhesive remover for me.

Jim G

The spray duster in can at most electronic stores is a freon based spray. If you hold the cans upside down, it will freeze items. Also, a little 134A sprayed in a small area would work. I know you are not suppose to spray freon, but if you have a very small job, at little might not hurt. Joe

A bearing supply place may have a spray can of some sort of cold stuff used for shrinking bearing races, helpful to shrink an already installed race so it falls out. In a regular spray can, I forget the brand.

Grigg

All this talk of the difficulty in removing the insulation material makes me very happy. Anything that is that hard to remove won't come off after installing. When I put mine on I expect it to stay where I put it.

You might try naptha- regular lighter fluid. That is a solvent for many adhesives. Just be careful not to burn up your truck in the process. Depending on the thickness of the adhesive layer, you might have to soak the adhesive for a few minutes to soften it. I don't know if naptha will work in your situation.

You could also try a carburetor cleaner, Berryman's Chemtool, which contains xylene and tolulene, both of which are strong solvents for many solids, including paint (and your hands, too).

Harvester

If it acts like glazing tape, this may help. I removed my glass using a little spray on brake cleaner.

A small sandblaster will take it off. I cleaned all the factory adheasive tar off my headliner area in 5 mins. Worked like a charm, nothing but nice clean steel.

Naptha is the main ingredient in Goo Gone, which is at most hardware stores in the cleaning supplies section. It is also lighter fluid as Harvester stated... so if you find some Zippo refill lighter fluid, that'll do the same trick.

-W

You guys have given several good ideas to try! Thanks, guys.

Jim G

what about good old ice to cool it down, easy, cheap and in your frrezer

Ice metls to become water, which introduces moisture, which is never good!

Jim G

I wrote (emailed ) Dynamat & here is their response::

> I am able to pull MOST of it off using lots of muscle, supported at key
> "sticky points" by a putty knife, but it has been a bear of a job. I am
> down to just a few fragments, some of which still have the metal facing
> on them, and some that have only the gooey black residue.
>
> I checked the Dynmat website, thinking they might have posted in their
> FAQ how you remove this stuff when necessary, but they did not.
> I tried a bit of heat from a good, controllable heat gun, but while it
> helped in a few cases, in more cases it enocuraged the black compound to
> simply begin softening and sticking harder.
> I have not tried solvent yet, as I don't want solvent residue leaking
> down into crevices, from which it could emerge during painting.
> Has anyone out there had any experience removing this stuff? What is the
> easiest and least-residue-left method?
> By the way, this stuff weighs about half a pound per square feet, and I
> figure I removed about 40 to 45 square feet of it - the trash bag was heavy!
>
> Respond here
>
https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/389175#Post389175
> <https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/389175>

[color:#FF0000]Large scale removal is very rare. Why are you taking so much material out? We
typically recommend a putty knife or scraper along with slight heat. The bulk of
the removal comes via elbow grease. The residue that remains can be removed with
a degreasing product - even something like WD40.

Thank you for your interest in B-Quiet. If you have any further questions,
please let us know.

Regards,

Wade
--
B-Quiet Sound Deadening Materials
http://www.b-quiet.com/
877-7-B-QUIET (877-727-8438)[/color]

They did not realize that I was stripping a complete cab for PAINT!

They sure got the "bulk of the removal comes via elbow grease" part right!!

Thanks for contacting them!

Jim G