88 YJ-CJ Firewall Insulation

Firewall Insulation

The nice, warm weather today let me install all of the firewall insulation on the engine side.  

The insulation is Floor and Tunnel Shield by Design Engineering.  It's got a pretty thick layer of aluminum, a layer of insulation and an adhesive:

 Installation was similar to the interior firewall insulation...make a template, transfer it to the insulation, cut it out, stick it down and tape the edges:

Templates:

First Piece installed:

2nd Piece Installed:

Finished - there are also two smaller pieces over on the driver's side:

I wasn't going for 100% coverage - just trying to reduce the heat transmission.  It's pretty visible and ugly right now, but the battery and engine will cover up a lot of it.

For the round holes, I used my Dad's old hollow punch kit that is probably 30-35 years old: 

Next insulation step...remove the undercoating and insulate the transmission tunnel - warm weather will be required again.  After the transmission tunnel is insulated, I'll reinstall the drivetrain - that'll be a huge milestone!

Interior Coating Removal

I also stripped off some of the interior coating today.  The stripper works better in warm temperatures, so it was a good day to do this work.

Stripped applied and covered with saran wrap:

Waited for a few hours for the stripper to work, then scraped with a putty knife.  

I knocked out a big chuck today, but there are a few more days of hard work to complete the removal.  And I still need to weld a new panel to close the hole in the floor that the previous owner cut...