W115 bulkhead sound deadening removal
 

Hey folks,

I've currently got the carpets, most of the sound deadening, etc. out of my 1974 W115 and noticed in the passenger footwell some of the dreaded rust marks. I'm not a welder myself, so I wanted to look into getting things fixed.

Seems that behind the sound deadening in the engine bay, moisture has got in, become trapped, and started to rust away the bulkhead. See image:

https://i.imgur.com/PFTe2nS.jpg

If I wanted to remove the deadening myself, is it just a case of tearing it away and disregarding or can I potentially reuse? Or would it be safer to throw it away to not allow for further damage in the future.

Any advice would be grearly appreciated :)

Thanks!

you will not be able to reuse and will be a PIA to remove, some parts where dryed out and cracked will come off, other stuff will need to be pried away . It looks in pretty good nik, could you just remove the areas that are bad? I replaced mine with the sound deadening material found in most part stores, it too is a major pain to put on , so sticky . Good luck

It's unlikely it will survive the removal. It's dried out and very brittle, and the old glue has hardened into a rock-like substance.

It's not a hard job to do, just a bit tedious and messy. Disconnect your battery, remove all of the items attached to the firewall by unscrewing them and just letting them hang down, and start scraping.

You can find the firewall material in any number of patterns and might even be able to find a pre-cut version that fits you car exactly - I know there are ones out there in the market for other models.

I'm getting ready to do the firewall in a W111 sedan with a pre-cut set of firewall material. I'm going to put some sound deadening material on first, then the firewall material. That helps to cut down a little bit of the noise from the engine compartment.

While you are at it, repair/clean/renew your earthing point and cable. From the looks of the corrosion it is where your rust began.

I suggest running a separate cable from the battery to the engine block.

The sound deadening mat CAN be removed and replaced but after you've done it once you will never do it again. Waaaay too much work for such a small result.

Ammonia will cut through the glue slooowly, a heat gun will help, a thin, flexible, metal bladed scraper and a whole kit bag of patience. When you are done you will have a car and a garage which smells like a cat litter box for about a month. You WILL be sleeping outside for the entire time you are removing the matting. Nobody will let you into their house and you will probably burn whatever clothes you wore.