How to Make Your Own Hood Insulation
- 1). Open the hood by pulling the hood lever located to the left of the driver’s side footwell. Place your hands underneath the partially opened hood and press the external hood latch to unlatch and fully raise the hood.
- 2). Remove the existing insulation from the underside of the hood. On most vehicles, the insulation is held with plastic clips. Carefully pry these clips with a slotted screwdriver and set them aside. Use adhesive remover to remove bonded insulation from the hood, if necessary.
- 3). Set the insulation onto a large piece of cardboard. Create a template by tracing the shape of the hood insulation onto the cardboard with a marker. Make sure to trace the holes for the plastic clips while you’re making the template.
- 4). Cut the template out of the cardboard with a pair of scissors. Use a hobby knife to cut the holes out of the template.
- 5). Lay out the black fiberglass cloth on a cutting surface. Place the template on top of the cloth and cut the cloth in the shape of the template with a hobby knife. Repeat the procedure to cut out as many sheets of fiberglass cloth as needed.
- 6). Lay out a large sheet of thick aluminum foil on a cutting surface. Place the template on top, and cut the foil in the shape of the template. The aluminum foil will help disperse engine bay heat to avoid thermal damage to the paint.
- 7). Apply spray adhesive on top of one of the fiberglass sheets. Lower the aluminum foil on top of the sheet and press both sheets together, then allow the sheets to dry. Apply spray adhesive onto another sheet of fiberglass and lower the previously bonded pieces onto the new piece. Repeat the procedure with as many fiberglass sheets as needed to attain your desired thickness.
- 8). Install the new hood insulation onto the underside of the hood, aluminum foil side first. Use the clips from the old insulation to hold the new insulation in place. Apply high-strength bonding tape in between the insulation and the hood in areas that require additional support.
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