Insulating the dog house

I'm putting this in the general area because it may be of general interest.

The old fiberglass insulation inside the doghouse on my '67 Chevy van got pretty ragged. Someone glued some styrofoam blocks to it and the blocks were falling off. They also tended to shed esp where the carb/air cleaner bolt protruded.

So I took it all off and scrapped the remaining fibers off the remaining "finish". Some sort of thick gunk remained in most places. There was some rust on the sides so I treated that with Jasco metal etch overnight, then painted with a rust renovating red primer.

OK, that out of the way, the real point of this post: based on other messages I've read, I have some of the JC Whitney 3/8" dual faced organic insulation on order. On further research it appears this stuff is made by an outfit in Arizona (forget the name at present) and it's made of recycled denim and "cotton shoddy". I accessed the specs and it's treated with boric acid and borate (borax) to make it fire/mold/insect resistant. I figure that if the styrofoam under the cover didn't melt then this stuff shouldn't catch fire (it's rated up to 250F).

I am a bit concerned however about moisture. Being a cotton type of fiber, it will probably retain moisture and suffer. The presence of rust on the inner sides of the cover indicates that some moisture gets up there. I'm planning on trying to prevent that by using the JCW aluminum tape to make the edges and seams as waterproof as possible.

Has anyone else here tried this stuff? Is there a LOT of road splash of water up into the upper regions of the dog house?

Later on I'll be brushing and priming and maybe even painting the lower section of the dog house. Not sure what I'll use down there for insulation. The dual faced cotton stuff would probably work but am worried it will get more road splash down there.

Oh, there was plenty of the old red glue. I scrapped off what appeared to be failing to attach, but left the bulk of it. There was surface rust in areas of bare metal where the glue was either non-existent or had failed at some point earlier. I figure leaving the old, thick glue on won't hurt anything, and will help to deaden sound if not resist heat.

I didn't think of using a wire wheel, but pulling the old fiberglass, wire brushing, and scraping released more than enough noxious dust that I'm not sure I'd want to use a wire wheel on the rest. I did paint over everything with a good anti-rust primer (good to 800F) and there is even some old fiberglass bulking up the primer - more insulation R-value there ;-).

I generally use this stuff from Summit Racing.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=THE%2D14125&N=700+4294923429+4294923290+4294845359+400356+115&autoview=sku

or

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=THE%2D14120&N=700+4294923429+4294923290+4294845359+400356+115&autoview=sku

Looks interesting, thanks, Nate.

I guess if I get the Thermo-flex from Summit I could use the JC Whitney stuff for other areas, such as under the floor mat or on the panel walls.

I have found a wire wheel attachment on a grinder removes lots of stubborn materials such as adhesives. If you need to degrease anything, I have had great success with a concentrate called "Purple Power". It can be bought in a spray bottle or a plastic gallon jug.

Well, using primer on the underside of the dog house might have been a mistake. Despite letting it dry for several days, it didn't take to the adhesive I used to try to attach the new gasket. I wound up scraping off the primer in the gasket area and trying again. I might just have to scrape and wire wheel off the primer and the underlying old glue and get down to bare metal in order to get the gasket and the insulation to stay put.

BtW, the gasket sold by Restoration Specialties is not a particularly exact replacement for the stock gasket. It lacks an asymmetric jog that the stock gasket has. So it tends to flop outwards all around. It still seems to seal ok, just looks like of funny, and tends to hang up more on the seats.

S-10warehouse on e-bay sells a gasket for the DH @ $12 if I remember correctly?
B.W.

just did the motor box on my A- i used the insulation for duct work - has the foil backing and the metal "chrome "tape looks nice its cheap and works good!

What year of S-10?

is there any weatherstripping like that that would fit a econoline doghouse

i did use the s10 gasket when i had the chevy - as noted fits on the house, not the lid -worked very well - at the time was app 20 with shipping - insulation - they used to sell the same type at home depot etc but around here anyways they stopped - i did find the double foil with fiber type at pep boys for 20 for the same size roll -and i used a roll of metal tape from depot to seam it like you are thinking - side note - for my 69 chevy with a six the the whole dog house was never that hot and the insulation did not make much of a difference - on my 66 dodge with a 6 the house was hot - i did the insulation and it made a difference - however i also but a new timing set and changed the dist timing a bit so was it insulation or other factors? - oo3

I used the "Cool it" product on the lid and dog house.
its a sound and heat barrier, and it is self adhesive, none absorbant tar like material with heavy foil . Make sure you position it right because it sticks like S*#T to a wool blanket and you aint peeling it back off once its there.

I used a very inexpensis 1/4 round gasket glued to the rim of the base which worked out excelent and stays there.

The problem with your gluing is you used a single solvent primer that air drys. and so your glues solvent melts or disolves your dryed primer.

You need to use a two part epoxy primer that will "harden" by chemical catalist. this will be excelent for rust prevention more so then other primers because most primers are porus and let moisture through the pores to the base metal where epoxy primers seal themselves closed (thats why epoxy primers must be sand scuffed prior to applying the finish coat or the finish coat wont stick. Contack cement or ather glues will not break it down, you can glue anything to strait "two part" epoxy primer.

Here is my photo bucket file, scrol through and you will find pictures of the job on my dog house. Especially on page 2

https://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/m1dadio/

M1

thanks gman. i'll try it

The Chevy 2nd gen doghouse gasket is supposed to fit onto the lid, not onto the lower structure.

However I suppose as long as there is a gasket between them, it shouldn't make too much difference where it fits. Also, on my van the aftermarket Recaro seats are a bit too wide for the lid plus gasket, especially the passenger seat, which has less room. The old gasket got torn up from rubbing against the seats when the lid was opened and closed. The new one is having the same issue. The seats themselves have gotten torn up by the exposed edge of the lid tearing into the fabric.

Of course there's no guarantee that the gasket that came with this van is original... but it was on there when they re-painted it inside/out, because of the turquoise overspray on the gasket...

I ordered some of the S-10 gasket material from ebay and will apply that to the lower section of the doghouse. I might just put a smooth protective door edging or similar on the edge of the lid so that it stops tearing up the seat material.

I was able to find the Cool-tec FR heat shield material at a local performance shop today. $52 for a 4x6' roll, should be enough for both the lid and the lower section of the doghouse (when I get to that). I drove the van a bit with the new gasket in place Thurs night, and the heat appears to have helped to cure the primer pretty well. The gasket is also "sticking" to the lid edge better and didn't break free as before.

I also FINALLY found some of the old formula Berryman Chem-dip at the same shop. It's nearly impossible to get here in California, and I had to buy a 5 gallon bucket to boot. But the new "environmentally friendly" formulations just don't do the trick, at least not anywhere near as well as the old B9. The Donivan-supplied flame arrestor is soaking in the "new stuff" as I type ;-).

LOL... The Berrymans doesn't come near the motor. But the flame arrestor currently is being immersed in the Chemdip... to clean off all the carbon buildup.... It got the fins clean (they are really two sets of fins set at roughly 90 degrees to each other). There's some black discoloration on the exterior which almost looks like black anodizing but is probably carbon. Just takes a little longer to dissolve, I guess.

Meanwhile the motor is "protected" by the copper flame arrestor I cobbled up last weekend.

Got the doghouse cover insulated today. For a change I used my brain and made a pattern out of brown wrapping paper. Then used that to cut out the Thermogard FR insulating stuff. Used the Thermogard adhesive spray, as well. It's pretty good stuff, I think. Finished with some aluminum tape from JC Whitney (Bonded Logic). Also got the funky Restoration Specialties doghouse gasket reattached with the Thermogard spray.

Verdict: works very well as long as motor is running. After parking for a while the heat eventually soaks through. But I know the Thermogard is working because the lower (non insulated) portion of the dog house gets quite a bit warmer than the lid when the vehicle is running. So the next step is to figure out how to insulate the lower portion without having to pull the motor. I still have some cleaning of the motor to perform before I go ahead and apply the Thermogard (The motor was really filthy when I got the vehicle. Previous owner drove around with the oil filler cap off and the exhaust heat riser valve frozen. Lots of blow-by and lots of oil and gunk sprayed all over the motor. Plus the engine breather tube was leaking oil at the rear of the motor where it attaches. Motor running much cleaner now...)...