Is the point of the padding on the inside of the firewall and the bottom of the hood for heat shielding or to cut down on road noise? My Engine's starting to look good and i don't mind lifting the hood to show people, but the padding is gross.... salt stained and the the dirt doesn't come off..........

What would it affect if I took it off? I prefer pretty Blue firewall over Ugly Black padding anyday.

N8tureboy

all i've heard is that it's essentially for what you just said

to cut back on the heat a little bit, but mostly for engine noise

i've seen a good amount of people take it off

especially the GA's, most custom hoods didn't have it anyhow

We painted the pad on the hood to match some of the different pieces in the engine... Its just a fire blanket... the hood under the mat looked pretty bad on ours.

i painted the mat too...the hood looks kinda bad

I was thinking of buying a replacement for mine ( mine's got a tear, and mine's salt-stained also ) then painting a nice big Olds symbol on it.......any comments? I kinda think it would look cool B) Only problem being that big bump in it, looks like it's trying to cover a long dampener of some sort....what the hell's under there?

if i remember correctly it's a brace...

Nope, its a piece of crap insulator for noise and/or heat.

REMOVE IT!!!

I did six months ago and everything is fine.
- no warping of the hood
- no discoloration of the hood
- +500HP if you remove it!

The insulation on the underside of the hood is there solely to protect the paint on the top side from heat damage...

I removed mine sometime back and it doesn't really do anything.. but my hood underneath was in great shape! :D

wow 500 HP!!!!! What a great mod! :lol: :lol:

I think he means the stuff on the firewall itself, not the stuff attached to the hood. It IS for heat isolation...keeps the heat from getting into the passenger compartment. I don't think it would be a good idea to remove it.