vapor barriers

[bravekozak]

I am going to replace all three of my vapor barriers in the doors and cargo hatch wirh a metallized rip-stop heavy duty Cossela-Dorken product. I will purchase some acrylic sheet this week to make a template for cutting and hole punching. However, I need everyones help in locating some some 1/8" round butyl tape. Not on the bay. I may have to go direct to Tremco and beg a roll or two.

[drddan]

http://3mcollision.com/products/sound-deadening/3m-strip-calk-08578-black.html

or

http://3mcollision.com/products/sealants/3m-window-weld-round-ribbon-sealer-08625.html

[BigElCat]

^^^I used that 3M stuff for my F150 windshield. It's good but sorta pricey. It came from O'reilly autoparts.

[BigElCat]

From now on, I'm just going to use shower curtains to make barriers. I won't be putting the panels back in place either...gutted with exposed shower curtains.

Of course I'll pay attention to the design and colors of the curtains; I'm thinking "yellow duckies" for a red Festiva. :car:

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

Bravekozak,

Are you referring to the thin clear plastic thing that goes behind the door panels?

Most of mine are in terrible shape, and the ones in AK literally fracture into pieces if touched when they're cold.

Is this something you could make more of and sell? I'm only concerned with the main doors, not the rear lid.

[Powerstiva]

I made one of these out of a thick trash bag that I think was meant for some sort of industrial use or something.

[bravekozak]

Alaska, yes the material I am talking about is called Delta-Reflex. I used it as a vapor barrier for my addition I put on over my garage. It looked like the inside of a spaceship before I covered it with drywall. All silver. Anyway, I have a big roll and a half left over. The problem with the stock plastic, is that it is too thin and there is a lot of tearing where the holes are. Chrysler makes good vapor barriers from some heavy gray plastic, but it is thermoplastic and molded for their door handles. I wasn't planning on making a die rule, because of the cost. I do want the holes to be in the exact place. That is why I am going to make a template. I made a template to locate and drill holes for a spoiler on my son's Intrepid. It worked perfectly.
I assume the same template could be used for both doors. We shall see.

Doctor, that second 3M tape is very close to what I need. Thanks.

[Bert]

I've been driving without the vapour barriers on my cars for 8 years now. In theory putting a coat of varnish on the back of the panels would mostly accomplish the same thing. Are you doing this to keep water off the panels? Since you garage your car all the time and don't drive in the winter BraveKozak I don't understand why you'd even bother with the plastic.

[bravekozak]

I have opened up my doors multiple times. I need new butyl. Besides, it's something to do indoors during the winter with a lot of overkill. I wonder if the door holes match the centers of the door cards? It would make my job very easy just to lay the clear mylar sheet on top of the card (I have already removed my map pockets). We shall find out. My next overkill project will be ordering stainless exhaust studs and titanium flanged bolts for the Festiva.

[Bert]

I have opened up my doors multiple times. I need new butyl. Besides, it's something to do indoors during the winter with a lot of overkill. I wonder if the door holes match the centers of the door cards? It would make my job very easy just to lay the clear mylar sheet on top of the card (I have already removed my map pockets). We shall find out. My next overkill project will be ordering stainless exhaust studs and titanium flanged bolts for the Festiva.

Now I understand. Perhaps I can drop off a neglected Festy for you to amuse yourself with; it's all I can do to just keep them going, let alone start dreaming of time-consuming projects. But as you say; attaching a plastic barrier directly to the door cards and maybe adding a foam gasket around the edges will resolve your problems. I always thought the barriers were there to persuade novice car repairers not to mess with stuff inside the doors.

[BigElCat]

I always thought the barriers were there to persuade novice car repairers not to mess with stuff inside the doors.

LOL! The 'hermetric seal' is a psychological barrier. 'I don't know anything about door locks, except they suck. It's going to get worse if I even peel the edge of the plastic back. I should just walk away.'

[Christ]

Some windo-weld will work to seal new barriers if you don't want to use tape. Just press it against so that it has an obvious seal [you'll know just by looking at it] and don't press it too tight against the door to squeeze out all the goop.

Also, if you're not using something that you can see through, it'll be a bit harder to know that it's sealed, but basically, if you push on the stuff until the goop starts moving, it'll be sealed.

[Bert]

LOL! The 'hermetric seal' is a psychological barrier. 'I don't know anything about door locks, except they suck. It's going to get worse if I even peel the edge of the plastic back. I should just walk away.'

The black goop is the major obstacle to removing the plastic but it does dissolve with varsol. There's no need to be scared of window internals but go slowly and make diagrams or pictures to refer to until your confidence is restored.

[bravekozak]

That black goop is butyl tape. A mixture of bityl rubber, fillers (mainly carbon black) and resins which give it that incredible pressure sensitive tack. Tremco, a company that I did R&D for made a lot of this product for Ford and Volvo. They lost a lot of business when windshield and backlite tapes were replaced with gunned urethane.

[bravekozak]

I used good old genuine Ford windshield tape to put my windshield in. It works great.

I bought the clear acrylic plastic to make up some templates.
I did a rough cut and verified that the door vapor barriers are indeed mirror images of each other.
These are the two roughed-in templates on top of the vapor barrier I intend to cut.
The old ones are falling to pieces.