The Foam Car

Phil Planck

[ As discussed during September, 2000 on the 356 Talk line, Phil is restoring his C Coupe which had had previously applied to it a healthy coating of "protectant" foam rubber --Ed.]

Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000

Took house guest for a ride in foam car today and he was impressed by
differences of the Pre A, which he has ridden in several times. Thought
about adjusting the brakes, but decided to experiment with foam removal. I
did the left half of the engine compartment in about 1/2 hour with a putty
knife. Soaked one piece in water and one in gasoline. Water seemed to soak in some(not good), and gas did not melt the foam like it will Styrofoam.

Decided to tackle left longitudinal and floor pan. But first I gathered
several tools of destruction like a small crow bar and a small pry bar with
chisel edges. The good news is that I got the longitudinal area and the
left half of the floor pan scraped off in about 1 hour and only skinned one
knuckle. The bad news is that there is no left longitudinal. I guess PO
was somewhat honest in saying there was no rust before he applied the foam, as the rusty longitudinal was just not there. The cardboard heater tubes were in good shape and the vertical wall at the floor pan joint seems ok. Floor pan has a couple of rusty spots that could possibly be repaired rather than replace complete pan.

Took first photo of Foam Car with all the scraped off foam laying on the
floor under it. Also took one with a 33 gallon trash bag full of scraped
off foam sitting in front of Foam Car. Some of you have asked to see what
Foam Car looks like, so I will scan these photos in tomorrow and post them
at the Registry web site if that is possible.

Drank a beer and decided to check out the fuse box, as one of you had
suggested cleaning up the contacts and terminal connections. Two of the
four circuits that were hot with the ignition on had no voltage at the other
end of the fuse. Cleaned all four up, plus checked a few others. Four
fuses had the fusible link soldered on by Po, so replaced with new, white 8
ohm fuses. Two fuses have no input wire. I put six volts on each. One lit
up the head lights only. The other had no noticeable affect. Need to get
Joe Leoni's manuals. Started up foam car to pull in the garage and decided
to try the radio, which had not been working. It now works. It's an AM
only 6 volt transistor with a name "Condor" on it. Both speakers work.

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000

Not feeling like discovering the truth about the right side longitudinal and
floor pan I decided to take Foam Car for a short warm up trip and check the
cylinder compression with the engine warm. Drove about 20 miles and pulled
the plugs. They all looked pretty decent. For those who did not read my
earlier post, cylinder #1 had low compression(75 psi) when checked cold.
Well, it has not healed any, with a hot reading of 65 psi on #1 and 120psi
+or - 2 psi on the other 3. So all 4 cylinders measured about 10 psi lower
when hot than when cold. I'm guessing its pistons/rings that are giving the
low reading, yet it is not appearing to burn oil.

Decided to work on stuff that really does not matter right now, just to get
my mind off the engine. Went to a GM dealer and bought a pint can of GM
chrome polish, as my other can was empty. If any of you have not tried this
stuff, I strongly recommend it. It is very liquidy , with little apparent
abrasives, and is the best stuff I have ever used on chrome. It is easy to
apply. Do the whole car before wiping off. When you wipe it off it is
almost like white dust. It comes off paint and rubber trim very easily,
with no damage. So all of Foam Car's chrome got polished and most of it
came out pretty nice.

Also went to Radio Shack and bought a new antenna to replace the broken one on Foam Car, since the radio started working yesterday. Installed that
without much difficulty. Have not played the radio while driving yet, but
am curious to see if it has enough power to overcome the engine noise.
Although right now, with probably 80% of the foam still on the car it is
pretty quiet inside.

I hope to be able to drive Foam Car until Nov. 1, without causing further
damage to the engine. Then it will come out for a total tear down to see
what shape it is really in. Read Harrys post today on blackened heads.
Foam Car is a Super 90(or a least parts of it are), but the inside of the
valve covers nor the outside of the head did not reveal any black finish.
Stay tuned.

Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000

Friday afternoon I jacked up the front of Foam Car for the first time. I
suspected the king pins were bad, and they are. While looking around
under there I could not resist scrapping off some foam to see if the tow hook is there. The bottom of the battery/tire pan stripped fairly easy and is in
remarkably good shape. A little rust near the battery, but not enough to
allow the battery to fall through. The tow hook is there, having been
completely covered by about 2 inches of foam. I popped the hood and began
stripping foam in the tire storage area. With all of the foam, there is
no room for a spare tire. Had to use a slicing technique. I'd make about a 2
inch slice down to metal, and then pry off that piece of foam. Things
went pretty well untill I got to the areas where the wiring was routed. This
turned into more of an archelogical dig, as each strand of wire was
encased in foam. The drivers side is now stripped of foam. Between the under side and the drivers inner, I got about 15 gallons of foam chunks. Had to quit to drive "up north" again for the weekend. The challenge today is to
remove the battery and start stripping the foam on the passenger side. There is a twin air horn or some such device encase in foam to the left of the
battery. I don't know how anyone could hear it from inside the trunk. I guess the sound came out through the ventilation slots.

Date: Tue, 25 Sep, 2000

Spent Monday removing more foam from battery /tire pan and removing 6v
powered air horns from right battery wall. This took a while as there were 3 bolts hidden by foam on both sides that had to be removed. These things
are Stebel Air Horns made in Italy. There is a relay connected to it that
is also made in Italy. Hooked up the horn compressor directly to battery
and one of the two trumpets made a feeble noise. Pulled the air hose and
hooked the trumpets up to my air compressor at 40 psi. Wish I had been
wearing ear plugs. My ears are still ringing, as both horns were in good
working order. Lowered pressure and got very good results down to 20 psi.
At 15 psi they were not as loud and did not blast instantly. The motor is
sluggish. It has replaceable brushes and what appears to be an oil hole
with a plastic cap on it. Found two 1/2" holes in the battery pan wall
next to the end of each trumpet. Apparently that is how the sound was supposed to get out So there are 5 holes in the right battery pan wall that need to be filled in, plus a patch piece for the battery pan immediately under the battery.

PO apparently had a grounding problem at one time, as there were 3 ground
cables attached. One ran all the way back to the rear of the car, and the
other was attached to the front bumper bracket bolt. These were bolted to
a hole on the cross car flange at the bottom of the fuel tank tray. Another
cable ran from this same bolt to the battery. Took all of this out, reinstalled a few hanging wires along the cross car duct, rotated the battery so that ground post was forward instead of at rear, and installed a braided ground that was a spare for the Pre A. The engine cranks over fine both hot and cold, so I don't think all of these extra cables helped any.

My 2nd 33 gallon trash bag is now about 2/3 full of foam pieces. Got
enough foam out of the battery pan area that I can now get a spare tire in there.

Pulled the electrical tape off the air inlet ducts on each side in the
trunk. Went out for a test drive and the valve seems to work, although
when closed there is some air leakage. Must be why they were taped up.

Pic 1 - Foam Car with its first shedding of foam. The pile at the back is
from left rear half of engine compartment. Remaining foam is as it fell
from left longitudinal and floor pan.

Pic 2 - Foam Car with first shedding in a 33 gallon trash bag. How
deceiving a photo can be, although the hood fit is good you should see all
the foam under it. Battery sits on at least one inch of foam.

Pic 3- Details of sheet cake slicing and prying technique. The grid can be seen on wheel opening, as well as slices of foam laying on the floor. Fortunately, this section of foam is only about 1/2" thick.

Talk to you on the 356Talk line...

Phil Planck - 53248, 122936.