Quick post! The roll cage will be mounted to the floorboard in four places. Kent can’t weld on the rubberized sound insulation and adhesives used to assemble the car and keep it quiet, so this stuff has to go. Since I was only removing a few smaller areas, I opted to use dry ice instead of hiring out the Rally Anarchy Liquid Nitrogen Deathray.
Wearing thick, leather gloves, I set the block down on the section I wanted to clear, then I split it into four relatively equal pieces using a chisel and a rubber mallet.
Basically, you move the pieces around to super-cool the rubberized insulation, making it brittle. Then you move it to the next area and give the first spot a few sound whacks with a hammer (I found an old ball peen worked well), and the material just cracks and pops off the metal. Nice!
Once I cleared enough material away, I moved the dry ice to the next area, as you can see, I’m not concerned with fully stripping the shell down the bare metal throughout.
The dry ice was so effective, in fact, I ended up removing more insulation just because I could! If you’re gonna strip all the insulation off a shell, join Rally Anarchy, put your full name and location in your profile, and ask about it. If you’ve just got a couple small areas to clear (from above, mind you, dry ice isn’t a good idea upside-down), you might give this $5 helper a try.
Once I go back over these locations with the wire wheel, they should look more like this.
Additional thoughts:
- 4lb block of dry ice lasted a good six hours in the shade, 88* Phoenix weather.
- Dry ice is pure, frozen carbon dioxide, which does not change into a liquid prior to gas, which is why it’s called “dry ice.”
- Have a small cooler with you when you go to pick it up, and keep your windows down on the way home, so you don’t pass out and die.
- Mosquitos love carbon dioxide, it seems. Even in a closed cooler, I came upon a small swarm of them buzzing around it – and I can’t remember the last time I saw a mosquito out here.