My boot really doesn't get that hot....I'll consider the configuration a success I'd love to hear a Concours judge ask "ok....is your sandwiched woodgrain masonite in place, in the boot?" The response would have to be "sure.....and I waxed it!".
Those cover are special Italian wood, you can only get in Italy as it is a special. Could be the same wood use on the Italian boat. Yea Right!
Is there 15mm thick rag fiber insulation (faced on one side with aluminium foil) on top of the famous wood panel? Or, does the carpet kit install directly on top of the wood panel? The Parts Catalog diagrams are unclear and I can't find any photos. My molded trunk car carpet fits as though it was made for a slightly bigger trunk. I pulled the carpet today and discovered what looks to be additional insulation on the front side of the trunk as well as on the trunk floor. I'm unsure if it is supposed to be like that or if someone has added extra insulation. (BTW, my factory wood panel is attractively finished light color woodgrained.)
My 80gtsi has that insulation design also. The 1983 308 has many transitional features. Guessing funky wood design started in 84. Now we just need ahlbln to scour Europe for a manufacturer to make an exact replica. ;-)
Further digging reveals this: - Trunk carpet, on top of, - 15mm thick panel of rag fiber insulation, on top of, - (attractively wood grained) Italian wood panel, on top of, - 15mm thick panel of rag fiber insulation, on top of, - translucent fiberglass panel riveted in place, on top of, - white puffy cottony looking insulation, on top of, - who-knows-what. If you say you have the rag fiber panels in a 1980 GTSi but no wood, it sounds like I have double everything. I had thought all cars, regardless of year, were bestowed with a wood panel. Without further opinions/advice, I am removing the rag fiber and keep only the wood panel and white puffy stuff (although I can see that there are big areas with no insulation anymore) under the fiberglass.
^^^ Its the only reason your USA car has all that crap in there to begin with. The Euro cars have mucho more room!
Thanks. Certainly more insulation is a good thing. I am wondering though if I have more than Ferrari originally installed. There is evidence of someone messing around under the trunk carpet (missing rivets, extra holes, etc) so I would just like to know how it was when it left the factory. The amount of insulation does not look to be "factory" to my eye but I have no background to know. It may well be. ... this all started when I removed the first owner's humongous stereo amplifiers located in the trunk and one thing lead to another and now suddenly I am inspecting Italian wood paneling. I still have my cats. I don't mind cooking the groceries if the trunk gets hot, but I'd sure hate to ruin my ignition modules. Are there serious tales of woe from overheated modules? Did techs add insulation prophylactically?
Might have extra insulation because of the stereo equipment. The Digiplex's never seemed to be sensitive to the heat in the trunk. After the first version they were really pretty reliable. I never saw anyone adding insulation there.
I took a look after work today to confirm my memory. There is approx 15mm insulation (w/foil) on the front wall and floor of the trunk. There is no wood laminate at all. It looks very original but it's hard to be certain about anything after 35 years. I hope this helps!
Well it's not a QV but my '78 had several layers of insulation and the infamous table top. I don't remember exactly but I think mine was sort of an off-white color. I thought it was rather odd but was pretty sure it was a factory installed part to help create an air gap of sorts. And the laminate wouldn't transfer heat like metal would. Kind of made sense in an odd way.
This is very useful information. Interesting. It confirms that Ferrari used the 15mm foil-on-one-side rag fiber insulation. I am now wondering if they just took it over the top for the 83 because of a bit of added power and 2 small cats. It sure makes the molded trunk carpet fit poorly. Its odd that I-velocita's car doesn't have the wood. Another thing that nags at me is that my rag insulation was affixed with foam double-sided tape; I don't think that stuff was available way back in the olden days of 1983. If I wanted to go all out on this, I would remove the fiberglass liner, sweep out all the white batting and replace it with Areogel which is now available in flexible rolls. (Areogel is the Space Shuttle heatshield type material. BuyAerogel.com | Spaceloft® Blanket). The R Factor is so high, just a few millimeters would be sufficient. My carpet would fit nicely.
I'll look through my old pics at home. I may have taken more shots of it as I took it apart. But not sure I took many detailed pics of the trunk area coming apart. I definitely remember there being a piece of wood covered in what I would call formica and I want to say it was just under the carpet. Below that there was another layer of insulation covered in foil. And then the fiberglass section with the raw rock wool below that. I could be remembering the order wrong, but there definitely were several layers and I was able to re-use everything but the rock wool stuff. I also re-foiled the one layer with heavy duty foil.
I completed this project today; my trunk insulation and carpet have been reinstalled. For the first time since owning the car, the trunk looks great. Not much to document “for the greater good” of the 308 community. What insulation to put back in and what to leave out is a judgement call probably individual to each car. By carefully measuring the dimensions of the various areas of the molded trunk carpet, I was able to decide on which pieces of insulation would best let the carpet fit snugly within the trunk. In the end, I did not replace the second 15mm thick sheet of rag fiber that had been on top of the wood panel, but put back all the other sheets and the wood panel itself. There is a lot of insulation. The car may well have left the factory with the wood panel sandwiched between the two layers of 15mm rag fiber, but it made the carpet fit poorly. That top layer that I removed would not have protected the digiplex boxes which are below the wood panel level; so the extra insulation is probably only for trunk contents. I haven’t (and won’t) measure before and after trunk temperatures, but I doubt there will be much difference. Even if there is, I decided to let “fit” trump “R-factor”. All is well. Very happy.
