Bubble-head Super Beetle Air Box Seal

[Tim Donahoe]

I have a 1974 Super Beetle--bubble-round windshield--so I have the kind of fresh-air box that has the big, flat lid on its front. This lid is sealed with a weird kind of sponge that is impregnated with a sticky kind of substance.

Anyway, my seal is over forty years old and it's leaking--probably from me getting into the air box to fix the wiper motor, fresh-air fan, etc. o several occasions. I want to replace it with a roll of RV sealant tape that I have (a 1/8 inch dum-dum kind of product that comes in a roll), so I want to remove all the old seal material.

I've scraped most of it off, then used mineral spirits, alcohol, acetone, some Citris stuff for removing adhesives, etc. None of these products seem to do much damage to get the lid surface perfectly clean.

Has anyone removed their seal and used a suitable product to also remove the old adhesive? What did you use?

Tim

[Dwayne1m]

3M makes a product called General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner, #08987. I have used it many times and had good success with it. That being said, that material is on the inside of the cover and it won't be seen so I was never to fussy about it unless there were big chunks still on it. You're going to go over that area with the new weather stripping. I always stripped that cover down pretty far and repainted it while I had it off anyway.

[Tim Donahoe]

Dwayne, I am going to repaint the cover also--inside and out.

I went back to using a grocery-store adhesive called De-Solve-It. I was a little more patient this time and let it soak in. Using my thumbnails, mostly, I was able to get all the adhesive off. In the future, I'll go for the 3-M stuff.

Thanks,

Tim

[Joel]

I've always just used a self adhesive foam weatherstrip you get at the hardware store designed for house windows and doors stuck to the lid side.
Never had problems with it leaking and if the lid needs to come back off it doesnt stick it in place.
_________________
Quick little bug, you got a Porsche motor in that?
1974 Germanlook 1303 2.5 Suba-Beetle

[Tim Donahoe]

Joel, I'd like to use that sponge-type weatherstrip stuff also, but isn't it pourous? It seems as if it would leak--even when compressed by tightening the screws.

The stuff I'm thinking of using does not stick to the surface, either. It's kind of like dum-dum, and comes in a roll.

Tim

[Tim Donahoe]

Well, I installed the air-box cover using the RV flat dum-dum type stuff, I mentioned earlier. It looks like it's going to be okay (I used two layers of the stuff, so it's certainly think enough), but I'd sure like to know what VW used originally.

That stuff was amazing. Forty years, and it was still pliable and even a bit gooey. It's made of a combination of a product similar to loose-cell house window weatherstrip--but impregnated with some gooey leak-proof substance. If I hadn't removed the cover so many times in the last year, I probaby would not have bunged up the original seal material.

Are there any old VW Servicemen out there who might know what the original seal was made from?

Tim

[vwkirb]

I don't know what that gummy stuff is. Someone who works in refridgeration or ac will probably know. I've seen it on commercial refidgerators and surrounding the heater core inlets on my girlfriend Ford.

[Tim Donahoe]

I'm begining to think the recipe for the "mysterious substance" is hidden away in a vault in Area 51

Anyone from New Mexico want to chime in?

Tim

[Tim Donahoe]

I opened up the hood and since I had replaced the black cardboard trunk liner with a TMI Oatmeal trunk carpet set--and didn't want to screw up my new carpet--I lined the trunk under the air box with plastic.

All my work was for naught. I still got a little leak from yesterday's rain.

So, I'll try another layer of the RV dum-dum on the bottom and see how it goes.

The fight never ends.

Tim