Cleaning a hood liner

[RobertP]

have you guys ever been successful cleaning a under hood liner? Mine on my Suburban was perfect until I took a trip and ran through some crud on the road , now I cant get it off. I took some APC and tried to soak it out, but its soaked into the fibers, if you brush it, it will pull all the fibers up and make it shaggy looking. Any ideas?

Anyway of sealing these things?

Before:






After:

[Luster]

I bought a 2006 Grand Prix a few months ago and the hood liner looked exactly like that. Someone told me a few years back to spray it with ArmorAll Tire Foam... (I`m thinkin` HUH?)

I took the liner off, laid it out on the grass in my back yard... saturated it with Tire Foam... let dry 30 minutes.

It still looks perfect, and I`ve been driving it daily through salt, sand, rain, snow since the fall.

I don`t get it, but it still looks great. (The only difference in mine is that it`s black... so the white mineral deposits showed up more before I sprayed it!)

[Luster]

Here`s another thought about hood liners. I had a 2001 Grand Prix that I bought brand new. (I`ve since sold it to my son, so it`s still in the family)...

When the car was new, I took the hood liner OFF. It`s been off for almost 8 years with no damage to the paint, and no apparent negative effects anywhere.

Even though it was my daily driver, I would detail it on weekends and take it to car shows and I always thought it looked better with that nice shiney black underside of the hood.

[CharlesW]

Good topic.
Hood liners have always been a source of frustration for me. My experience at cleaning them was the same as yours. When I had my Astro Van, I ended up replacing it when it got to where I could no longer stand to look at it.

The tire foam and/or removal ideas might be worth a try.

FWIW, I think I have read where one of the functions of the hood liner was to act as a fire blanket in case of an underhood fire. The plastic retainers are supposed to melt and let the liner drop down and smother the fire. I don`t have any idea how the tire foam might affect that. I also don`t have any idea if the hood liner would do any good in the case of a fire, anyway.

[Luster]

FWIW, I think I have read where one of the functions of the hood liner was to act as a fire blanket in case of an underhood fire. The plastic retainers are supposed to melt and let the liner drop down and smother the fire.

I didn`t reallize there was a safety issue... probably not a good idea to remove it in that case!

[Tex Star Detail]

I never had any luck cleaning one of those. I am always scared it will start to fray and start coming apart.

[Beemerboy]

I start out with a good shop vac, using a brush attachment...What I have found with these is the stains are deep into the material...I`ve used PB APC mixed pretty strong 50/50....sprayed on and got the area pretty wet....I used a old cotton towel...MF bites to much on that surface, and rough the area up....then sprayed down with straight water and used the shop vac to suck up best I could...this time I used the flat attachment and pressed on the backing so to squezze up as much water and APC as possible....wait until it drys...more gunk kept coming to the surface so I vacuumed again...this took about 90% of the stain out..to the point that I was OK with it

[RobertP]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, Ill give them a try. If I cant get it clean I may take it off and replace it, Dynamat makes hood liner material that has a sealed surface so no gunk can get in it, its paintable as well, but boy is it expensive..

The hood insulators main purpose is for sound isolation from the noise of the engine, secondly it helps insulate the hood from engine heat.

[CharlesW]

I didn`t reallize there was a safety issue... probably not a good idea to remove it in that case!

There`s a lot of different thoughts on whether or not it is or would be of any value as far as helping contain a fire.
There`s also different opinions on how engine heat might affect the paint on the hood with no liner for insulation.

The fire thing seems like it is pretty unlikely to be a problem and it wouldn`t deter me from removing the liner. If one of my vehicles has a fire, it is probably going to be gone, anyway.

The possible damage to the hood paint would concern me a little. How much of a factor is the engine heat on the hood paint?

The problem being that by the time you know it will cause a problem, the damage has been done.

[RobertP]

A lot of cars dont have them and the paint is fine, I know the older Hondas we had never had them on the hood, as well as all of my old cars that I still have. Never had a heat issue with the paint, I think that they are mostly on there for sound insulation

What I don`t understand is why they make these things so porous, you would think that they would want the face of it sealed so it doesn`t soak up every little bit of goo that flies up there, I have seen some that have a smooth rubber like finish that you can wipe off easily.

[jayincali]

A lot of cars dont have them and the paint is fine, I know the older Hondas we had never had them on the hood, as well as all of my old cars that I still have. Never had a heat issue with the paint, I think that they are mostly on there for sound insulation.

I agree as well, I have an 04 Dodge Ram and the underside of the hood is just body color paint, no liner. Makes it easy to clean, a little APC and long handled brush and thats it, good as new.

[Luster]

What I don`t understand is why they make these things so porous, you would think that they would want the face of it sealed so it doesn`t soak up every little bit of goo that flies up there, I have seen some that have a smooth rubber like finish that you can wipe off easily.

If, indeed, it is designed as a fire suppresant system, it creates a "smothering blanket" over the fire and it probably has to be made of that material by design...

I can guarantee that, when this idea came up around the board room table at GM, no one ever said...

"But it won`t be very easy to keep clean!"

[CharlesW]

I can guarantee that, when this idea came up around the board room table at GM, no one ever said...

"But it won`t be very easy to keep clean!"

But you can bet they ask two questions.
1. Can we buy it outside of the U.S.?
2. How cheap can we get it?

[RobertP]

I can guarantee that, when this idea came up around the board room table at GM, no one ever said...

"But it won`t be very easy to keep clean!"

Yeah, your right,
I`m sure catering to the whims of a picky obsessive owner was at the bottom of the list.

Hey, I just noticed your local! Im over in Shawnee, KS

[Luster]

Hey, I just noticed your local! Im over in Shawnee, KS

Yep... KC boy all my life!