Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Afternoon.
My car is all primered and getting the final fit up. Original is undercoat on the trunk lid and hood. Question is do I need a coating on the hood due to heat? Have any of you left it off without problem?

Plan would be to put bed liner on it.

I'd paint it and, if you need to, add some stick on heat barrier or insulation later. I would not use bed liner myself. Might want to check how flammable the bed liner is too if you go that route.

Curtis
There are some car heat barrier insulation stuff that I have seen that would be lighter and still protect the hood. Sorry don’t have the names but here is one from Summit:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/dei-050129

Linda

I would not choose that particular one as it says it's 3/4" thick.

I found some thin one. As I think about this it seems like it wasn't there for heat but sound. They used the same undercoat everywhere. doors, bottom, fenders trunk, hood, quarter panels. I'm wondering just how much heat actually comes up from the exhaust and engine? Since the parts of the hood that aren't coated were not affected it doesn't seem like it is even necessary.

I think it is more about the effect of the heat on the paint on top of your hood.

Linda

I don’t think you need anything for heat in stock applications. On all my cars I use dynapro undercoat on the underside of the hood mainly because it hides the minor blemishes left from metalwork and I like the light texture look. It goes on pretty thin and you can topcoat it with paint so it looks somewhat factory. I would not use bed liner.

I put undercoating on my hood mostly add a bit of stiffening.
I'm not sure I would do it again. When I did it, it was an old car owned by teenage me. Now we are both considered classics.

I've decided to go with just paint. The original undercoat is flexible and really does nothing much that I can see to add strength. Seems to me it was there to sound deaden. One of the local roadster guys just had his car done recently and hasn't had any heat problem without it.