Hi All,
I just finished fixing up a friends bug. Its a 1970 in very good condition, 72000 original miles. I installed bilge blower fans in the heater hoses (between the heat exchangers and the body. They are working great, but I'm wondering about the possibility of Asbestos in the heater hoses.
I read on RAMVA that some of the bugs had an asbestos gasket between the hose and the body. Well, this bug doesn't, it has the red rubber gasket so thats not a problem. What is unusual, is this bug does not have the typical black plastic corrugated hoses between the exhangers and the body. It has those metal flexible exhaust pipes, with a rubber liner/insulator on the outside. Now, there is a layer of white woven material between the pipe and the outer layer of rubber (the rubber is grey in color). Anybody ever see these hoses before? I've only seen the plastic ones. These ones almost looked factory as the rubber outer liner was cut and the ends properly hemmed to the correct lengths.
I had to cut a section out of these hoses to insert and "duct tape" the fans in place, and if this material is asbestos, I need to tell him about it and come up with another solution. I did try burning the stuff with a propane torch, the fibers do tend to burn, but the larger wads of it do not. I wasn't even thinking of asbestos, just wondered if it was flammable. Now today I read about those asbestos gaskets, and I dont' want him to panic until I know what this really is.
Should asbestos fibres burn with a propane torch? Any other way of knowing what these are? Were these a factory or dealer installed hose from the earlier years? I mainly have experience with the 71 and up bugs.
Thanks for any advise you can offer, I just want to do the right thing.
Ryan