engine tarboard (firewall?)

I drove my '64 for two years with no tarboard in, for whatever reason it had been restored without that little detail.

The noise wasn't horrid. I'd have a tough time saying it's any noisier than a beetle with it's tarboard in.

I decided the best way to muffle engine noise is to stuff the area behind the back seat, some cardborad moving boxes I had back there for a while did an amazing job quieting the car down, but I've used old comforters and pillows too.

Basically that's it: noise and heat insulation, if you remove it you will have more noise from the engine inside the car, the car won't explode but forget about listening to the radio while cruising.

Ant

klashniv wrote:

About a week later I used them for moving, of course. ;)

It was completely accidental, had about three or four of them unfolded that I liberated from work to aid in my move. Just threw 'em behind the back seat to get them out of the way, and I was surprised how muffled the engine became.

Figured it was all the layers that did it, maybe the corrugation helped too.

They weren't huge boxes, less than two feet long and half that wide, maybe a foot and a half tall when assembled.

Unless you have one of those mega-wattage sound systems or closely follow behind someone who does...

ogg

Just a quick word of warning...

Some Beetles had a bunch of strips of some sort of material glued behind the tarboard. If you're going to drive without the tarboard, make sure you remove these too, as the fan can suck them off the firewall and they do a neat job of completely clogging it up.

Been there, done that, not fun.

Kim Howe

When I got my 1973 Beetle, it did not have tar boards. It had a lot of engine noise. I thought installing tar boards would make it quiter. I should have gotten 2 sets of tar boards. The TMI set I got was really flimsy. Anyway it made the engine compartment look better. What really helped muffle the noise inside the Beetle was installing the OEM heater muffs for the heater boxes.

I haven't noticed any changes in the amount of sound from the back since I removed the tarboards. I have noticed though that I seem to have alot more space in the engine compartment(behind fan shroud and sides)!

All the same I plan on replacing them, am sure the VW engineers did alot of research before they decided to install them.

Joseph

After I replaced my tarboards, I got new tail light assemblies. I had to remove the tarboards on the left and right sides to get to the tail light wires to connect the new tail lights. I never re installed the side tar boards. It still looks good with just the center tar board. The engine compartment had been painted semi gloss ceramic hi heat black so the sides still look good too. Besisdes, if I ever need to get to those wires it surely makes it easier! Jospeh 73vwbttl

I got a roll of Pink Panther insulation from Home Depot and stuck some INTO the rear backrest...it's still noisy, but that might be because of the single extractor header (right side). Also, I don't have the carpet or headliner in yet. I slapped some elastic roofing goo on the floors, and that, along with house carpet padding, HAS helped...

I instead stuffed the area behind the back seat with a 300 watts 12 inches subwoofer. No more engine noise! :)

As for the tar board, I use the stuff sold at It's nothing revolutionary but it's nice, it looks different and is easy to work with.