How to keep heat away from a Sprite’s drivetrain

Update by Tim Suddard to the Austin-Healey Sprite project car
Jul 18, 2023 | Austin-Healey, Sprite, Bugeye Sprite, Austin-Healey Sprite, DEI, Heat Insulation

Photography by Tim Suddard

Before we installed our Bugeye’s drivetrain, we installed heat insulation in the tunnel and firewall area.

While we were trying to keep things light and simple, we also wanted to keep heat, especially from the transmission and exhaust system, away from our transmission tunnel and foot boxes.

We are very enamored with DEI’s stainless steel Floor & Tunnel Shield II. A 21x48-inch piece (Part No. 50502 for $117.58) was all we needed for our Sprite.

While this material has proven excellent in past projects at keeping heat out of the cockpit, there are other reasons we keep coming back to DEI and this product: It is relatively easy to work with and has memory–kind of like thick tinfoil. It is also fairly easy to cut with upholstery shears (that will need sharpening once you are finished) and it is self-adhesive. It also looks high-tech and is not affected by the elements.

We used brown craft paper to make our patterns. Once we had the material shaped as needed, we test fit–while the backing remained in place. (Our experience: This stuff really sticks, especially on a freshly painted body that is free of dirt and grime.)

We placed a large piece of insulation inside the entire transmission tunnel and rolled it in place with an 18-inch piece of exhaust pipe grabbed from our scrap bin.

We then worked our way forward, cutting a U-shaped piece for the front of the tunnel and then finally pieces for the two sides of the tunnel that protrude into the firewall area.