New member here/ Doing a restoration, LOTS of progress photos Options

[1FASTVW]

Hello to everyone. I just recently found this forum and am impressed so far with the knowlege that exists here. I am sure that I will be calling on the collective wisdom frequently as I just started my resto/rebuild project today.

A little history; I purchased my 1973 914 2.0 about 15 years ago. I drove it for about 5 years until I had a small fire in the engine bay. I had removed the filter covers on my carburetors to do some adjusting and was driving around like that for a couple of days. Apparently there was a spark in the engine compartment, and with the venturis exposed like that, it went up quick. Hey, I was in my early 20's, so not the smartest in the world. But smart enough to have an extingisher on board. It only burned for about 20-30 seconds, and the only damage was the engine drip tray and one heater hose. And of course extingisher powder all over the engine and carbs. I towed it home and parked it in the garage with the idea that I would someday rebuild it. Shortly after that, I got a job that put me on the road, so I moved it to a storage unit, and ther it sat for almost 10 years. I recently decided to see if I could sell it, and I had a couple of good offers, but no-one came through with the money. So I started doing some research and decided to rebuild it for myself. Into the shop today, and I have removed most of the interior, engine and trans will be tomorrow. It is a slow process as I am bagging and labeling every item to come out of the car. I am not looking for a concourse vehicle, but I would like to keep it as correct as possible.

So here are my first of what I am sure will be many questions. There is what I believe is sound deadening material on the floor of the car. Kind of like sticky tar paper, painted over. What is the best way to remove this, and is there a factory style replacement, or is something like DynaMat a suitable substitute?
Secondly, there appears so far to be very little rust on the car. The battery tray is gone, but the support and suspension mount areas are all intact, and they even still have paint on them. My question is this, how do you check the laterals for interior damage without cutting into the car? They sound very solid when I rap on them.

Any and all help is appreciated, and I thank everyone in advance. I will post some work pictures tomorrow, as my camera had a dead battery when I went out to the shop tonight.

Michael