Rear shelf insulation

My '96 car has a loose fibre pad (like a loose felt) about 30mm thick under the carpet over the enginer cover.  I've assumed this is original as it is cut neatly round things like the seatbelts.  It has some very hardened bituminous sound deadening material stuck to it.  Is this original too?  The pad is tearing, attracts damp and a bit pongy.  The bituminous material is falling off.  In short, it's bit manky.

I'm inclined to replace it with two pads of cellular foam rubber sound deadening, probably 25mm thick and cut in two pieces to make it easier to get in and out.

Thoughts and comments welcome.  What are other people doing?

Yes thats normal and this comes up regularly. If you search here for the colloquial term 'dead dog' you will find lots of mentions, stories and suggested solutions around the engine cover's insulating pad

Dead dog, exactly!!!

I evicted the dead dog ages ago & replaced it with reconstituted foam. I chose this as it is more dense than ordinary foam & it’s acoustic qualities are reputed to be better, this aspect was the crunch selling point, as the advantages are going to be immediately noticeable when cracking on over the open road with your TT exhaust bellowing it presence.
The other add you might consider & this has an effect, is to liberally apply bituminous roofing felt (torch felt) to flat surfaces.
One of our members has used this extensively & has “transformed” his car.
These ideas are easy to apply & inexpensive, which is why I experimented with them early on; they adhere to one of my life tenets. Maximum effect, minimum capital outlay.
M

My dead dog wasn't as bad as some I have seen so I let him carry on laying there. I did add sound deadening on top of the engine cover and extensively throughout the car.
As they leave the factory there is zero sound deadening in the cars.
Sound deadening and sound proofing are actually not the same.
Sound deadening seeks to reduce the sound eminating from the source whilst sound proofing seeks to attenuate what sound does eminate.
​​​@Airportable says I found it transformed my car.
The suspension remains the same but the effect it has on making the shell resonate or "zing" is greatly reduced. I kid not.
I encourage anyone doing a restoration or removing carpets or door cards to have a roll ready for use.
I enclose a couple of pics of before and after.

   

I'm a Yorkshire man and I don't like wasting brass but this was well worth it.
I know until someone else does it I'm just waffling in the wind..
 

A Yorkshire man waffling in the wind, that’s Never Ever been heard of before.
Congratulations, it must be good to plough an individual furrow.
It’s unlikely to catch on though, you might even be given the Yorkshire Medal 🏅
This mod, is inexpensive & effective, although I haven’t applied it as extensively as our friend, it has however taken the tinkle out of the doors, transforming it into a thunk.
M

Adding sound deadening materials to these cars makes such a huge difference in ride quality.
I installed the MGF / TF kit from NKGroup (which includes a replacement pad for the rear shelf).
I also added a bit of extra sound deadening adhesive material inside the doors. It makes the car feel much more refined and comfortable. The doors close with a clunk instead of a tinny ping. It is amazing what some material can do.
In addition to sound deadening the floors, you may also want to consider installing some foam mat material under the footwell (I used some foam 'puzzle' tiles that were cut to size). Just make sure it is dense foam. In addition to making things quieter, it also has the benefit of raising the level of the carpet to solve the 'pull away' problem around the door edge. It is a really elegant and simple solution to a very common problem 

Nobody listens to my waffling anyway..😁😁
but once again..it transforms the car! 😊
I think there may have been a back handed compliment in there..somewhere. 😊

Goodwood wrote:

Adding sound deadening materials to these cars makes such a huge difference in ride quality.
I installed the MGF / TF kit from NKGroup (which includes a replacement pad for the rear shelf).
I also added a bit of extra sound deadening adhesive material inside the doors. It makes the car feel much more refined and comfortable. The doors close with a clunk instead of a tinny ping. It is amazing what some material can do.
In addition to sound deadening the floors, you may also want to consider installing some foam mat material under the footwell (I used some foam 'puzzle' tiles that were cut to size). Just make sure it is dense foam. In addition to making things quieter, it also has the benefit of raising the level of the carpet to solve the 'pull away' problem around the door edge. It is a really elegant and simple solution to a very common problem 

THANK YOU! 
Vindication! It truly does enhance the ride and thank you for confirming!
 

Taking a simple idea & transforming it to such an elegant solution is the only vindication you require. The fact that as a Yorkshire man you identified a frugal route is almost, but not totally irrelevant.
Anyone can join the dots to create a picture, the skill comes with the original artist, after which another contributor adds the dots. The more dots the better the picture.
M

And you Sir are the original artist and point of inspiration....thank you.

I devour the knowledge in this Forum...one day I may need it.

And I thought I was the only one using spongy puzzle tiles as underlay. I used them as underlay in the blue 115 I had when i went to replace the old early carpet with a later type carpet to raise the level slightly to stop it pulling away at the edges. My daughter had loads of the things, no idea what she got them for but as they'd been left outside unused for ages they seemed just the thing at the time.

Im impressed at whats been done with the bitumen backed stuff & will get some to do my 135 when the weather improves. Lately Ive not had a chance to do much on my TF as spare time has gone on my daily car (1 job turned into 4) and the MGB project car that still seems as far away from finished as it was last year.