questions about rhino lineing the inside of an XJ

hey im thinking about pulling the carpet out of my 95 XJ and painting rhino line or herculiner or something along those lines

wondering if i could here peoples thoughts in what product was the best to use? is it better to spray on or paint on?

how was the noise with the carpet removed?

is it colder with no carpet?

than ks

Raptor Liner.


It's been used quite a bit, the best stuff out there from what I've seen.

sounds like your looking at a roll on kit. I just ripped out my soggy carpet and im pretty set on ordering some tan durabak liner:

http://www.durabakcompany.com/index.htm

Its $130 shipped for a gallon. My point of view is based on the fact that Durabak is often used in industrial applications, while hurculiner is sold at autozone. Durabak also has UV protection in the formula, while you have to add it into hurc.

Raptor liner gives you a much cleaner finish and is an excellent product from what I have seen, but a roll on liner is less work, and hurculiner comes pre dyed in your choice of color.

when the carpet is removed you will hear every little creek and road noise. you will also feel a lot of heat from the engine bay

I Herculined the tub of my TJ 10 years ago. It has held up great. I would use it again in a minute.

After about 5 years I did redo the heel area under my feet as my heel rubbed through. Touched up a couple of scrapes in the rear, after about 2 weeks you could not tell there is a touchup.

There is considerable heat, could not drive distances without shoes on.

I have known guys who pulled the carpet out of their XJ and applied herc/durabake, only to put carpet back in because of increase in noise and increase in heat.

I feel you cannot go wrong with either product...under the carpet of your XJ.

If you do use herc, do not skimp on the prep work. Buy a gallon of xylene (acetone) and use it along with a 3M pad liberally, to rough up and clean. Remove/tape everything you do not want lined. Within 30 minutes of application, remove any tape you put in or you will not be able to remove it. Inside, I feel you will not have to worry about the UV rays. The inside of my TJ had never faded, and since 2003 it had no roof. I live in Southern Texas, and the sun shines down here year round.

I didn't realize how much noisier it would really be after I lined the interior. I love that its hoseable and rust free... it is noisy as hell and hot though. In the winter - extra heat. In the summer... damned hot.
I've thought about putting carpet back in over my hopefully rust proof floor.

yossarian19 said:

I didn't realize how much noisier it would really be after I lined the interior. I love that its hoseable and rust free... it is noisy as hell and hot though. In the winter - extra heat. In the summer... damned hot.
I've thought about putting carpet back in over my hopefully rust proof floor.

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take your doors off for summer. keeps it a little cooler in there.

RoyalXJ said:

take your doors off for summer. keeps it a little cooler in there.

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Been thinking about that one. More likely to get a set of JY doors and cut them down, figure out a custom latch. I think the A/B/C pillar areas are pretty ugly without a door covering.

Of course, adding insulation to the underside of the trans tunnel would help too. I keep thinking some cut-up cookie sheets and one of those foil windshield screens would do the trick... haven't done it yet... probably won't until next summer.

Ok, done hijacking. To the OP: Don't mangle your carpet too badly taking it out. User raptror liner. Scrape up all the foil patches, use WD-40 to dissolve the black gunk, wire wheel or sand & wash everything down well before you paint it. Expect some off gasing in the first week - so do it when you expect to have the windows down for a while. Afterwards, if you don't like the noise / heat, put the carpets back in and rest assured that the floor pans won't be rusting from the inside.

I have an 87 toyota supra that I gutted the interior and bed lined the floor. I used Rustoleum spray on bed liner in rattle cans. It works perfect for what I need, the worst the floor will see is my rubber shoes really. It sprayed on easy, has a nice texture and is actually pretty durable. Best of all the rustoleum is cheap, like 6 bucks a can and I used like 5 cans total to get 3 coats across my entire floor.

In my car I didn't notice any heat or noise but who knows on the XJ. The bed liner is just a rubberized paint from the looks of it so it has some insulation capability. I can put my hand right where the cat sits(removed the stock heat shielding) and it's just warm to the touch. When it was bare metal it was too hot to touch at all.

Whatever you do I say sand and prime it first though, they say you can do it without any prep but why skip it? Also as mentioned keep your carpet in good shape if you want to go back you will have a good coat of bed liner under the carpet, no harm done.

I have Herculined mine. It was cheap and fairly easy to do yourself. You can get Herculiner at Schucks. I learned that it is really all about the prep work. The prep is the hardest part and the better job you do the better result you will have. One thing you could do is start in the rear of the Jeep since there are two separate carpet pieces and see if you tolerate it and the road noise. Honestly for the tires I run I really didn't notice much of a difference in road noise and I actually like the extra exhaust system noise due to the muffler I run. I noticed a lot more engine and exhaust system heat coming through especially in the summer. This is one of the best mods I have ever done considering the age of my vehicle and I feel like I can do anything and go anywhere with it and not worry about the carpet i.e. camping, hunting, skiing. I have had this in my Jeep for two years now and the stuff is tough and it still looks new!

Update:
I (finally) got around to adding insulation underneath my XJ. I used OEM insulation from a Volvo (I'm a volvo mech, so this stuff is just lying around the shop) that went between the gas tank and exhaust. So, yeah - it's got a high R value
Anyway, I slid it up between the transmission and the body.
Noise & heat are WAY down.

I suspect any aluminum backed insulation would work, though I'd be wary of anything not meant for automotive heat.

Now to add some insulation near the exhaust down pipe...

Anyway - if heat is a concern to any who are reading - you can add insulation between trans and body and it will be highly effective at reducing cabin heat. You can find appropriate insulation at the junkyard, just look aroudn the exhaust and gas tanks of probably darn-near-anything.

I feel like that would get really messy after you get your jeep muddy a couple times.

Now that it's all done I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. I was worried it was still gonna be noisy and get hot as balls but after many hours put in I finnaly got something I can stick with.
Well first mine is an 87 laredo with the hot slush box right next to your leg. It had major floor rust and when I first got it I only drove it a handful of times before I spent a couple months fixing efi problems and while at that ripped out the carpet and started cutting the rust out. So eventually I got everything welded up real nice and tried duplicolor bedliner (I had a feeling I'd have to fix this mistake) It chipped and was still like just sheet metal. So I spent the money on herculiner and did it right while getting 3 nice coats out of 1 gallon. Decided it was thick enough. Then eventually I undercoated the underside with 2 quarts for the hell of it and to cover my weld seams and its awesome. now when you drop tools on the floor it dosn't sound like theres sheet metal there. The mud comes off under real nice (I have OCD with this jeep now and for some reason work on it like a showcar lol, eventually I'll get a more suitable classic car to make all perfect and stuff) Though it rides awesome compared to sheet metal now. I had a flowmaster on and could barely hear it with the windows closed at idle. now I have a Dynomax super turbo and don't hear it at all. (haven't driven it yet with the new one) While I had the duplicolor I couldn't beleive how hot it got so I started doing some research on heat insulation and now I'm set on this: Grand cherokee heat sheild (like 5ft peice held in by sheet metal nuts which I recreated under my floor) This totally eliminated the exaust heat like 99%. Then on the transmission I bought a $50 roll of heat sheild fabric stuff http://paceperformance.com/i-5136737-hsp721305-heat-shield-mat-with-adhesive-3-x-5-rated-for-1100-degrees-f-continuous.html (wasn't sure how well it was gonna work) I stuck it up there twice and it would fall out so I put sheet metal screws down through the tranny hump and pressed the cloth onto the barbed screw ends and this has been working alot better so far, might try to get some small sheet metal nuts. I put 2 layers of this on the drivers side from about the front of the seat to the firewall where your foot gets hot as hell, and 1 on the passenger side. This eliminated about 90% of the heat and now that its colder out it's 100% gone. I'm also not running a tranny cooler so it probobly gets about as hot as most too. I'm deffinatley satisfied with this even though it took so long to get right. It rides really quiet for having no carpet proven since I don't have to turn the stereo all the way down when I get to a stop light lol. I don't remember what it was like with carpet in since I only drove it a handfull of times and this is my 1st 4x4 which at first didn't give a crap what it drove like but now I want to make it as luxurious as a newer car but can still handle the trails. Also want to show my parents it's a nice car and not a piece of trail trash too, though they do like it.
Hope thats some good advice on bedliner. I'm gonna be riding in someone elses lifted 96 with carpet soon so I can compare it to that. If it's any where close to the noise amount then great success cause 91+ had better sound deadening compared to the 80s

Heres putting the bedliner to good use too. Shopvaced it right up. I do run floor mats though for a little carpet feel lol.

austinaubinoe said:

I feel like that would get really messy after you get your jeep muddy a couple times.

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The underside stays pretty clean actually though I did start pullin the tranny heatshield off in the front after charging a few mud holes last weekend so I I'm lookin into the small sheet metal nuts.

just did my cargo area as the rear window seems to have been leaking for a while [its been parked for over a year] and the carpet was very wet and stinky so its goin in the trash, cant say anything bout road noise as my engine is apart and it wont be moving for a while given i dont see the machine shop getting my work done by the end of the month given its christmas, but over all it looks 100% better with out the oil stained water soaked nastiness, i also no longer have to deal with those crappy metal strips that were very mangled

BTW SUPERMUD where did you get that moon visor and what brand is it, i like the looks of them but have always been worried it would get ripped off first time i snagged a branch