swamped - XJ interior repair question

So today I took my 2001 XJ through some mud runs and of course swamped the passenger side with several inches of water. I think so far the only "good" thing to come of this is that the driver's side wasn't wet at all. See the picture below:





I bailed it out on the trail with a coffee cup, got to a friend's house and started to suck all of the mud water with a shop vacuum... uh yeah, that doesn't work very well, for the record. Then I had a mild heart attack followed by a mid-severity panic attack and started cutting out the carpet on the passenger side, because I realized not only is there a layer of carpet, but a much thicker layer of woven fibrous matting underneath that, which was completely holding 80% of the muck-water. I just threw this junk out, I was pretty sure it was ruined. There was also a plastic bag with a white diaper-like pad inside of it, which was also ruined, I threw that out as well.

Now here comes the question:

What should I replace, of anything, in order to still have the XJ run as comfortably as possible. Were these heavy fibrous pads and diaper bags just to reduce noise? Heat?

One part of me wants to just rip up all of the carpet and stick with my heavy duty rubber mats. The other half is worried that the cabin will now be noisier, hotter in the summer, colder in the winter... etc.

What do you all suggest? This was clearly a case of not knowing my limitations on the trail and it will probably be an expensive lesson (hey you guys can learn for free from my stupidity!), but this is still my daily driver so I want the thing to be as comfortable as possible.

Someone here has swamped their XJ before and repaired it. I'm open to suggestions and stories of how you all dealt with it.

Thanks in advance.

:hang:

I forgot to post the "after" picture, I cleaned it up as well as I could

my interior is gutted(2 racing seats console and dash) and is very noisy. I'd recomend replacing the padding and carpet

that padding is for heat/ noise. i would pull all of it out, clean and reinstall the carpet only.

yup, it will be louder and hotter and the tranny tunnel gets hot enough to burn your leg. It is bearable with heavy mats.

I would pop out the drain plugs, herculine it and put down some heavy rubber mats for future 4x4 events, or go with replacement carpet if i is dd

Hit the salvage yard and see if you can score a good carpet out of an XJ there.

I only saw drain plugs in the back, and it looks like the interior is all one piece, is this correct? I will have to replace the whole damned thing, as I panicked and cut the passenger side out with a utility knife.

You need something, my brothers 93 will melt sandals, beer cooler edges,plastic bags and skin un the passenger side of the tunnel, it gets hot

there painted over you can pop them out from underneath they are right behind the wheel well, on the outside of the frame.

i took all the sound deading out and just have carpet in. fine for DD in Hot New Orleans

I've never tried it but you could consider something like Lizardskin. I'm not usually a gimmicky new product guy but you never know, it might actually work.

If I understand your question about interior being in one piece, the carpet is in two pieces, or at least it can be replaced in two pieces. You may not want to replace with new, but StockInteriors.com is one of several similar sites that will give you an idea of available options.

since you pulled the carpet out anyhoo...good time to throw down some herculiner or the like before you put the carpet back in.

Front and rear are separated at around the front edge of the rear bench seat.

Next time pull it apart by unscrewing everything instead of cutting it out - it's not going to rust to pieces under you while you're unscrewing things.

I would do like BroknCJ said, herculine it (pull up those stupid aluminum sheets that are tarred to the floor, strip off any nasty goop, then scuff / prep surfaces etc) and then toss new carpet in. Use closed cell foam instead of jute padding and skip the stupid diaper bags, that way the only thing capable of absorbing water will be your carpet and you can get that handled pretty easily with a shopvac (hahaha) and some time spent drying in the sun with the doors open.

EDIT: oh... and stop acting like your XJ is a submarine! It isn't! :twak: :roflmao:

kastein said:

oh... and stop acting like your XJ is a submarine! It isn't! :twak: :roflmao:

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Thanks for the advice on the carpet... AND keeping the XJ dry.

:gee:

kastein said:

EDIT: oh... and stop acting like your XJ is a submarine! It isn't! :twak: :roflmao:

Click to expand...

Give the guy a break, he was probably influenced by his proximity to New London! atriot:

joe_peters said:

Give the guy a break, he was probably influenced by his proximity to New London! atriot:

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Actually, I had this adventure in Northern Kentucky