Advice needed on making/fitting new flooring. Driver's side floor pan issues.

I've been in the process of replacing the carpet in my '96 XJ with some material I already had on hand. I got the cargo area including the wheel wells and under the back seats, and the entire passenger side "finished" last year. I attempted the driver's side but I just couldn't get the material to lay right on the big hump on the side of the tranny. I gave up for the winter and now that it's getting warm I'm ready to try it again. I'm not trying to do a professional job on it but I want it to look decent when it's finished. I was hoping you guys could help me get over the hump, so to speak. Fitting a flat piece of material over curved surfaces is harder than I expected. You can't copy the factory carpet because it isn't flat like the material. Am I an idiot for even trying this?

I've been trying to do this in the least possible amount of sections. I've basically been taking a big section of material and pushing it down into the floor then trimming off the excess. What I have done actually looks okay to me although there are some little bulges here and there. I'm stumped on the driver's floorboard though. Should I try covering the section with newspaper, tape it all together and cut my material from that? Should I try to do it in smaller sections? What type of glue would work best for attaching them? I'm not sure what the material is but it's something like vinyl I guess.

Any advice would be appreciated.

This is the material. It's around 4' wide, maybe 1/16th" thick. It's pliable, cuts easily enough but doesn't rip.




Here's the first piece I put in. Like I said, I'm not going for perfection. You can see how the material doesn't want to lay down. It needs to come back out later for replacement floor pans so it doesn't matter too much.

Have you tried application of some heat? I don't know if a hair dryer would be enough, but perhaps a heat gun on low? Probably safer to start with the hair dryer first, but if you have a heat gun and some scraps I would be inclined to play around with them.

As for an adhesive, the challenge will be finding something that adheres to the vinyl and resists heat, particularly over the catalytic converter. Maybe contact 3M?

Anak said:

Have you tried application of some heat? I don't know if a hair dryer would be enough, but perhaps a heat gun on low? Probably safer to start with the hair dryer first, but if you have a heat gun and some scraps I would be inclined to play around with them.

As for an adhesive, the challenge will be finding something that adheres to the vinyl and resists heat, particularly over the catalytic converter. Maybe contact 3M?

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Heat helps but it's getting a piece of material cut to the right shape that is so difficult. I work a piece in there and start trimming. Trim one part where it needs to be, then when I make a bend or a curve with it the cut I just made is no longer in the right spot. It's frustrating to say the least.

I have now realized that what I need to do is completely remove the console and fit a sheet of material over the tranny letting it overlap the floor pans. This would have saved me some trouble on the passenger side had I thought of it.

What is that stuff? The factory carpet is formed with heat and pressure in a mold that's the shape of the floor. You're dealing with compound curves. Unless that stuff stretches you will never get it to conform properly. You might be able to pie cut and patch and glue but it may not look so hot.

planewrench said:

What is that stuff? The factory carpet is formed with heat and pressure in a mold that's the shape of the floor. You're dealing with compound curves. Unless that stuff stretches you will never get it to conform properly. You might be able to pie cut and patch and glue but it may not look so hot.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what it is, someone gave it to me. I assume it is a type of vinyl. It doesn't stretch at all, and as you said, it does not conform properly. It can be bent and shaped to a degree, but there will always be bulges in it.

Like I said, it doesn't have to look professional. Last summer I turned over a huge cooler full of water in my XJ and flooded it. I heard water running out on my exhaust in several places and I figured out that my floorboard had a bunch of rust holes in it. The carpet smelled horrible to begin with and ten times worse after it got wet so it had to go when I pulled it out to patch the floor pans. I had that material and decided to try my hand at making some flooring for free since I had spent all summer replacing other things. Maybe if I ever get the floor pans replaced I'll by one of those molded vinyl floors to go in it. For now though, what I have done covers the floor pans and provides some insulation. I drove around with one seat, the console, and nothing else in my floor while patching holes last summer. It got terribly hot in there and it was loud.

Here's the cargo area with the seats in and the wheel well covered. Please ignore all the dirt.


Rear seat. I still need to cut a piece to go under the molding.



Front passenger. Notice all the bulges.


I started by clamping the fabric here where the front seat bolts down with a couple pairs of vice grips. Then I trimmed the material to fit under the console etc.


I don't think it will look too bad once I get it all together. Well, it will at least look better than this:

Try using smaller pieces. Do the tunnel and wheel wells first. Where the material buckles, make a cut and either overlap or cut the excess off. Use separate pieces for the flat areas. This is kinda how it was done before molded carpet and it's still the way to install underlayment (jute, insulation, etc.). You'll have to glue it to keep it in place, but don't go too wild with the glue if you're planning on removing it later.

planewrench said:

Try using smaller pieces. Do the tunnel and wheel wells first. Where the material buckles, make a cut and either overlap or cut the excess off. Use separate pieces for the flat areas. This is kinda how it was done before molded carpet and it's still the way to install underlayment (jute, insulation, etc.). You'll have to glue it to keep it in place, but don't go too wild with the glue if you're planning on removing it later.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!

I learned to cut the bulges and let the material overlap doing the passenger side. That's also where I ran into trouble. I had trimmed part of a piece to fit, but when I cut a bulge the material shifted and the part I had already trimmed wasn't right anymore. I suppose the trick is to know where it is going to bulge and make those cuts first before trimming the edges.

I like using one big piece because that means it is waterproof. My roof leaks and drips on the passenger floor board when it rains. It just beads up on the material now instead of going through to the metal. It would be easier in many ways to use smaller pieces, but I searched for the appropriate adhesive last year to no avail. I tried tacking a corner up with some tile adhesive and that didn't work out. I may try a good quality self adhesive Velcro for tacking it in places and use smaller pieces if I have to.

So I finally got around to working on this a little more. I still need to cut some pieces to go under the trim, but it's finished for the most part. It's far from perfect and I could've put a little more thought into it, but I like it.

Glad to hear you got it under control. Looks okay!