All the cons of carpet removal in one thread

It is that time in the XJ's life to get that old carpet out. I plan on getting Line-X or something simalar. How do the do it yourself kit hold up? Let's get a list of cons all in one thread. :us:

i did the do it yourself herculiner kit and love it. covered my bumpers. interior floor pan and the rocker panels on my xj. DID all that and only used the 1 can... I personallly would do this everytime unless i had $600-$700 burining a hole in my pocket then i would have someone else do it. but for a do it yourself kit. No Complaints!

X2..

How were noise levels & heat transfer effected?

Carpet in an XJ that sees serious trails or any water/mud is a bad idea. When you get it wet, it's going to stink. You could just pull the carpet and decide if the noise or heat levels are bad as it's a personal preference thang.

I Line-X'd my whole heep and there's no more noise or heat than there was with the stock carpet and deadening mats installed. Actually, there are fewer squeaks and rattles. Line-X holds up to cuts and sharp objects better than anything else I've seen.

i hercd my floor, and its probably one of my favorite mods. no more carpet cleaning, doesn't smell bad if it gets wet, and takes 30 seconds to clean.

actually hercd a XJs whole exterior a few weeks ago, and it came out really good, and hes already rubbed down the side of a few trees

Took my carpet out of my 89 about a year ago and Herc'ed it. Wasnt too bad for around town. Noise wasnt bad, heat wasnt to bad.

Started to go on longer trips, and the heat was almost unbearable(sp). Really sucked. Dont have any AC, so I was stuck with rolling the windows down. Still didnt help.

It has melted shoes, floor mats, garbage bags, and pretty much anything else that is plastic on my floor. And it makes it super hot inside.

If I were to do it again, I would take out the carpet, and then Line-x, herc, or anything else the floor. Then pull the insulation off of the carpet, and then reinstall the carpet. It makes the inside so much better with the carpet in.
Also, if you are going to do a cage at somepoint, consider waiting to put the liner down.

i removed my carpet, got kinda tired of the musty smell after going in the water. After removing the (wet) carpet, i found where my leaks were. took care of most of them. then took a scoth-brite wheel on a drill and stripped the whole floor pan, at least everything that i could see. I tried the DUPLICOLOR rubberized coating and it F*uking sucked. so i tried it all over again, and this time i got the 3M stuff and it has the perfect feel and texture. I have showed some of my wheelin buddies and they have all decided to do, or have me do it for them. Its about $11.00 a tall can and i used about 6 cans for that extra thick coat. I LOVE IT, and it still beats the cost of line-x. I put some removable plugs in place of the permanent plugs in the back seat floor board. works wonders on those few leaks that i missed. the ONLY complaint is the heat on the passenger floor board, especially the rear floor board (muffler area).
I thought of getting an old pair of BFG A/T's or M/T's and cutting the side wall off with a cutting wheel. then laying the tread out in two strips, side by side, then riveting it to the floor or adhering it to the floor.
I have been told that doing so is very painstaking.
then today i say a guy come through costco and he had a 3/4 inch thick mat in the back of his truck...P E R F E C T ! he said he got it at "tractor supply" and that it is for horse stables. I know one thing, I found my new floor liner.

I'll be applying Herc in the next day or two. I just finished putting the new floors in. I'll be getting some indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot, cutting it up, and velcroing it into the passenger area. This way it'll pull right out for wheeling and cleaning, and when its in, its comfy.

i like the velcro thing!

the carpet is and the jute mat is surprisingly good noise barrier, I had two narrow rust through holes above the leaf springs in the rear of my 4 door, and one tiny one above the muffler. I basically por15 all surface rust from the front seats to the rear hatch and then herculined (after using the por primer i forge the name its blue, the por15 alone is too slipery for paint or herculiner to adhere). Anyways the noise level went up quite a bit, the heat wasnt as notcible as i wasnt sitting on the center tunnel or the back seat above the muffler :dunno: :dunno: The heat wouldnt be a deal breaker for most people, the noise might be to much for the old lady in some cases. I have borla header, 2 1/2 pipe, and flow master 50 series. Its pretty loud.

About the herculiner. If i had to do it again i would get line x or similiar that is nice and thick and can be touched up. The herculiner dryes very hard and dry and is really really thin, it wasnt able to stand up to some home depot runs and i had had seperation of the herc and the floor and even in the door arches i did. I was not happy with the $90 and the value of my time with how it looks and has held up. I did a nice job preparing, TONS of cleaning scouring and taping. Just not as nice as i would like.

You can REALLY get the rhino, line x etc price down by taking apart your interior, taping stuff off your self etc. Pull all the seats except the driver seat, yank that when you get at the line x shop, have the lower trim pulled, and scorde with a 3M pad (or what ever line x recomnends), i heard you can get the price down hundreds of bucks to around 300 ish. At that price point the line x starts looking much much beater deal.

The noise problem I think I mitigated with by covering up a certain 2" (roughly) hole in the firewall above the gas pedal. I used a special mat material used for gymnasium floors that my dad (general contractor) has sitting around from a job in the late 1980's. Also, if you leave the section of carpet and insulation under the center console you can reduce a lot of driveline noise. I am also considering adding a mat above the fuel tank. I had a lot of heat coming up from the exhaust system but I added some rockwool heat shields and it is better now. I found more heat was coming from the muffler than the cat.

I removed mine and used some of the el cheapo duplicolor bed lining. It started to peel within a week...that was years ago.... I am still deciding on what approach to take next.

I can definitely live with the noise, it's a Jeep after all! However the excess heat really sucks in the summer. I think of it as a floor heater in the winter . I have some real thick rubber floor mats that have gotten me by.

One thing to take into consideration with things like indoor/outdoor carpet, is that the factory carpet has a backing for a reason. If you just put the carpet down, it will likely get hot enough to melt it in spots. As mentioned by Starboard M, I too have experienced the melting of plastic bags, etc... It hasn't melted anything rubber, but it does start to get soft on long trips during the heat of summer.

What I may do is build some heat shields for the exhaust, and redo the interior in Herculiner.

Another option would be to get the stock XJ vinyl floor liner. It's designed to take the heat, and you can still wash it out. The downside is this will still trap moisture, the #1 killer of floorboards!

I also found these, but I don't know if it has a backing for heat shielding/sound deadening http://www.auto-interior.com/jeepcarpet.htm?gclid=CJ2K3ZToko0CFRGCGgodI0I5pQ

my 89' had the vinyl floor, it still has all of the padding and what not that the carpet has, so it will hold water.
I ripped mine out and did a generic spray coating.. I need to do something else, but have not figured out what.

The heat is rediculous. I made heat shields out of backing sheets. one over the cat and one over the muffler. They helped out alot, but the tail pipe transmits alot of heat to the rear area. I am planning on getting some heat wrap to take care of that. I have my spare back there and it heats up and starts to smell like burning rubber, so i think a thick mat or "cut tires?" would not be a good idea.
I cant tell you much about the noise because i have no interior, so most of my noise comes from the roof and drowns out anything else.. $.02

Rhino.

Nice and thick...cuts down on the noise a little, you will need to install heatshielding over the muffler and cat.

BTW - Rhino...the real Rhino, not a cheap DIY in a can stuff.

Rev

The worst part about putting herculiner in is the prep. You really need to take all of the deadener off the floor, it was a real PITA. I did my Sammi and loved it afterwards.

My only problem with removing the carpets and lining it was the heat! My A/C wasn't working so it was hot in there, i had to take my shoes off while driving long hauls so my feet didn't melt with my shoes! I can't say anything about the noise thou for i was running 33/12.5 Super Swapers TSL(very loud)

Starboard M said:

Took my carpet out of my 89 about a year ago and Herc'ed it. Wasnt too bad for around town. Noise wasnt bad, heat wasnt to bad.

Started to go on longer trips, and the heat was almost unbearable(sp). Really sucked. Dont have any AC, so I was stuck with rolling the windows down. Still didnt help.

It has melted shoes, floor mats, garbage bags, and pretty much anything else that is plastic on my floor. And it makes it super hot inside.

If I were to do it again, I would take out the carpet, and then Line-x, herc, or anything else the floor. Then pull the insulation off of the carpet, and then reinstall the carpet. It makes the inside so much better with the carpet in.
Also, if you are going to do a cage at somepoint, consider waiting to put the liner down.

Click to expand...

x2 I have melted a pair of tennis shoes to the floor and burned my leg pretty bad when it touched the transmission hump after a long day of wheelin. I wouldn't of thought of it, but if I could do it again, I would do the same thing as Starboard, take the insulation off the carpet and then put it back in.

I went for 3 yrs with no carpet after pulling it to fix rust holes(por15 and the roll on liner). Noisier yes! Hot HELL YA!

After planning a trip to Moab I decided to put it back in. Glad I did it was hot down there but with the carpet back in and the AC going it wasn't too bad. Before putting thecarpet back in the AC couldn't keep it cool. I put it back in with the liner.

If its a semi daily driver or you do long highway drives with it oe don't see mud coming in the doors on every off road trip I'd put it back in.

Starboard M said:

If I were to do it again, I would take out the carpet, and then Line-x, herc, or anything else the floor. Then pull the insulation off of the carpet, and then reinstall the carpet. It makes the inside so much better with the carpet in.
Also, if you are going to do a cage at somepoint, consider waiting to put the liner down.

Click to expand...

With all this heat, taking the padding off the carpet, does the carpet then melt ? It kind of seems to be made out of plastic or nylon material with a rubber backing to it.

I may have to take some of the padding off as it didn't hold up too well to the scrubbing I gave it,-------------- to get the musty smell out.

Dave