The carpet in my Amigo is pretty dirty and nasty. It does little anymore but trap dirt, dust and dog hair. I'm considering ripping it out and spraying in a bedliner of some sort.

Anyone else done this yet? I'm wondering....

The floorboards aren't really all that flat or smooth. There's several seams, uneven edges, etc. The padding under the carpet kinda smooths things out. Big deal or not? Right now I don't think it is.

There's also a couple wiring harness bundles that run under the carpet. What to do about those after spraying the liner? I'd want to still cover/protect them somehow.

And, was there an appreciable increase in noise or heat through the floor? The lining will help, but there is a pretty thick padding that comes off with the carpet.

Any other issues? Would you do it again?

--Dan

The biggest thing I noticed without the carpet, was the noise increase. It's quite a bit louder than it was with it in. I sprayed some undercoating/sound-deadener in there, bet that didn't help much. I think I need to find some dynamat or something similar to put down, then put my floor mats (18-wheeler mud flaps) on top to protect them. The biggest annoiance is the noise, especially when you get into the gas, it does start resonating quite a bit. I didn't notice any increased heat or anything, just noise. For the wires, I just put them in a big wire loom to help protect them, but I didn't have any running down the middle or anything, so they were already pretty well protected.

Richard <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

I've known a lot of people to pull out carpet. Several on this board have done so. Locally, guys use PVC pipe to re-run wiring. Take a table saw and slit the PVS to get wires inside. Use metal straps to secure.

My solution was a cut-to fit cargo liner. My carpet is still in pretty good shape, but it got dirty too easy. I found a 8'x4' heavy duty mat at Sam's Club Online. I just trimmed it and cut or drilled holes for all the fasteners. You still get the benefit of the padding, you could take or leave the carpet. I tucked it under the trim work and it turned out really well.

Just another option.

Andre

I regret taking out my carpet.

Noise increased, but that didn't bother me much.

it's virtually impossible to keep the bedliner even somewhat clean, but that didn't bother me much.

What really bothers me is, that it feels like the sun has relocated to four inches away from my right leg. I even made the mistake of driving 770 miles to Black Rock City and had managed to bake my leg quite nicely by the time I got there. This was even after using one of those "space blankets" made of mylar as a sort of deflecto-shield.

New carpet's going in.. umm... next time the magic money-bunny poops on my doorstep.

Dan, I had line-x sprayed in my '92 amigo, but unlike my '94 it has a heavy vinyl mat which went back on after the line-x was sprayed. Although the line-x is kind of pricey, i like it better than the do it yourself stuff. Benefits include a significant sound and heat reduction.Gonna do the same in my '94, and hopefully will be able to get the vinyl mat at the wrecking yard from an earlier model amigo.

When I sunk it in that nasty, stilty, hood-deep, three week stagnant "puddle" the smell was horrible and no amount of cleaning would get it out as it soaked into the pressed cotten mat (I hesitate to call it carpet). The dusty cloud of fine, talcum silt kept coming out, too. I pulled everything out down to the metal and cleaned it.

I pulled out the rubber mat.
I pulled off all the "fuzzy" carpet.

I went to the local carpet warehouse and went dumpster diving. I got the deepest pile (thickest) shag carpeting I could find. All the big pieces I could find. It wasn't all white, but it was all white-ish.

I oversize-cut it with the original mats, then I cut it to fit as I laid it in. I actually covered more area than the original "pressed cotten fiber" carpet did; that stuff doesn't cover all the floor.

I then put the plastic mat back down over it.

Worked great, better fit, cooler floor, quieter ride, easy to do. Softer floors. And if you screw up, just get another big piece out of the dumpster.

I love the wall to wall shag carpeting, and it was free.

So Richard's experience was a noticible increase in noise through the floor. And Steven's was just the opposite. My truck is so blasted noisy as it is, this probably doesn't really matter, but...

I'm wondering if the choice in lining material makes a big difference. Richard, how much of the undercoating/sound deadener did you use? Was it sprayed wall to wall on the floor? I'm wondering if the Line-X just does a better job of attaching to the sheet metal and absorbing vibration. I know the stuff is the harder/stiffer of the professionally sprayed liners. Maybe that makes a difference.

I know we've talked about this before in years past. I was thinking it would be perfect to lay down some material like dynamat (or other, cheaper alternative), then spray a liner in over that. The mat would smooth out the seams and such in the floor pan, and the liner would seal all the cracks and such.

I don't know if the liner would stick though, and if it didn't you'd be left with a huge mess. Steven, does the Line-X look like it would hold up sprayed over a layer of dynamat / asphalt type stuff? This just seems like a bad idea to try out.

As for the wiring looms, they run along the door sill, so I like the PVC idea. I think a piece of PVC cut in half length wise and set over the loom (attached to the floor somehow) would be good protection.

Wayne... Sometimes you scare me man. wall to wall shag... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

--Dan

Eric,

What kind of bedliner did you use? And where did you use the space-blanket thingie? Just layed it on the floor?

Another idea I like, but would be a lot of work comes from the 2nd gens. I've noticed in some pics of cutting the tranny tunnel that they use a double layer of metal in the floor pan. It'd be cool to lay down a layer of dynamat like stuff at least in the foot well and along the tranny tunnel, then sheet over that with a layer of sheet metal.

Then spray over that with the liner. The liner should stick the the new sheet metal just fine and you end up with an insulating / sound deadening layer in the floor pan. It'd be a lot of work to cut & bend the sheet metal to fit without it looking like <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" /> though.

--Dan

Well, thanks to an olfactorally obnoxious case of Mildew (of the Funky Jungle Rot caliber), my carpet is gone. --- I have yet to replace it with anything - but unlike some of the reports above, I havenÆt noticed that the interior noise is really all-that-much louderà maybe a little, but nothing that I would consider truly bothersome.



As for the Broiled Right Leg Syndromeà

Immediately after doing the 3-inch Body Lift (and long before I ever removed the carpet), I experienced the exact same phenomenon. --- Any time that I drove for more than about a half-hour, there was a blast furnace of heat coming from the transmission tunnel, and it would slow roast my right calf something awful.

It turned out that I had a bad seal on the shifter boot (this probably had something to do with the fact that I had to cut part of the boot in order to get the shift levers to go where they needed to). --- The super-heated air off of the engine and transmission was getting inside of the cabin û most of which was shooting straight at my leg.

The solution came when I decided to break-out my trusty Black Gaffing Tape û I sealed the entire boot, and affixed it securely to the trans tunnel. --- Problem solved.


AFTER removing the carpet, I went ahead and replaced the shifter boot with a fifty-cent junk yard find, and resealed the ænewÆ one with another batch of Black Gaffing Tape. --- However, this time I didnÆt cut the boot... Instead, I pushed the shifter surrounds all of the way down as far toward the bottom of the shift levers as I could get them, and then sealed those with BGT. --- This allowed for the full range of movement to occur on the shift levers, without requiring any holes or release-cuts in the boot itself.


I donÆt know if this same leakage is the actual source of the trans tunnel heat for anyone else, but itÆs certainly something worth looking into. --- All I can tell you is that my legs are no longer being cooked, despite the fact that I have no carpet.

HTH


Cheers! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />
Smiley