Anyone have vinyl flooring instead of carpet?

[Youngunner]

So I went ahead and ordered a vinyl floor and have it most of the way installed. I'll post some progress pics in this thread.

I purchased from automotiveinteriors.com for $134.00 shipped to my door. The floor is manufactured by ACC (Auto Custom Carpets). The material is pretty darn thick and difficult to work with unless you can get in warm. I'm lucky to not have suffered a serious cut using a stanley knife. Trauma sheers helped a lot. The floor piece is cut way over-size and has no pre-made holes, so if you screw it up and cut off a little too much in a critical area, it's going to show (see pics).

The box comes with the floor, a good amount of thick jute padding and some extra material to make covers for the hatches under the extended cab seats for my tacoma.


The floor out of the box and warming back into shape. The overall fit wasn't too bad, just a few wrinkled areas which I'm thinking should work themselves out.



Everything has to come out!



Here you can see the size comparison.



I found the best way to get it close to size was to lay the vinyl flooring upside down on the ground and lay the carpet upside down on top of that. using a permanent marker i could trace the general outline.



A heat gun helps to soften up the material to conform a little better. Trying to get it to fit under the dash was tough. You can see where I cut too much material away near the shifter. I might just have to put an off-cut piece of vinyl under the floor to fill the gap. I'm a perfectionist and this bugs the hell out of me...



The overall thickness and stiffness of the vinyl made it difficult to get the kick panels and sill covers back on. It doesn't look like it in the pic, but the retainers for the sill screws broke off and it is pretty loose now.



I'm making a custom rear "shelf" so i removed all the rear seats and framework underneath. It looks like it would fit ok in a stock vehicle.



The fit isn't too bad. Took me a solid 2 or 3 hours so far and I'm not even done mounting the seats. I found that to make hole for the seats, there is a little tube shaped punch tool included with a do-it-yourself grommet kit (like on the corners of tarps). Locating the holes is a little tricky since some of the seat mounts do not go all the way through the floor.

OVERALL, I would have to say it is more trouble than it's worth. The sound inside hasn't gotten any louder (from what I can tell) but I have a very annoying TRD exhaust that drones anyway. It looks more rugged, but I still like my weathertech liners better!

[adrenaline503]

Wow, thats pretty nice, only $125.00 for my truck. If you go this route let me know how it goes!

[AmericaOverland]

The only problem I see is condensation between the vinyl and the metal floor - take a look at IH Scouts that had vinyl floors at one point. That can rust your floors out if moisture gets trapped in there.

I'm having the floor in my Scout II bedlined instead. No carpet for me.

Stephanie

[STREGA]

FJ Cruisers only come with vinyl floors, easy to keep clean I would think carpeting would be a negative in a expo rig. I could always install carpeted floor mats in my FJ if I feel the need for carpeting! another option is to use bedlining, I had that done to a 4x4 van I once had and it worked well but is pricey to do.

[rynosurf]

The only problem I see is condensation between the vinyl and the metal floor - take a look at IH Scouts that had vinyl floors at one point. That can rust your floors out if moisture gets trapped in there.

I'm having the floor in my Scout II bedlined instead. No carpet for me.

Stephanie

I had a factory vinyl floor in my '89 Toyota Pickup and never had any problems. You still want to use floor mats or it will wear out pretty quick.

[exploreFL]

I have plastic in my element and love it!! I put the gym floor mats over top to save the plastic.. Those look like they would work great, just find a good way to seal/glue to floor

[Youngunner]

I have weathertech floor liners in the front and I'm making a custom rear storage area in the back. Maybe I'll lay a coat of POR 15 on the entire floor under the vinyl if I get it.

[nickw]

I have weathertech floor liners in the front and I'm making a custom rear storage area in the back. Maybe I'll lay a coat of POR 15 on the entire floor under the vinyl if I get it.

I have been eyeing those also, what worried me was the sounds insulating properties (lack thereof) with the vinyl.

I think it would be neat to try out, give it a go and report back!

[Youngunner]

They are advertised as being supplied with the jute padding, but I could always try something like dynamat if the floor liner alone is too loud. I'll probably just give it ago and see.

[Applejack]

Would you remove the padding under the existing carpet or use it? I would want to use it if possible.