Anything new in carpet padding?

[anwat]

Pulled out the seats to swap them out, and while drilling holes I noticed the carpet padding under the vinyl floor mat was damp. And I haven't done any water crossings in a year....nor have I left the windows down during a rainstorm, or otherwise exposed the inside to water. Meaning that moisture has been trapped in there trying to eat my floors for at least a year.
I read back through the former posts on this, and it sounds like the best thing to do is just run the vinyl over metal flooring so when it gets wet you can fold it up and let it dry, or run thin carpet with no padding so it will dry. Just wondering if there are any new products in the padding or flooring world that may help out with the trapped moisture problem. I like the vinyl, but it doesn't breathe, and running it with no padding, I might as well just raptorline the floors and run them bare. Nothing like driving around a giant drain pipe, sound and heat get old quick with nothing on the floors.
Any new products out there? Anyone seen anything that works for this issue?

 

[Bigb55]

Raptor line the floors, then put down some water proof heat insulation, then put in the vinyl.

The raptor liner will help prevent trapped moisture rust issues. As it will provide extra protection.

That's my plan. I have a full convertible with no hard top, so noise and heat won't matter. But floor mats have kept feet from feeling hot

 

[anwat]

If I go to the trouble of raptor-lining the floors, I'll just get some big floor mats and call it a day. No point in covering up a good raptor job with vinyl. Going to be hard to get all the glue and crap off the floors, though. But it's a possibility.

 

[Wes Harden]

I think there maybe some water intrusion from the heater/ac box seem on firewall, maybe even the heater hose openings. Was it just the passenger side?
I found some seem sealer blocking a drain hole on my right door seal flange.

 

[diesel4me]

Floors will sweat (condensation) due to temperature swings and the jute padding GM uses is nothing but a giant sponge,the main reason 99% of floor rot happens..

I have used a thinner version of the closed cell foam padding they sell for camping mats or workout mats..stuff I used was about 1/4" thick..

I found a big roll of it at a place I picked up used pallets at for firewood and I used it under the rug on my '79 C-10 after welding patches over the rust holes and I kept an eye on it,I'd peel it back every so often and the floor stayed dry,unless I had tracked snow in the cab on my boots..

I tried bubble wrap on another truck's floor under carpet,that was not as good,but it didn't hold water like a sponge either..

 

[anwat]

No, it was both sides, I think i may have some water dripping down through the hole where the hood hinge mounts each morning with the dew. The more I'm thinking about it, though, it's the vinyl that is causing the problem, because whether or not the foam absorbs water, once the water is under the vinyl it's going to stay there, since it can't penetrate the vinyl to evaporate no matter how hot the floor is. It's like a pot with the lid on it. If the water is in the padding or the sitting under/on the foam, it doesnt matter, it can't go anywhere. It's the top layer that has to permeable to allow the moisture to evaporate through it.

 

[Wes Harden]

You have leak, maybe the windshield rubber. lay under the dash with flash light and have someone hose down the front of the truck. All that Long Beach wet sea air is not helping thats for sure.

this is my project atm 80 mil butyl

 

[anwat]

Oh, I know where the leak is. At least the biggest one. It's from the area right where the hood hinge is attached to the body. The water comes down the windshield, goes into the opening between the windshield frame, the hood and the fender, then right down onto the floor of the inside of the truck...seems I have the "older" style hinges on the hood, and the newer style body, making for a hole. I'll get some photos tomorrow, maybe you know a fix...to be honest, I wouldn't even mind having to get a new hood if I could stop the water ingress. I get air, bugs, dust, and noise through the same hole, so I certainly wouldn't mind closing it if I can. The only reason my floor isn't rotted out is because I covered it in the same sound deadener that you did...so the moisture is trapped between the butyl rubber and the vinyl...it's got no where to go. That's the biggest issue with raptorlining the floor: getting that sound deadener out will be quite a job!

 

[anwat]

Leaving for the last trip of the season today, but when I get back the seats are coming out and I'm going to deal with the floor and the padding/water issue. First step will be to keep the water out. Here's where a lot of it is coming from: the hood hinge area. If I lay on the floorboard and look up at the area where the dash speakers would be, I can see daylight. So that hood hinge isn't sealed up at all. I notice there are a couple of empty holes, maybe there is some sort of seal that should go there? Any hints on fixing this? It appears this may not be the right hinges/hood for this truck. It kind of looks like an afterthought or maybe they got twisted off at some point, but the metal edges are not clean like a factory cut.

 

[dyeager535]

Yeah, you are missing seals there. Lmc probably shows them.

You can see daylight? Guess I should take mine off at some point and see how that area is designed. I get bits of water in the interior, be nice to understand how the hinge area is designed.

 

[anwat]

Does that look like the right hinge for the cab? I was thinking maybe it was supposed to have the newer hinge style. My photo skills aren't the best, but that rectangular hole the hinge rotates into looks to be cut somewhere other than the factory. The hinge seems to fit the hood correctly, but I had some doubts about the way it mounts on the cab...I thought it would be on the firewall. And yes, laying on the floorboard and looking up under the dash towards the hinge, I can see outside...not just daylight, but a clear shot to the sky on both sides.

Kind of moving to the back burner now, I had one of those trips. Started with the ignition key sticking in the cylinder in the on position in the middle of the desert. Then I lost one of my cooling fans. Made it back to the road and limped to the closest NAPA, where while we were inside trying to get another fan, the truck got pretty hot and started missing, then stalled. Got the ignition cylinder in, but the rods still wouldn't move forward, they were frozen somewhere. So we jumped the started, headed home to th closest house to work on it the next day. But the misfire got worse, the truck stalled out and had to get towed the last few miles. Dropped the column, replaced the ignition switch, but still no start. Fried the ignition coil, and finding an HEI coil in Tehachapi, CA is not an easy task. Still down a fan, and now all the messing with the column has knocked loose the wire feeding the solenoid for the aux fuse block. So now my headlights and are only working sometimes, and the power to the tcc lockup is intermittent, so I had to diagnose and fix that. By the time I headed home, somehow the brake light switch had gotten pushed so far back that it wasn't making contact and I was still getting the TCC locking and unlocking several times a minute. To get to it I had to take apart the dash again, including the air duct. Hopefully that's going to be it. But I still have a lot to do to make those trail repairs permanent. Did get a few hours of good trail time in, though.

 

[Wes Harden]

well I think the hinge cut being open to the inside is bogus, but for the life of me I can not remember how those hinges were sealed. I never had to mess with them enough to leave an impression.

they are missing at least the outside water defector. https://www.oerparts.com/product/14043794.html. I have no experience with company just showing an example.