Carpet insulation thoughts and questions

[AJMBLAZER]

Keep in mind this is for my K5 that I'm trying to keep nice and also will potentially be trying to convince tail to ride around in with me...and maybe do other things. This isn't Big Ugly.

The heater core incident from a few weeks ago has left me with a soggy, nasty, musty smelling carpet pad. That thick, fibrous mat, not the carpet itself. I'm pretty sure I can wash the carpet and hang it up to dry. The carpet pad though is just nasty. Not sure if I want to replace it. Eventually I wouldn't mind Rhino Lining, or something similar, the floor and then putting carpet over it. Floorboards on this thing are in great shape and I'd like to preserve them while also deadening some of the sound.

Meanwhile we have to fix the cracked seat mount on the passenger side so all of this crap was coming out eventually. Have a seat swap coming in the future as well. Then there's the heater core I still have to replace...


So if a guy was to rip out all of the insulation and put the carpet by itself back in for a while...any potential problems? Anybody know how much louder it's going to be? I'm a bit worried that with the 6.2L diesel it's going to end up Big Ugly loud...like can hardly talk on the phone loud.

Anybody gotten rid of the insulation, sprayed bedliner or something similar, and still ran carpet? Did you run a sound deadener? I've seen the stick on sound deadener pads but not sure if I want to do that. Like the idea of being able to pull the carpet out and spray everything off.
Any sort of insulation that's a bit abusable?


Do these things have drain holes in the floor?

 

[dhcomp]

It will be HOT. Some PO of my burb ripped out the insullation (probably after a heater core explosion) on the passenger side (and replaced with newspaper, still rolled up from delivery).

When i pulled the newspaper out, i quickly learned that side gets HOT fast. Like, warms up whatever you put on it, and you can feel the heat through the thick rubber husky floormats. So, i would definitlely reccomend replacing it.

I would think regular carpet padding would work ok, but not sure how resistant it is to heat (and fire).

I would reccomend not skipping the padding for this purpose though. If you rhino line, still put pad and carpet back over.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

I'm actually going to probably have no carpet for a while, at least until we get the floorboards welded up. Figure it can't be any worse than Big Ugly is now.

 

[cdoggwsu]

I pulled everything out, 80-gritted the hell out of the floor and layed down three coats of Chassis Saver. I've been running it with just floor mats for the last year and it's held up just fine. The floor does get damn hot. It's not so bad now that I got a high-flow cat but still pretty freakin warm. It has some sound deadening/insulating properties (much tougher/more flexible than paint) but definitely not like dynamat or something.

I haven't prepped or painted the bed yet, but without any form of sound deadening over the wheel wells it was ridiculous to drive on gravel roads...I had a choice between putting the carpet back over them or wearing ear plugs every time I drove the truck.

There will be an annoying gap under all of the trim pieces without the pad if that is of any concern.

I was looking into the Line-X route myself but debating whether or not to keep the carpet. On one hand it kinda defeats the purpose of the bedliner but on the other the carpet does add a "finished" feel.

 

[fallout232]

The factory tar padding sound deadening underneath my carpet was so bad that it was leaching up through the carpet. padding was a black nasty gooey mess. You couldnt put your feet on the carpet without leaving tracks when you got out from the tar. I ended up pulling it all up wiping down the rust free floor pans and throwing a vinyl mat over it. It was as previously stated Extremely hot and echoed bad. The 6.2 diesel shakes every body panel in this truck and It sounded like someone shakeing a tin can full of rocks driving down the road. And the A/C couldnt keep up. The floor pan was untouchable it was so hot. Ultimately I bought some Butyl rubber based sound deadening material (Offbrand Dynamat Make sure Butyl based and not asphalt based (So no bad smells) put a layer over the entire cab portion of the burb and then went to Lowes and but about 80 square feet of "Anti fatigue matting" which is nothing more than a 1/2 inch thick closed cell foam flooring material designed for walkways, which is almost water proof. Trimmed and cut pieces covering the entire floor. Recovered with the Vinyl mat I had originally bought. End result - 8 Decibal reduction in interior noise over no insulation on floor. I have a Decibal meter and before with just a vinyl mat at a high idle My interior reading was 93 decibels, after at high idle with above mods its 85. Still not anything near my 2001 Chevy HD's 75 decibels at high idle but a marked improvement. This was without the headliner. With the factory headliner i decreased it another 2 decibals, I can probably drop it another decibel or 3 by doing the same to the roof panel above the headliner. (The older I get the more I like the creature comforts of being quiet).

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Yeah...amazing what you find under your carpet...say it with me now...


"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww..."

French fries and...something...so old it had turned black and stained the carpet around it.
Random nasty ****.
More change (I think I've gotten half my money back now)
...and...big surprise...moldy, nasty, brownish insulation. Amazing how that **** wicks and retains moisture. Hoping it's just retained moisture from Seattle deep down inside because even the d-side insulation was damp.

Tomorrow or soon I'll get the hose out and scrub the carpet. It's not pretty but it should be savable.

Took it for a spin. Definitely louder and you can hear all kinds of rattles and stuff. Need to get that starter replaced...

Seeing how nice most of my floorboards are REALLY has me thinking about having it Rhino Lined or something. Actually...I think Blaze on here has a spray on bedliner/sound deadener combo...

 

[cdoggwsu]

Actually...I think Blaze on here has a spray on bedliner/sound deadener combo...

Yeah I was just thinking about that too...just checking out some of his Al's Liner installs a few days ago.

You had asked about drain plugs, too. There should be a hole in the rear passenger footwell on each side. Mine had these little metal plugs glued in them that popped right out. I just went to the hardware store and got some plastic plugs...the 1" plugs dropped right in and sealed tight.

I tried two kinds, some short slightly flexible ones and the thicker plastic ones. The flexible ones were a pain to get in and the plastic sealed just fine so I went with those. The first pic is of the plug installed and the last is the flexible plug I didn't end up using. That's probably a more elaborate explanation than anyone needed but I already had the pics so...

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Ah, I know those! Have a few in Big Ugly's firewall. Thanks.

I liked that my Tracker had actual rubber drain plugs and normal holes in the foot wells. Made cleaning easy. Spray, scrub, rinse, drain.

 

[cdoggwsu]

Ah, I know those! Have a few in Big Ugly's firewall. Thanks.

I liked that my Tracker had actual rubber drain plugs and normal holes in the foot wells. Made cleaning easy. Spray, scrub, rinse, drain.

Yeah the way the old plugs were glued in I guess GM didn't intend them to be used as drain plugs but whatever works. The driver side hole is directly over the top of the cat's heat shield too but it'd drain fine.

Again it begs the question...if the floor is bedlined would it even be worth keeping the plugs? Same goes for the carpet unless you want to remove it every time you wanted to wash down the inside.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

<---Diesel, no cat. Might hit the pipe though...eh...

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Washed the carpet Thursday night and it's been sitting in the garage drying ever since. Definitely grungy and stained still but FAR less so. The water coming off of the driver's side floor looked like coffee at first.

Oh, I must have missed cdog's last post in my haze. I want the liner to protect the floor and prevent this from happening again. Main reason a lot of these trucks have horribly rotted out floors up here is folks get the insulation wet in the winter and then it never truly dries out. Mine proves that and hell, I only got it wet a few weeks ago!

Fix the seat mounts, line the floor, throw the carpet back in, and have it at least look decent.

It's my DD and I wouldn't mind a somewhat civilized ride. My Tracker was bare bones and it just sorta got annoying sometimes. Also like I said earlier, I'm soon to be single again.