K5 flooring options vs carpet.

[TommyD11730]

Ripped the carpet and backing out of the front of my "new to me" 91 K5. Floor isn't too bad and I want to keep it that way.

My thinking is to POR the entire floor/rear compartment. Then install one of the Vinal floor kits from LMC. My questions is that front/rear floor is NOT cheap. Is it worth it? Wondering if I can source it somewhere else or if it's even any good.

Thoughts?

 

[ryoken]

f*ck the snake oil POR 15.... clean the rust as best you can with wire wheel, grinder, etc.... than prep, prep, prep the entire floor.. put a bit of converter on that rust, than bedliner the pee out of the whole floor.. nice and thick.. Liner extreme, Al's Liner, Line-X and such.. catalyzed liners..... stay away from herculiner, duplicr@p and the air-dried like..

I run a cut down universal, rubber truck bedliner in the cargo area.. works freakin awesome.... throw a couple rubber floor mats up front, done.. rinsable, etc...

 

[dremu]

Well, I'm confused by LMC.

They have only black vinyl floor in their regular catalog. For a while they were also selling other colors under the "LMC Auto Carpet" name but I can't get to that website atm. I believe they were just reselling ACC anyway.

Oddly, ACC doesn't list vinyl at this moment, at least that I could find. I swear they USED to, as it was the same as LMC had.

In any event, I've installed both a black and a blue kit from LMC on different trucks. In both cases, the flooring was heavy duty, thick, and fit pretty well given that neither truck was entirely stock. (One has a custom tranny hump for the doubler and a cage, and the other was a CUCV with the rifle mounts and whathaveyou.)

They were oversized and trim-to-fit, so patience and a warm day are called for. Measure four times and cut once, as you can't make it longer.

I was generally pleased with the results...

 

[rebelgregory]

I have both. I had to treat some rust, but it was all due to the carpet holding moisture against the floor. I had planned on putting new carpet in, but I bedlined the tub with Liner Xtreeme to seal it and put carpet on top. If I ever want to remove the carpet, it'll be good to go since it's bedlined.

Whether you go with vinyl or whatever, Follow Ryoken's advice. Address the rust, quality DIY bedliner, then go from there.

 

[TommyD11730]

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm surprised on the thumbs down on the POR. I have used it a lot in the past and again, when prepped corretly it worked ok for me.

Its mostly just scale rust. The trucks from Cali but man the rugs were soaked when it arrived to NY. Not sure if it was the angle it was on the hauler, or of its a leaker. Guess Ill know more as we are expecting rain here tomorrow.

Heating a floor/carpet will be interesting here in NY in Jan. No garage so best I can do is lay the flooring out in the house or inside the truck with an electric heater.

Reading around the net I was surprised to hear the ACC mat didn't fit all that well (1009's aside).

 

[badmix]

I had carpet that was getting nasty in my '84 K5, I yanked it out and got the LMC rubber kit. Those that had good luck with it, god bless ya, it was the worst experience ive ever had with something like that.

One slip in your trimmer and it will be completely off and look like crap, and trying to get the bumps out was a PITA, i know there are tricks, I used none of them, might be why it sux'd so bad. Anyways, got tired of looking at it and ended up Line Xing my whole interior. Looks better and dont have to worry bout much. Just have to make sure if you use ANY coatings, you prep, prep , prep and prep some more, There cant be an ounce of rust under the coating or it will eat thru your floor to the underside, trust me on that.

 

[82355]

They are much nicer inside when they have carpet.

Martin

 

[TommyD11730]

Do the carpet kits fit any better vs the vinyl flooring?

 

[ryoken]

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm surprised on the thumbs down on the POR.

it's an encapsilator, that's all.. if you want to use it to spot over the rust, as opposed to converter, that's fine imo... but to do the whole floor, over good paint, is foolish IMO..


and yeah, the carpet kits fit WAY better than the vinyl..

 

[TommyD11730]

Years ago we used to get a brush on rust converter made by 3m. Pink in color it was the only converter I ever used that would turn he rust black. It was long since discontinued and we now stock a clear spray on converter by VHT. Honestly I think it dosent do a damn thing. So that being said do you have a converter you would recommend .

 

[ryoken]

we used to use the 3m back in the day, that sh*t worked great.. as most 3M stuff does...

marhyde is ok.. we use skyco at work.. SEM and Gemplar have decent offerings too... eastwood has a few out that I haven't tried yet..

 

[TommyD11730]

Eastwood is ususally off the hook $$$ wise. I'll head down to the FD and see what they use when they PM their trucks. Hell I could use navel jelly in a pinch.

In so much as the vinyl mats are a PITA I'll probably just put another rug in it. Heck it's only a Civvy Blazer anyways.

 

[ryoken]

depends on it's use.. carpet quiets it WAY down over the vinyl or bedliners.. if it's not gonna be getting hammered with mud, etc, carpet is always a good solution.. the ACC carpets offered by many vendors are nice... and if your gonna run carpet, some decent sound deadening really helps at that poin t too to make things quite and floor-heat free..

 

[TommyD11730]

A thought occurred to me just now.

I'm removing the back seat pretty much permanently. It's just me and the wife and I need storage area more then I need a rear seat. So with that said I figure I can just replace the "forward" or passenger area of the rug. Ill pull the rear rug to inspect the floor. If its at all reusable (aside from being stained) Ill put it back in.

Now back in the day I had a big bed liner/storage cover inside my Cherokee XJ. Now if I got something like that for my Blazer, with no back seat it would be short.. no? Do they make "bed liners" for say a same year Burden' (91) that would work better and take up the seat space?

 

[ryoken]

if you want a killer rubber, ribbed truck bedliner back there, just buy a "universal fit" one for as pickup and cut to size for the K5 bed.. it's just a big giant rectangle.. like I said, works freakin killer..

this kinda stuff, in universal... http://www.realtruck.com/lrv-protecta-truck-bed-mats/ it's like a 1/4" to 3/8" thick impervious, etc...

 

[TommyD11730]

Very nice, thanks for the hotlink.

I was thinking a mat like a giant "husky liner" floor mat would work well as Im guessing it would have upturned edges to contain spills. Cant find one for a Burden' (again figuring the one for a K5 would be too short with the rear seat out.)

 

[TommyD11730]

Cleaning up the interior some and found the dreaded cracked floor pan. I can deal with a little stop drill/weld vs replacing pans and rockers! Maybe a little patch over it to keep it from happening to me again.

Gutted the back half and man were those rear seat bolts a PITA to get out. Tight to the very end. No rust to speak of in the back, so that makes me happy.

 

[Deuling]

f*ck the snake oil POR 15.... clean the rust as best you can with wire wheel, grinder, etc.... than prep, prep, prep the entire floor.. put a bit of converter on that rust, than bedliner the pee out of the whole floor.. nice and thick.. Liner extreme, Al's Liner, Line-X and such.. catalyzed liners..... stay away from herculiner, duplicr@p and the air-dried like..

I run a cut down universal, rubber truck bedliner in the cargo area.. works freakin awesome.... throw a couple rubber floor mats up front, done.. rinsable, etc...

X eleventy billion.

Very nice looking floor! Your lucky lol.

Shouldnt take much to get it cleaned up and protected.

 

[Teck]

I used ACC carpet with mass backing in mine.



I think it fit good.

 

[TommyD11730]

That's pretty stunning. Too pretty for me, at least in the cargo area. Think I'll get some of that silver insulation for the cargo area and use as suggested a truck bed mat. Maybe say a mat from a chevy pickup about the same year would be a good fit (short bed I'm guessing)