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LMC MIP floor install

josh86k10

josh86k10

1/2 ton status
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Feb 13, 2005
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Location
Knoxville, TN
I finally got around to installing the 1/8" molded industrial polyvinyl (MIP) floor mat from LMC.


The after action report:
  1. The fit is good. Certainly not perfect, but better than I expected. It is a little big in almost every dimension so a decent amount of trimming is required. There are also no holes. I did all of my trimming and hole cutting in place in the vehicle (a little at a time so as to not screw up).
  2. I didn't measure anything. I just popped the first two holes in the center of their molded spaces. Then I bolted the mat in place, found the other holes, drilled them, and bolted them. With the mat firmly held in place, I then started working my way around the perimeter of the truck. I probably trimmed each place 3-4 times, taking a little each time until I was happy. I only screwed up one place and it took my wife several minutes to find it after I told her what I had done.
  3. Do this on a summer day. Last winter I could barely unfold this thing, today it was almost floppy and quite malleable.
  4. Kitchen/poultry shears and a reasonably sharp pocket knife work great for trimming.
  5. Some have complained that there is little "molding" of the product. I disagree, it isn't perfect but it is obviously intended for this vehicle. That said, mine is a K10 so my floor has lots and lots of contours due to the saddle tanks, unlike a K5.
  6. I did use the Jute padding and it did tone down the Flowmasters quite a bit. My floor has zero rust and fresh paint so I decided to accept the risk.
  7. I used a hot glue gun to "spot weld" it down as I went. I didn't want anything permanent and this seemed to work very well. It held things in place nicely so that my trim job was a bit more accurate.
  8. All in all I am very pleased. The fit and finish is very nice, not exactly factory, but pretty friggin good.
Here are some pictures:

After a little trimming, before the seats went in
IMG_2514.jpg


With the seats installed
IMG_2519.jpg


Drivers floor board
IMG_2517.jpg


pedal area
IMG_2520.jpg


malfunction junction (where the roll bar comes down, and the seat adapter bolts together, and the floor pans "step up")
IMG_2523.jpg
 
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That looks real good actually. It's cool to see the real world 'end product' of some of this catalog stuff...

Rene
 
Yeah, there were a few mentions of this product on here previously, but I never found a good summary with some pictures. This has been sitting in the box for the last two years at my dad's place until today. I figured I'd post up my results for the next schmuck running a search.
 
josh86k10 said:
I figured I'd post up my results for the next schmuck running a search.
Click to expand...

That schmuck would be me. :o

I like the carpet in the burb's cargo area so I was thinking about just doing the pads in the passenger area. Actually just the front pad since the burbs split under the front bench seat.

The PO never fixed the leaking hydroboost and it soaked the carpet with PS fluid...which in turn liquefied the asphalt backing under the carpet and turned it into a gooey mess. :doah:

The concensus here seems to be split down the middle on whether or not these MIP mats are worth it but it would be great if it's not more trouble than it's worth.
 
looks great. i put that flooring in my k5 and it fit nice after some man handling. it was worth getting after having just replaced the carpet and after 7 months i got stains and mud on it. u can make it look really nice if u armoral shine it then clean with carpet cleaner. it will look shiny but not be slippery
 
Quick question for "Josh", I just made a removable doghouse for my truck so I'm looking for some sound deadening... did you notice much of a difference? I sealed it up pretty well but still got some noise coming through.

Thanks
 
fyi he hasnt been online since 8-12-2011 you might be waiting for reply :popcorn:

and line 6 he said this : I did use the Jute padding and it did tone down the Flowmasters quite a bit.
 
Just installed this today

Well it does fit. It took me 45 min to figure out that there was over 7 inch's of extra material at the front for my 1988 K5.

I finally figured out that you align the center bulge of material at the front with the bulge for the trans. I was measuring 63" at the front but if you measure at the front edge of the bulge, following the curves up and down it measures about 70".

Will let it flatten itself out for a few more days before I put pics.
 
Looks like you had better luck than I did. One wrong cut and it threw the whole thing off, It never "settled" and had funky lumps all over. I yanked it out and went with Line X interior, Im much happier :D
 
almost finished

I am taking my time with this because I want to make sure all is in position before I lock it down. I got the front section in but have 4 indentations where the front feet of the seats go. The replacement floor pans were not marked so I installed the seats with a best guess.

Well my best guess was poor. My seats front feet are 6" away from the bulges designed into the MIP.

There are also bulges where the floor rises up in the front on the passenger side. I have tried heating and using body work dolly's to weight them down but they just come back. It's like memory foam. I guess I need to heat a larger area but my 1500w heat gun cannot do the job.

On the plus side it does fit side to side and the overlap at the back of the front cab, where the front rises up, and the back section overlap comes down meet behind the molding that goes below the rear bench seat so the seam will be hidden. Also water that comes in when the cap off, will just roll out the doors.

I will expect puddles where the seat bulges are. LOL... A big part of the problem, I believe, is that the aftermarket replacement flooring was not a perfect fit and this product is designed to replace the existing carpet. It is a mold of the stock, original floor pan.

Given that understanding I think that I have to accept a non-perfect fit. But it looks good, actually great when you consider what it looked like before I basically rebuilt the entire body (not including the cab roof, cab pillars, and hood, everything else is new.)

The back floor fits nicely. But, the fender covers are much, much over sized. I tried putting foam padding under to fill the gap but that just takes up too much space.

I am letting the fender covers settle in. (they do NOT look anything like the pictures in LMC Truck) They are just 2 pieces of cup shaped MIP. They will require a lot of cutting to fit into place tightly. Will report back on that part when I can.
 
Not do dredge up an old thread, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents on this. I too bought and installed the MIP flooring kit for my '83 Jimmy from LMC Truck. The truck's previous owner…get this…bought moving blankets, cheap ones from Harbor Freight, mind you, and installed those in the truck as 'carpet'. I vehemently ripped that crap out and since this truck will be my snow machine, went with the MIP. I'm going to parrot a lot of what other posters said, such as it being preferable to do this when it's warm, if at all possible. I started my install in warm weather, and it quickly got cold, so I was forced to drive the truck around with the heater blasting on the floor to make it malleable when it cooled down. The first thing about the kit that was absolutely befuddling to me, was the small pieces of padding included with it. I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out where the hell they went. The shapes didn't fit anywhere, and by gawd, I hate puzzles. I chunked it into the trash. Strike one for the LMC kit. The only kind of "instructions" that are included with the kit is a small piece of paper stapled to the front, center piece which tells you basically "hey, dummy, this is front and center". The lack of any documentation with LMC parts is proving to be somewhat of an annoyance. You'd think a floor mat kit would be self-explanitory, but the mere presence of this thread proves otherwise. ANYWAY….

The rear section of the kit was the easiest part of the installation. I used the LMC-recommended spray adhesive on the wheel well humps, and that was the only place I used it. It seemed superfluous anywhere else. I agree, that a significant amount of trimming was required on the humps, but I think it's better to have too much material than too little. I had to do only a modest amount of trimming on the rear mat itself. Had to cut notches for the rear seat's seat belts and the brace thingie that holds the rear seat in the 'stowed' position.

The real frustration began in the front. I figured the best course of action would be to use the molded pockets for the seats as alignment points, as everybody else does, I assume. They were about 3" off on mine, and there was no way to make them line up correctly. That was pretty annoying. I had about 2" of material on the sides that needed to be trimmed, and more than I imagined I would on the front, where it tucks up under the box for the heat/ac. That area was probably the worst part of the project. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get it to smooth out and lay down perfectly, despite the repeated applications of heat. I was using a heat gun for that, and as a word of caution, don't hold the gun on one spot for too long. It's easy to quickly burn a hole through this stuff, particularly on an edge. I learned this on the rear wheel humps, fortunately in an area that was to be trimmed off.

All in all, it was about as frustrating an evolution as you can imagine it would be, but nonetheless, I'm happy with the results. If you have one of these vehicles, and plan to use it in a harsh environment and don't want to see carpet get ruined, it's the best way to go.

My biggest lessons learned are:

1) Don't do this particular job without an assistant to help you.
2) Don't expect any documentation with anything you buy from LMC.
 
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