rezrunner92

I am planning to Herculine around the bottom of my runner. While I was vacuuming the rear today I thought why not pull this carpet out when I do the outside and do the cargo area too. Maybe I could even come up with a way to put it on the back of the rear seats too.

The question is, can anyone tell me of what is under there before I pull all the carpet and sound deadener out? I was also wondering if there are any problems with just pulling out all the carpet and rubber coating the floor? Wires or other issues? Thanks in advance.

91TPU

shouldnt really have much of a problem, the carpet should just pull up, i mean your gonna have to remove some trim peices but thats about it i would beleive

yotasavg

my neighbor spilled a full can of root beer in my cargo area and i just pulled the carpet up to clean it. didn't see anything under there. just some trim to pull out first, like 91TPU said.

drew303

I don't have ANY carpet in my pickup. I would imagine the carpet in a pickup is similar to a 4runner as in its NOT attached other than maybe some velcro here and there (velcro was located in upper foot wells)...

As far as noise increase couldnt tell ya since i tore the carpet the first week i got the truck a few years ago and it had no exhaust so couldnt even hear myself think then

IMO I think you should remove the carpet and herculine or POR-15 the inside and be done. Dont cover up the drain holes tho =)

As much mud as the inside of my rig sees carpet would be history regardless.. when i get back from a wet/muddy trip (Western washington) i just pull out the garden hose, pull the drain plugs and flood the cab. I avoid the center console/stereo and before ya know it the muds gone and a few hours later the interior is clean again =) ... no smells either hehe

drew303

oh... I spilled to 20oz jack n the box cups in my pass footwell in the first week i owned the truck, that also helped in the decision to remove the carpet.

since then (before i finally got a cupholder) i've spilled numerous nasty sticky drinks in this truck. =) when your just dealing with metal spills become.. "I'll clean that up next week" instead of "˟˟˟˟˟ i gotta pull over, my god the truck is ruined!!!"

hehe

toy4run

There is a hard rubber coating under the carpet that pretty much takes a good chisel or a grinder to get up. Of course you could leave it, I've seen pictures of trucks done that way. A buddy and I did that to his pickup and it looked great, that is grind the hard rubber coating and have just metal. He hasn't had any problems out of it so far. I plan on doing the same thing to my 4runner as well. Carpet is already out and the only wiring at this point is the wiring for the rear window on the driver side. I dont use the washer bottle or wiper buttons and are planning on relocating my rear window switch somewhere else. The passenger side has the wiring for the tail and tag lights. You could also relocate it as well just takes some cutting and crimping. My 4runner has the fuel door release cable and I'm thinking about doing away with it to get it out of the way.

bob200587

I don't have carpet in my 4runner. I used the dupli-color truck bed liner, as i couldn't find the Herculiner. It works pretty well. I suggest floor mats though. It is a bit louder than with carpet, but once you put the liner on it deadens the sound alot more than just the plain floor.

RadRacer'86

Hello. I just pulled all mine out to do the very same thing. I didn't plan to remove the sound deadener though. I can't really Anwser your question about wires but I was planning to work around them without too much concern. They're all in casings anyhow. The real reason I wanted to comment was becuase I was shopping around for a better prince than $99 bucks a gallon for Hurculiner and I found an alternate brand. Its called Dupli-Color. $42 per gallon. Theres also a spray on (in an arisol can) thats less than $4. Both available in the Automotive section at Wal-Mart near the touch up paint and cleaning stuff.

(EDIT--haha, I just read everyone elses post...i'm new here, I guess I shoulda done that first...I didn't need to introduce Dupli-Color as a new Idea, but it is a great ddeal cheaper!

I hope I helped!

Josh-

Yota Tony

Duplicolor sucks. It's not anti slip at all.

I did my Heep's interior with Herculiner and was very pleased.



I moved any wires out of the way, put tape...guess you could say balls into all the various holes for bolts and what not then just started rolling it on.

I can't stress enough that it is all in the prep. Clean everything and then clean it again, whip the floors with the pad provided in the kit, then go over the floors with Acetone and a rag (do this a few times). Make sure everything is VERY clean or it might peel up on you.
I had 2 small areas in my rear hatch peel up simply because I didn't prep the back as well as the front.

rezrunner92

Thanks alot for the tips. I may go ahead and do just the rear and bottom exterior first. Thanks for the tips.

And Yota Tony, when I rag on Jeeps don't take it personally yours looks pretty bad-a$$.

Yota Tony

I don't take anything personally really so no worries, thanks for the compliment though.

On the outside lower part of my jeep I used the Duplicolor stuff however it flaked and chipped off a tiny bit which bugged me.

rezrunner92

Someone said they didn't take the sound deadener up? Do you have any pics? I would like to do that and leave the sound deadener in if possible but I also want the floor to be relatively smooth. Can you build up the herculiner to fill in cracks?

Yota Tony

I didn't remove any of the sound deadening material from my floors. Too much hassle. I just gutted everything out, cleaned it all up and rolled it on.
Here's a link to what the truck looked like before I started to clean the interior out. I'm linking it cause it's big-ish pic.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...0To/gutted.jpg

ray

i tore the carpet outta my 4runner...so much better

gonna be doing the hurculiner or durabak pretty soon..heres what it looks like without the carpet...



very convenient when it gets full of dirt i just sweep/spray it out and dont worry about the carpet getting all stained.

whitetaco02

i did the back of my 4runner. check out the link for pics. it was very very easy and i highly recommend it.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/551634616GJlGmq

i kept my carpet so if I ever want it to go back to stock or if i ever do decide to sell it, i can easily put it back in.

rezrunner92

Thanks for allt the good pics guys. This looks like a definite go, once I get some other projects out of the way that is.

BTW, I did not realize that the first gen runners ever had carpet back there. Never seen one around here that had carpet back there.

4Rocker

Gotta love the Herculiner! Inside:



And out:



IMO the duplicolor stuff in a can sucks

rezrunner92

I love it. How did you get the bottom so smooth? Did you put down a plate and then roll on over it? Or did you just repeatedly apply and build it up?

4Rocker

Due to the rust demons that inhabit MN, the bottom of the bed was starting to rust through in a few places, so when I redid the 1/4 panels I got a huge sheet of steel and bent it into a U-shape (with cut-outs for the wheel wells) and that forms the flat bed and replaced the cracked plastic side panels. The piece riveted in and then the whole thing was herculined. The key to getting a good coating is to give it a good 2-3 coats and make sure it is nice and thick. Also be sure to scuff and prep the area VERY well!

rezrunner92

Ok, I went ahead and pulled all the carpet out of the back, except for the passenger rear wheel well hump. I had the baby seat in and couldn't let the seat down. The thread that was holding a seam from the floor to the seat backs was rotten so no problem to just pull it apart, What i was calling sound deadener was a rubber floor pad to make the floor smooth for the carpet. I thinkI will leave the actual sound deadener in place. I think I will press it down into the soft, bedliner before it dries to make dimples for it to stay in place. Maybe in the coming weeks I can get the liner rolled in.