With the price of food and fuel going up like they are it's looking like I'll be driving my trusty '97 F150 for a while longer. I decided to replace the original rubber mat floor with new moulded carpet. The mat was
ok but due to a leak there was a mold problem.
These are some before pictures of the nasty dirty stock rubber flooring.
At this point I've removed the rear seat and the
cd changer. Seat Removal is required in this project. To do this, the seat must be unbolted from the truck's floor. This is done from inside the truck and accomplished by removing the bolts located in the seat tracks. The original rubber floor covering is used to line up bolt holes for the new carpet.
Thank God for air tools! A couple of the
torx bolts holding the seat belts in place were rusted bad. The only think that would break them free was an impact wrench.
I took the new carpet out of the box and so I could lay it flat in the living room. I
cleaned up some of the factory debris that was on it. I'll
keep it out to remove the wrinkles that formed while it was in the box.
The old nasty rubber mat is removed now. The next step is to clean up the mat a little so it doesn't get the new carpet dirty. I will place the new carpet over the mat to determine if it is almost an exact match in size and shape.
There will still be some cleaning, rust removal and priming to be done in the cab before the new carpet is installed. Funny how what seemed like a 2 day job is going to turn into a two weekend job. Oh well, at least it won't smell like cheese gone bad in my truck anymore. More to come this weekend if the weather is decent.