Removing carpet padding & deadening
 

Hello,
I recently got a 91 Blazer to restore. The carpet is shot and smells like something died on it so I'm in the process of removing it. My goal is to remove all the cartpet and put Herculiner all the way from the pedals to the tailgate. I'd also like to drill some holes in the lowest spots so that when I go camping and get it all muddy, I can simply spray the whole thing out. (Also replacing seats with $35 polyethylene seats and the wife is making padded covers)

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...557fb162d6.jpg


The carpet in the back seat area is just kind of laying there so it's easy to remove, but the mat underneath is really stuck to the metal. I've been scraping it with some plastic paint scrapers and it's working; it's just a lot of work. Some of it is really think and almost baked on. A coworker suggested using a wire brush attachment on a drill which would be fine as long as it doesn't go down to bare metal - I will need it scratched up for the Herculiner. Do you have any ideas how to get it off easier?

And then there's the existing deadening mat. I didn't know what that was until I found this post here which explained it. I can get a corner up and can peel, but it is really hard to pull it up. I have some acetone to try, and some goo-b-gone but I don't think that'll do it. Do you have any ideas on this as well?

Thanks!

Acetone, mineral spirits, solvent of any kind is what I would start with.

Why don't you want to grind it off? Don't you apply the Herculiner to the bare, roughed up metal?

Heat gun and scrapper?

Thanks for the advice. I mentioned using a wire-brush attachment on a drill - you're right I will have to rough it up.

Just make sure all the solvents are dry before you use a wire brush / angle grinder.... :icon_flamethrow:

I like the floor drain idea. I've seen that in a Honda Element before.

Thanks for that! I didn't think of that at all. I did use some acetone today to see how much it eats through things. Worked great! Ate through the padding, the adhesive on the deadening pad, and the fingers of my cheap glove! I think I will wire brush it all first and then acetone after, but I didn't even think of the fire hazard!!

I love the drains idea. I think it will make quick work of cleaning. I plan on 3d printing some drain plugs so when I lose the plugs, I can just print out new ones. I'll even print the word "drain" on them so I'm not making future mysteries.

Update: So it looks like the wire brush drill attachment just shredded the mat a little bit but didn't do much for ripping it free from the body. The heat gun would probably work well, but I don't have one. I considered using the wife's hair dryer, but I know better. What wound up working the best was a razor blade scrapper, some gloves and a whole lot of patience. I was able to get about 20% of the passenger side deadening pad with a 1" scrapper, but the razor blade worked much better and got me to about 90% - about 2mm at at time.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...2f65c68bbb.jpg
This is the driver side deadening pad. I need to take the driver seat back out to get the good angle and slip that razor underneath the last of that stinky mat.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...589415da48.jpg

This is the 90% on the passenger side. Pretty excited to get all the old crap out of there.

I love how clean that floor is! I dont see one hole.

Definitely and AZ truck! I saw this video right after I bought mine. When they pulled back the carpet there was a lot of rust on the floor and that shelf-like section where the bed starts. I never thought to look there for rust. I ran outside to check under the carpet. I got real lucky, there's nothing more than some surface rust in a few spots inside that look to be caused by some chemicals that ate the paint away in the bed. Easy fixes. Here's a screenshot if you don't want to watch that video; there's a ton of commercials:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...1b282c9768.png

For things such as you are doing I take one of my wooden handled putty knives and sharpen it on my bench grinder, most will take a razor edge and that edge stays for quite a while, makes a good gasket scraper too.

Thanks odat - I did buy a small 2" wire brush and had some good luck getting the bed's padding off super easy. I went back to the store and got an 8" one that has a scraper like you're talking about on the end - probably pretty much the same thing. I know I'll need to scrape some gaskets pretty soon too. Dreading that.

Read somewhere that the truck bed liner products are highly toxic and not to be used on the interiors of vehicles. Just a heads up.

@Zenith Thanks for that info! I researched what you said and have learned a ton of truck bed liners DO indeed exhale terrible things for humans called VOCs, volatile organic compounds. CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons. Who would have thunk. I found this or something to the effect on many websites:
Looks like LizardSkin and Line-X are safe for doing what I want, but LizardSkin is about 3x more than what I'm willing to pay. I'm waiting for Line-X to get back to me.

But how about this? Anyone ever heard of doing this? I've read that you can use latex house paint of your favorite flavor and mix in ceramic hollow microspheres.. I guess it makes it sound absorbing and super insulating tough coating you can put on anything. This company sells the microspheres Buy Hy-Tech Insulating additive for paint and make your paint INSULATE and also sells it premixed with house paint. I'm thinking maybe, maybe I can mix something like shredded rubber, microspheres, and non-toxic latex paint, put it on the back tailgate panel and test it out.

Thoughts?

I sprayed the interior of my '88 with some kind of aerosol can spray-on bed liner stuff (don't remember what brand) and I never noticed any fumes. My Blazer was pretty well-ventilated, though (no top or doors), so YMMV.

I've seen utility truck with rubber matted floors. I'm assuming that the latex paint would accomplish the same... maybe do a few layers more then the few layers, pending the brand some can take a beating...

@Tom A If it were open I'd agree that the cheapest would do, but mine will most likely be closed up most of the time and baking at 200 degrees in the AZ summer so I'd better do some due diligence

@DonL I agree, and seeing that latex paint and the additives are pretty cheap, that will most likely be the way I go. If it does start to peel, I can just paint another coat on it. I'm planning on getting a cordless paint sprayer in the future so it'll be easy to touch up holes that probably won't work; with a paint brush.

Along with your additive I would suggest exterior paint and in a satin or gloss as it has more solids and holds up better, you may also may want to look into latex floor paint, it lasts for a long time and handles abuse on cement floors so it may hold up better than just latex house paint.

@odat Good thinking... I'll add that to my specs