[hank]

I'm embarking on a little experimental project creating a floor liner for my Passenger Metris out of 1/4" rubber flooring. My goal is to line the entire passenger area with one sheet of good quality flooring with minimal cutting.

Purchased a 4'X10' section off a roll from RubberCal.

This mat cost $95 out the door shipped to Seattle. Quite a durable material. I think it will be pretty good at discouraging dogs and weekend projects from destroying my new van.

I'll cut it to length - 100"

Width-wise it will fit nearly perfectly in the back; should tuck under the trim in the wheel wheel area just fine; will come up 1.25" too narrow at each sliding door; then again fit perfectly up near the front seats.

I'll cut rectangular areas out around the aluminum track at each seat mount and see if there's enough clearance for the front leg locking latches to operate unimpeded. If not then a little more cutting.

The 1.25" strips of exposed carpet along the sliding door areas are a bit of a puzzle. Maybe I'll just leave them, though it's a high traffic area. Maybe I'll line that area with some sort of thin, durable, non-slip plastic that will tuck under the step-well trim and rubber mat.

The little triangle of carpet where the middle tie-downs are located will be exposed too, but that's okay by me.

I'll post photos along the way so you can see the wisdom or folly of this DIY hack.

Hank

 

[Reese]

I bought some ribbed rubber floor matting, (4 ft. x 15") from Overstocked.com and cut a length to fit down the center of my cargo area. The prices on this stuff fluctuate daily on Overstocked.com so find what your interested in and then watch the price for a few days and buy it when it's low. The stuff I got fluctuated between $120 & $84 depending on the day. The rubber matting I got provides a little sound damping, gives good traction, and will keep the plywood floor from getting dinged up.

 

[Reese]

 

[hank]

Reese that looks great - 4 foot width sheet rubber looks to be a pretty good solution.

 

[Reese]

Reese that looks great - 4 foot width sheet rubber looks to be a pretty good solution.

Yea let me correct my initial post. The ribbed rubber matting from Overstocked.com was 4 ft wide x 15 ft long, (not 15").

 

[hank]

Got my rubber flooring and got it installed. Took some work with utility and carpet knives but came out nicely! Used double-stick carpet tape on the aluminum runners, but it didn't seem like it was going to move a lot when installed anyway. Coverage was nearly ideal - I'll work on the areas where a little carpet is exposed near the side doors and update.

Here's part way through the install:

Here's at the passenger side door. Note two things. First this is the only place more than just a simply rectangle needs to be cut out for the 3rd second row seat to pivot and latch properly (if you don't have that then no problem!). For me the other seats clicked in fine with just rectangles cut out of the rubber flooring. And second the one narrower cut out in this photo works perfectly - the larger cut outs I did for most of the seat mounts weren't actually necessary (but they look fine so whatever).

Will post a few more photos as I finish the project - very pleased so far with the quality and look of this floor liner given costing under $100.

 

[Partyof5]

We did the same with a carpet remnant to protect from all the kids traffic and went through the same learning curve (cutting twice, or more). End result is very effective and should be easy enough to replace annually.

 

[NewMetris]

Looks great. Do you have any idea how to keep the electrical cords and battery isolated and dry in case I spill water in the back of the cargo? You can find all these electrical wires under the partition wall

 

[hank]

Looks great. Do you have any idea how to keep the electrical cords and battery isolated and dry in case I spill water in the back of the cargo? You can find all these electrical wires under the partition wall

No idea, but that's something to think about!

Now a month in the rubber floor's been good so far.

 

[HomeFinishers]

Nice mod. What did you end up doing about the areas at the doors where the mat didn't cover?

 

[tcp]

Did the rubber liners make your van noticeably quieter?