How To: Install Molded Industrial Polyvinyl (MIP) Floor Mats

Hi, I'm Kevin Tetz working with LMC Truck to give you some good technical information and videos that are going to help you with your truck restoration project. This '85 C10 belongs to a first responder in our area, so we're gonna thank him for a service by providing him with an industrial floor covering that's durable and easy to clean. And we're gonna give you some installation tips that'll help you complete a project like this on your truck. Now Terry's got a nice little truck. On the inside he's got a later model seat, and he's been fixing up the interior a little at a time on his weekends and off time. But his carpet is shot, so he's got to do something, and the polyvinyl flooring gives him a little more user-friendly option that's better for his purposes.

This project starts with a full floor covering that has a nice textured surface that fits side to side, front to rear. And the entire cab of your truck and it's molded to fit the contours of your floor. It comes with a jute backing that again fits that truck. Ours is two wheel drive, single cab and it gives an extra layer of sound deadening and insulation. LMC Truck also gives you the option of these Sound Control Mats, which are peel and stick application. They're easy to cut, easy to trim, and you can also get a rolling tool that helps you do a nice job of pressing them firmly down to the floorboard. You've also got the option of a universal heat and sound control kit which is applied with a spray adhesive and some sealing tape and gives you another layer of both thermal and sound insulation that gives your truck that real quiet feel and keeps the heat inside. And while you're working on your floor covering, you may notice that your door sill plates are broken or worn out or even missing and that your pedal pads are showing their age as well. And you may not need any of this stuff, but it's nice to know that you can look through the pages of the LMC Truck catalog and get everything that you need for the inside of your truck.

As far as difficulty goes, I'm gonna give it about a 2 out of 5. It's not that hard to do. Give yourself a couple of hours, depending on how long it takes to take the interior out of your truck, and it's pretty straightforward. Tools you're going to need: you're gonna need a socket set. I have both quarter drive and three-eighths, just in case. I've got flat and Phillips screwdrivers and awl. Very important to find your bolt recess is something to mark your matting width. I've got single edge razor blades, always, and a good sharp utility knife. We've also got hole saws that we're going to show you a little trick with electric drill a little bit later on.

The first thing we're gonna do before disassembling anything is unfold the flooring. It's folded up tightly in a small package, which makes it less expensive to ship, but there are wrinkles in it. Unfold the floor covering, pop out some of the detail, and just let it sit and relax. Trust me, the wrinkles, they come out on their own.

Step 1 in disassembly is the seat belt retractors; to get them out of the way of the seat moving in out of the cab, and because they hold the crusty carpet in place to the seat mounting bolts. May or may not be hard to remove depending on how long it's been since someone took them out. Terry has changed his seat, so the bolts are easy to loosen. Now if you're a one-man crew like I am a lot, you can use things like packing blankets to protect the rockers, door jams, and weather seals while you're removing the seat by yourself. I'm also using a creeper to help with leverage so I don't have to struggle quite so much. Removing the seat with these things in place, it's just a matter of me walking the seat out of the frame and carefully working my way out of the cab.

With the seat out of the way, things like the speakers and the rear storage panel can be removed. Ours was original, made of cardboard and badly deteriorated, and so it kind of fell apart as we removed it, but we may be able to save it and reinstall it later.

The seat belt receivers get removed as well as the original sill plates. The kick panels have baggage. The passenger side has a fresh air vent attached and it just takes a little fiddling to get it disconnected and out of the way. If you think it's gonna be a while before you reinstall, you may want to take a picture with your phone for a quick reference later. Removing the carpet is very straightforward, followed by the original floor insulation. It typically comes out easily. A quick cleanup with a vacuum allows you to inspect the condition of your floors. Ours on this truck are nearly perfect, but if you need any replacement panels or rust repair materials, now's the time to look at your LMC Truck catalog or go to lmctruck.com and place your order.

Since these floors are good and dry and the paint is clean and in excellent shape, we're installing the sound insulation panels. These are simple peel and stick application, but a test fit for each piece will save some aggravation since they stick really well once the backing paper is removed. Now, it's not completely necessary to cover every square inch of the floor, but I wanted to make things look nice and neat so I trimmed the panels so they fit each other without much overlap and without a lot of gaps. The roller tool really helps with tight areas and smoothing the panels over corners. Sometimes, it's necessary to use your knife to make relief cuts so the panels will conform to the different surfaces and shapes on your floor. I also found it easier to partially remove the backing paper from the panels, set one end in place, and then remove the rest and fully adhere the panels.

All right, when everything's laid out, rolled out, and you're happy with it, if you realize that you may have covered up some of your seat mounting holes or seat belt bolt locations, there's an easy way to find it. Check this out. You probably still got a pretty good idea where they are so you can take the edge of your rolling tool and just roll over top and it kind of shows itself to you. Right there, once you've located it you can take your carpet knife our cutting tool, cut around the outside of the raised area, and now you've got your bolt location back. Make sure you don't get any of this black stuff caught in the threads. It'll really mess you up when you go to put your bolts back in.

Now the jute pad comes with the final floor, and it's the last piece of the insulation puzzle. It sits easily in the front foot wells, fits the transmission tunnel nicely. And it doesn't just sit and float, it's glued into place. So the way you install it, it's just find your center point and start the spraying process, putting the adhesive down just do a little at a time. Now, this spray adhesive is a contact cement, meaning you spray both surfaces. Let it tack just a little bit. Hear that, sticky. So now you can just ease down and the glue sticks to the glue and holds it in place. You can just work your way down the rest the way.

Now this starts, working from the back. Working your way forward, smoothing it down, getting the rises in place, and then you start trimming.

Now, these little recesses and pockets will give you a clue as to whether or not your mat is in the right place. We've got a recess here that's molded in, and it shows us that there's a seat belt anchor right here; pocket anchor hole, we're in the right spot. So start smoothing it out. Perfect.

All right, so I'm happy with how everything lines up, so we're going to lock this in before we move our way forward. There's a couple of different ways where you can mark the location of your bolt hole. So you can use an awl, run it through, get a marker, and mark around it, use your retractable knife, trim the hole, and anchor it down with a bolt. Or you can use this trick. This is a hole saw. This is a 5/8 inch hole saw. Run it in reverse so you don't tear the edges of the actual floor covering and it makes a nice neat hole. After that I'm gonna anchor it down with a large washer and seat belt bolt, so that way it's in perfect alignment as I move forward and trim.

All right, so what I'm doing is making sure that I know where to trim. There's a mold line on the front, right across here and if/when I get it out there, I'm just double-checking, making sure that that's my cut line so I don't see any red paint when I install the mat. So, now I can trim the top, step it up in there, then we can go for the sides. Use a sharp knife on this type of flooring. You'll get an accurate cut with a lot more control. Just be careful to know what's directly underneath your knife so you don't cut your flooring or yourself. All right, that's looking pretty good. Up here, need to trim a little bit more but I can whittle that away. I'm pretty happy with that.

We're in good shape there. We've got too much here and it's puckered and gathered there. So we're gonna take our straight line here, where the toe board starts to go flat. Keep in mind I got speaker wires behind there so I don't want to cut them, and I don't want to cut past where the kick panel is. But, I'm just gonna cut that up. That's gonna allow me to fold it, and I can sneak up on it just like that from there. I'm gonna get myself, oh, a half an inch. All right, right in the corner, good deal.

Even though you have a sill plate to cover some of the flooring up, make a neat and accurate cut along your lower weatherstrip so that the flooring also functions as a moisture and debris barrier. That's it, it's a good fit. Since we're in here, we're replacing the gas pedal with a new one so it matches the new flooring. It's as simple as removing the retaining clip on the left side of the pedal arm, releasing the retaining spring, replacing the plastic pedal, and reattaching the spring. And don't forget the retaining clip on the other side as well. This is easy to do using a 3/8 deep well socket to press it on. The power brake and parking brake pedal pads are easy to remove and replace, just to give the interior a fresh upgrade. That also provides a little more traction for the driver. Nice.

An awl is a great way to locate your screw holes without a lot of drama when replacing your sill plates. Just put the plates where they belong and gently push the awl through the hole until you find the original screw hole in the floor. That way you don't have to drill another set of holes. Then you simply screw in the new plates with the provided hardware.

The kick panels now get reinstalled on both sides using the original hardware. And take your time with this, since HVAC functions are connected to the passenger side panel and your hood release is attached to the driver's side.

With the floor locked down now, I feel safe to remove the temporary bolts and washers and reinstall the seat belt receivers before the seat is reinstalled, using Threadlocker around the bolts, of course. A vacuum cleaner and some black ColorBond spray gave a quick refurb to the cab's storage panel. That was followed by reinstalling the speakers.

Seat reinstallation is not difficult, but it takes a little strategy. The packing blankets will help protect your floor as well as let the seats slide in a little bit from one side. Of course, if you have an extra set of hands, this is a much more simple process. I always use Threadlocker on seat belt anchors, just for an added measure of safety.

Even though you can still see some of the folds they will relax after a few heat cycles in your truck. You can see the utility this flooring system. You're gonna get a great sound insulation, a very tough floor that's ready for anything, easy to clean, and will give you a lifetime's worth of use.

So, if your truck has outlived its carpet and you want to switch to an industrial looking floor covering that's super easy to care for and will give you a long life, LMC Truck has got what you need and let's do it yourself.