VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Upholstery - Interiors & Glass Trunk Mat Cleaning Question

I have the original trunk mat for my 1950. I have to clean it and possibly paint the mat due to the fact that no one reproduces these mats. I believe it is made of rubber, so what cleaner should I use? I want to clean it but not dissolve it with anything too aggressive. Any suggestions? Thanks

I would use Murphys oil soap.

I have used WD-40 on the rubber mat of my 51.

I use Ru-Glyde to clean rubber. I am pleased with the results on tires and floor mats.

It leaves a nice natural look to the rubber.

I buy it in a gallon bottle at the local NAPA store. It is also great as a lubricant to mount tires or press rubber bushings into parts. It works well for installing glass in the rubber seals.

Thanks for all the replies. But the reason I need to clean this mat is so it can be painted/dyed to go back to the original color of taupe. Unfortunately, most of the suggestions will probably leave some kind of residue. Not so good for paint adhesion. I ended up just cleaning it with Dawn dish soap and plenty of water. If it's good for ducks it should be good for a 70 year old mat.

I have the same color mat in my 51 and will also need to "freshen " it. Let us know how the painting comes out.

I would doubt very much that any paint will stickto the flexible rubber.

I can not attest to results since I haven’t tried it, but here is a discussion that we had on this topic a few years back.

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/367996/gray-floor-mat.html#Post367996

Clean with a mild soap/water solution ideally. Petroleum products can clean it well if applied really, really sparingly.

Aero 303 is one of the few preservative products out there that will bring back the finish and actually preserve rubber products.
Avoid petroleum based preservative products as some look great short term but actually degrade the rubber faster.

check with Filling Station. I believe they have repro rubber mats in black and taupe. Price is around 130 bucks. Your original mat is probably pretty stiff and dried out .

The Filling Station shows a taupe trunk mat for $219.50 plus shipping. It also shows that this mat is currently unavailable. I have cleaned, primed and painted the original mat using SEM products. The SEM Plastic and Leather paint is what I used. It is a flexible coating made for leather and plastic. When I have a photo available I will post it.

BEFORE


AFTER

looks good to me. I may have to do the same as as I also have the brown (taupe) mat though it's not as near nice as your before photo,

Did you check the Filling Station website? It currently shows the black mat available for $139. Don't know if you were looking for the taupe color.

The correct color for a 1950 trunk mat is taupe. Black was used in 1951. Yes, I did check The Filling Station's website. It states that the taupe mat is currently unavailable. See my post from 10/3/20.

My January built 51 has the taupe mat but I am not sure it's original. My parts book only list one number for 49-52 but that is for a replacement mat and it does not list any color. I think I remember a post that said midyear 51 was when the changeover happened. Maybe Gene can enlighten us.

Early 1951 Deluxe models had taupe mats and side lining. Not sure when changed.
Special models all had black for both.

We had 2 '51 Chev's in the family, one built in Dec 1950 and the other built in May 1951. Both were Deluxe Stylelines. Both had gray trunk liners and black trunk mats. These were Canadian cars. Brewster has the May car now and might still have the original trunk mat as well.

Canadian cars were different.