Knee deep in a Cabriolet project! So apparently there are no reproduction front mats available at the moment. I’m trying to piece my old one together until the repos start rolling again. We are going to experiment with a few other old mats first but eventually trying to patch with flexseal and other methods. Photo attached!
Does anyone have any experience trying such? Any help or direction appreciated!
While I have never done a full floor mat I have pieced together smaller flexible vinyl and rubber trim pieces.
The best results I achieved were when I started with a similar but thinner piece to serve as the “backing”. Then I used contact adhesive to adhere all the pieces of the original item to the backing. The backing piece was bigger so the last step was to trim the perimeter to match the original piece.
Any method using any type of tape or glued bonding strips between the pieces had 2 problems. One was that typically the edges of the original pieces were weak so whatever you used as a joining strip often tore the original pieces. The other was that it was really difficult get everything aligned and maintain that alignment as you added more and more pieces. With a backing layer you can lay the whole thing out and then start gluing.
In your situation if you might consider starting with a piece of heavy vinyl that is a close color match to the floor mat. Then any gaps will not be as noticeable.
If you are lucky you might find a roll of thin rubber material. Go to the flooring section of your Lowe’s or Home Depot. Look at the choices of underlayment they have for use under the various types of floating floors (the click together types).
I too, faced the same dilemma when completing my 48 station wagon. While the original mat in the wagon had a slightly different rib pattern and no carpet inserts, the sheet metal floor pan is the same. It was my intention just to use the reproduction mat until I learned it was no longer available. Attached are a couple photos of my alternative. Using brown heavy ribbed rolled rubber matting and a modified cheap hand held trim router from Harbor Frieght is was able to mill off ribs to create a one piece mat. While all of the ribs on my mat go in one direction only, I think the next time I would try to mill off larger areas and glue in ribbed inserts perpendicular to replicate the original pattern. I should add this was very time consuming. After milling off the ribs, the areas were sanded with progressively finer paper and the buffed with compound. Note that the only wrinkle I have is where the center hump transition starts. I haven’t tried but maybe a heat gun would alleviate some of it.
By the way are the pictures of your mat original to the car? Maybe you already know this, but the parts books lists two different mats probably color, unique to 46 convertibles.
Wow that mat looks wonderful. We could not find a mat for our car so my kids choice a carpet from Runnings, cut it to size and then used a heat gun to mold it to shape. I would have preferred the mat but I felt it is better to let them run with this idea. They did the work, I just removed the seat when they needed to get under it and let them go at it.
I have found that having an old car is a constant project that is never done. I think that is a good thing. Keeps me learning new things. Having two from different eras is just a form of higher education.
