The underside of my carpeting is dried out and falling off, leaving that straw colored material all over the place in the back and in the front footwells whenever I lift it up. The carpet top is in good shape though, so I do not want to invest in a new set of carpet for the car (too many other higher priority items).
What I want to do is a stop-gap fix - find some sort of adhesive backed material, and basically encapsulate the backside of the the removable carpet pieces. Something like a rubber material or whatever.
Has anyone done this? What have you used? I've seen clear, wide-cut packing tape that might work (laying it on in strips)....thoughts?

 

I have a similiar problem specifically with the rear truck carpeting. It was leaving all kinds of debris everywhere and i decided to simply cut it out from the bottom and now my rear carpeting is just the carpet itself with the border but no backing. This got rid of the messy dried up backing. I had figured i would invest in a new truck over mat which would cover the carpeting, so thats what i will probably end up doing.

 

I thought of that too, but the backing insulates and deadens sound. Seems there should be something to stretch over the back and glue it back in place...

 

yeah thats why i decided to go with an over mat from LLoyds.

Actually come to think of it my problem was even worse because the original carpet backing had a 12" x 12" square section cut out of it for some reason. That just made the fraying issue worse, i think that was why i decided to cut it out.

 

Ed,
I have the same problem and it's annoying. That fibrous insulation material gets everywhere and is really obvious on a black interior. I tried rubberized undercoating on a small section of the passenger side and didn't like the result. It wasn't flexible enough and you need a ton because the insulation absorbs it. I have thick plastic I can glue to the back of the carpet pieces to seal that insulation in, but I think that may be too slippery as a backing.

So far, the only solution I have found is new or used carpet but will watch this thread with interest.

Matt

 

Well I'm off to Michaels and/or Joanne Fabrics to cruise the aisles and see what I might find! At least my wife will like this shopping spree - she'll have other stuff to look at.
I am determined to find a cost effective, albiet stop gap solution....I'll let you know....

 

I also have the same issue. PO had covered the underside of one mat with duct tape.

 

I tried there looking for some stuff for my rear seat delete and didn't find anything that even remotely resembled carpet backing material. I'm going to check with my friendly neighborhood upholsterer. I'm sure he's got the right stuff and for a small piece it can't cost much.

I'll let you know...

 

The challenge is that anything you might want to glue on to the back of the original carpet will need to be glued onto something other than the shredding original backing. If you can get all the shredded/crumbling stuff off, consider using plastic carpet runner, the clear stuff you get by the foot from Home Depot. You can use contact cement to hold the original mat to the plastic. The plastic has minimal if any stretch to it, so it's a relatively stable base. You can get the runner with the little hold-down spikes molded into the bottom, so the thing won't slide around on any underlayment you might have. If you don't have any underlayment and want some, pick up some of the rag-type carpet padding when you get the runner. You can easily glue a few layers of pieces together to fill in the depressions under the rear mat, for instaonce, and give yourself a very level floor back there.

I bought a roll of very cheap gold/beige carpet from the local pep Boys store right after I bought my car. I wanted to preserve the original cashmere trunk rug. Unless you run your fingers through it you probably won't notice that it isn't the correct Sliverknit. I was looking for a way to mount the changer back there, and found that Velcro sticks to the carpet well enough to use on the bottom of the changer. Took some heavy cardboard/corrugated and some wide stucco tape (duct tape might do) and made a box that just fit over the changer. Covered the box with the same carpet. Now I can just pull the changer out by lifting the velcro from the carpet and unplug the cable connector. Or I can move it around as needed to allow clubs and luggage to fit back there. The edges of the new carpet tuck nicely under the quarterpanels and thetool cover. Front edge is rolled and glued, and has velcro on it to attach to the strip that the factory put in right at the front/center when nstalled. The original piece is carefully rolled and stored in my "leftover pieces" warehouse.

 

I'm in the same boat and have begun to wonder about the following...

Though it added some weight to an already heavy car, the mass loaded vinyl that I put in for sound proofing has been a very nice addition to the car. It currently is its own layer, below the carpeting. Thanks to a tip from Dave McKenzie, I bought the MLV at http://www.soundproofing.org.

I would like to adhere or stitch this MLV to the stripped-down carpeting and create a single, sturdy layer (No straw or crumbling back backing) I'll PM Rob Budd and Paul Champagne on this to see if they have ideas. I gotta believe there are many of us who have this situation.

Peace,
Tim

 

Or again, you can do as i did and just cut the old burlap crap out and have just the edged carpeting.

Below is a picture of the backside, the top looks exactly as it did before. It was cut without damaging the vinyl border or edging. This eliminated the crumbling mess and involved NO sewing or other modifications. A good pair of scissors or shears is handy though.

Pictured also is the lloyd over mat which needs to be replaces as the one i have is faded and is also crumbling. I need to buy new floor mats and trunk mat. This old one is handy for when i am hauling around dirty parts. I dont care if it gets dirty so its a nice "working around" mat.

 

I had this problem too. I went to a website called soundproofing.org and bought 1/8" peel and stick black vinyl nitrile foam. It is closed cell and used for sound control. They sell it by the foot and the price wasn't to bad. After 2 years it's still holding up fine.
Good luck

 

That is exactly the solution I was looking for!
I had used the duct tape, which held for awhile, but not really working anymore. I still have most of the original backing, but it is cracked, dried and brittle, and thus falling out. Did you remove it first or just paste the soundproofing material over it?

 

Mine was cracking but 90% present so I stuck this over it to bind it all together. BTW they sell cool foam for soundproofing and hoodliners.

 

I just noticed Tim posted this solution above too (crediting Dave)...thanks guys!