Rubi Carpet removal + Rhino or bedliner coating ?

You can find Rhinoliner and LineX dealers in the yellow pages. It ain't cheap, but it is nice. Take everything out, passenger seat, back seat, center console, etc. Then they will take the driver seat out for you when you take your Rubi in. You should also take the covers off the roll bars, and maybe even take the roll bars out. Mask stuff off if you want to, like the bolt holes for the seat bolts. I would go to the shop as a first step and see what they do, and how they do it. I think that filling in the bolt holes is an important part of the prep-work. The more prep-work that you do, the lower the price will be. Your personal interest in the job might even translate into a higher degree of workmanship on the part of the installer crew.

If you plan to keep the top off, or will expose it to mud, wet, general crud, etc. then pull the carpets & roll bar padding & store it away until you sell the Jeep. The carpet just gets trashed & rotten with water, mud, etc. You will have to pull the seats, etc. to get it out, however, but it's worth the effort.

An alternative to Rhino lining is Durabak and Heruliner, similar textured coatings that are rolled on, rather than sprayed. The stuff runs about $100 a gallon from Quadratec or 4 Wheel Hardware, comes with prep pads and a textured roller for putting it on. I did my YJ with Durabak two years ago and everyone raves about it. Has held up magnificently and still looks great.

Pulling the carpet up is extremely easy. You can just yank it out from under the center console if you want. You'd need to remove the center console for the rhino-lining application anyway, though, and it's not hard. It has only a few screws, then you just pull it straight up. (The bottom of the shifter boot just pops up quite easily, nothing affixing it there.)

The carpet is just tucked underneath the edge of the console. It's easy to take out.

The carpet in the back is all one piece from the driver side to the passenger side. I only take mine out when it gets wet. I lay it out in the sun and it dries out just fine. I've gone out at night and gotten the carpet wet. When I get home, I just pull it out and let it sit on the garage floor until the next day. I then rinse it out until clear water runs out of the carpet and set it in the driveway to dry out.

I've done this 10 plus times and I haven't had any mold or mildew problems. In fact, the carpet still looks new.

I would love to pull out my Rubi carpet.. I see where it is attached at the top left of the driver's foot area but how would I get it out from under the center console ? I would hate to pull that all apart.

A bedliner or Rhino coating on the floor would be the coolest but who could I go to for this ? any large nationwide places do this or ?

thx dave

The carpet is just tucked under the center console... just give it a bit of a yank.

As for the Rhino lining. A local Rhino dealer did mine for $400. As someone else said, I had to remove the seats, console, belts, and rollbar padding. Left the driver's seat & that seatbelt in. I had plugged all of the bolt holes, but he actually removed the plugs before he sprayed it in... said I wouldn't have gotten them back out very easily afterwards and he was probably right. I'm not sure what he did to keep the holes from getting plugged, but none of the bolts were difficult to get back in. As someone else mentioned... check with a local Rhinolining, LineX, etc., dealer and see what they say. You might ask around and make sure the guy has good references too. I had found a couple of guys who had work done by the local Rhino place and they were impressed.

The prep for me took about 3 hours to get everything out. About the same to put it back in.

I've heard good things about the do-it-yourself stuff too... I just didn't want to mess with it.

I called a guy today (St. Catharines, Ontario) and he said he wouldn't do it at all. They apparently have only done a couple and they turned out to be more work than they anticipated. Truck beds don't require much for masking (lazy buggers!).

He gave me a $800 ball park but now I wonder how much will change if I remove stuff....

BUT, with leaving in the seats....what's the draw back? Leaving an edge for crap to get under the liner (liners an adhesive so...NO!?)

I second this. I Durabak'd my 90 YJ about 5 years ago and it has held up great. It was much cheaper than Rhino or LineX.

George

Jerry McG wrote: