When we began disassembling the cab, way back when, one of the first things we did was throw away the original carpet. It was old, worn out and in really bad shape. There are many firms out there offering replacement carpet products, but we wanted the best. We got it from Auto Custom Carpet.
Installing the carpet was actually very easy. ACC supplied us with the carpet and the rubber matting for soundproofing. We first laid down the thick rubber matting and then we un-folded the carpet and began coaxing it into place. There were no holes of any kind in the carpet, so we had to make our own. The folks at ACC suggested using a utility knife and cutting an “X” wherever we needed to mount something to the floor of the truck. This was not what we wanted to hear. There had to be a better way. And there is, it’s called a gasket punch set. We found a great little set on the internet from McMaster Carr, made in the USA and delivered in two days for next to nothing.
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Before we started making holes, we had one more step which needed to be completed. The wiring for the 1356 transfer case had to be
installed. We were very fortunate and we found a complete harness at Miller Auto Salvage. The catch was that it requires a hole in the floor of the truck nearly two inches in diameter. Using a metal cutting hole saw, we determined the best location for the hole and began to drill. The hole was just a tad larger than necessary, so with a generous helping of black RTV sealant, the wiring was put in place and run along the floor from under the driver’s seat location to the passenger side of the cab and up to the firewall.
Now, the hard part is figuring out where to make the holes. With a little ingenuity, we came up with the idea of inserting drywall screws from the underside of the cab, through all of the known mounting holes, to mark the spots where holes needed to be made. Since the floor of the donor cab had a bench seat and we have seat pedestals for the captains chairs we had to locate the outer mounting locations and then locate the inner points after putting the seat pedestals in place.
The gasket punch worked better than we anticipated, cutting out perfectly round holes just where we needed them. The only problem was the thick soundproof matting that is bonded to the underside of the carpet. It just did not want to cooperate. This we did finally have to resort to a utility knife to hack through. Otherwise, the whole operation was quick and easy. Now all that’s left is to install the Havis Consolidator and the seats.