Running Flooring Seamlessly Into the Cab

[Flux]

So a 120lb roll of Lonseal Londeck Coin arrived at my house today. It's this stuff:

LONSEAL LONDECK COIN GREY VINYL FLOORING 90" X 20' FEET MARINE BOAT | eBay

It looks and feels very much like loncoin II, but I kind of like the medium-ish grey better than the loncoin. I really don't know the difference spec wise, but this stuff is rated for outdoor use on boats.

Anyway, my plan is to run this seamlessly up through the cab all the way to the firewall. I have my janky rubber mat and a tempalte I made for the rear. I plan on oversizing and using the seat bolt holes to locate it and then take my time trimming it all out. It will fall off after the wood deck and I have a plan for a tapered transition piece between the front seats.

Anyone try this?? Running flooring full length??

One nice thing was that I was thinking about putting Mass Loaded Vinyl on the floor in the cab. This stuff weighs about .8 lbs per sqft, so between this, the closed cell foam, and the Butyl matt I should be in pretty good shape noisewise.

 

[bemerritt]

I have my 20'x8' roll waiting for me at Home Depot, ready to try something similar. We can suffer together!

 

[boywonder]

Should be interesting...post pictures!

Obviously, getting the stuff to lay down around the front wheel wells may be a challenge.......

 

[Flux]

Sure will. I may have to seam this together a bit over those side humps. It will defintiely float a bit down into where the seats mount. I am thinking a heat gun might be a big helper here.

Hard part is gonna be wrastling an 80+ lb piece of vinyl into place.

Good luck bemerrit!! I know I am gonna need some.

 

[Annie O]

Sure will. I may have to seam this together a bit over those side humps. It will defintiely float a bit down into where the seats mount. I am thinking a heat gun might be a big helper here.

Hard part is gonna be wrastling an 80+ lb piece of vinyl into place.

Good luck bemerrit!! I know I am gonna need some.

Looking forward to seeing your progress! Couple of questions, Flux. I'm close to ordering flooring this coming week

Can you cut and use matching weld rod to meld seams?

Also what exactly is your sub floor?

 

[Flux]

I do believe you can use weld rod, but that is a bit advanced for me. Any seams over non flat areas will most likely be overlapped and glued. My goal is to make it up in between the seats and to the door sills and firewall in a fairly decent manner. It will definitely get wonky under the seats, no subfloor there.

For the main van I have two layers of 1/8" ensolite (sticky back) down over top of about 50% coverage of butyl vibration dampener. Ensolite will insulate a bit and kill road noise and limit squeeks. Then over that is 1/2" ply. I have 3/8 ply to fill the valleys.

The cab has 100% butyl with the dual layer of ensolite. I have to make a wide filler wedge from where the passenger seat wiring crosses between the seats and up toward the doghouse. That will be the trick so the walking areas up front will be flatish.

 

[Jimo]

We have used the same stuff on the ship I work on. One of the problems we have run into, which should work out good for the install in a van. Just setting the flooring out in the sun really softens it up. So much so that a section we set over the "Boston Whaler" skiff took on the shape of the bow and running lights. I would assume that a heat gun and the sun will get the flooring to form to the font wheel wells. All that should be needed is a little heat and some patience.

 

[Flux]

We have used the same stuff on the ship I work on. One of the problems we have run into, which should work out good for the install in a van. Just setting the flooring out in the sun really softens it up. So much so that a section we set over the "Boston Whaler" skiff took on the shape of the bow and running lights. I would assume that a heat gun and the sun will get the flooring to form to the font wheel wells. All that should be needed is a little heat and some patience.

Thanks for that!!

Where I have 1/2" ply that runs to the rear and side door sills, I am gonna chamfer the edge and try and get the flooring to conform. This is good info. I tend to get impatient and make mistakes. This flooring cost a grip, gotta do it as best I can. Also gonna try to bathtub it into the walls so spills don't have anywhere to go really.

One thing I am nervous about is the sticky back ensolite on the floor. Should water come up from the bottom though some hole, the ensolite will tend to keep it in there. Guess time will tell, but I will have to keep a sharp eye on the bottom of the floor and where any bolts go through.

definitely pumped to have a floor though!! Even if it doesn't come out perfect.

 

[boywonder]

....based on Primitive's experience, it sounds like a heat gun is your friend.......

You may want to practice on a scrap piece first......and maybe a hair dryer is enough.....

 

[Bbasso]

I did one piece of carpet in my current van, it isn't nearly as stiff as the stuff you have but to be honest it took a lot of effort to make it fit nicely in the front...luckily I had enough carpet to make a demo piece (for the front area) first which also led to other ideas for a better install.
Trial and error...

 

[Flux]

Good advice here. The hiardryer should work fine, I would probably melts something with a full on hat gun.

I may go buy a cheap vinyl remnant at a flooring store and practice on the cab area. That is a very good idea!! Thanks.

I have some sample pieces too. I can use those to see how the material bends and forms with some heat.

I have about 2 hours left until the rear deck is finished and ready for flooring. Marathon van day yesterday. I need about 40 of those.

 

[Flux]

Got my plywood and aluminum mounting plates in today. These run up to the wire crossover. A couple of strange things:

The doghouse is not centered, or at least where the peak at the bottom sticks out. Took me a minute. The cupholder is centered.

The floor in there is "sculptural". It humps up over the tranmission and then angles back down toward either side.


So my plan is to make a wedge that will taper down from where my plywood s proud toward the doghouse and chamfer toward the seats. Hopefully with some heat and massaging, the vinyl will somewhat form into that area. I fully expect a less than perfect job here, but it should be better than that black mat.

 

[Otter-SMB]

Grab your phone and post some pics... we don't want to miss a single moment of this. Cause, you know, I'd rather watch you making and fixing your mistakes here than for me to reinvent the wheel when my time comes.

:i6:

.

 

[Flux]

Sure will Otter!

Picked up a Hitachi heat gun, cheap and goes 120 to 1200 degrees. The piece I got is 90 wide by 20ft long, so I have a bunch of scrap to try the different areas where I kind of need to "form" the flooring.

Working on some 3d Printed transitions that will come off the plywood deck into the cab. That is the first trick. Second trick is gonna be the foot wells. I fully expect some areas with voids underneath, but those should be in and around the front seats where there is not foot traffic.

Backup plan is to cut up the molded humps from my black mat and lay the flooring on top and to the side of them in the footwells. That wouldn't be too bad really. All depends on how well I can stretch and from the flooring. Maybe use some kydex on the footwells?

But really, I have little clue what I am doing other than having some educated guesses.

 

[Flux]

Purchased a cheapie Hitachi heat gun and did a quickie test last night. Basically I bent a Loncoin sample 90 degrees over my workbench edge. With no heat it certainly would not form and basically radius-ed itself. I put the gun on 800 degrees and heated the bend slowly and uniformly. It softened quite a bit and the material became stretchy. I held it in place and got a much sharper bend and let it cool. The material kept some of this bend when it cooled.

So I do feel that this material can be formed with heat and keeping pressure on it while it cools. I think it's gonna be a slow process of heating and working it into shape and using some heavy weight to hold it in place. I don't think I will be able to stretch it enough to form over the footwell bumps, but I sure will try! Might be a secondary piece that get's glued in there for the side walls. I am cool with that for the sake of a consistent floor throughout the van.

Another thought as stated before is to get the material warm before laying it and keep it warm. The temps just dropped here so I am thinking of heating the van and keeping it pretty warm in there before going after it.

 

[bemerritt]

You are a better man than I! I decided to do mine in two parts. The front cab and the back area. The back will be attached to the plywood floor with some vinyl flooring adhesive. In the front I plan on putting a layer of dynamat down and then basically make a big floating mat out of the rubber flooring. Should be able to get full coverage, except for the sides of the footwells as you mentioned.

 

[Flux]

You are a better man than I! I decided to do mine in two parts. The front cab and the back area. The back will be attached to the plywood floor with some vinyl flooring adhesive. In the front I plan on putting a layer of dynamat down and then basically make a big floating mat out of the rubber flooring. Should be able to get full coverage, except for the sides of the footwells as you mentioned.

I appreciate it but I haven't truly attempted it yet!

Floating it in the cab should work out considering all the hold down points like the sills, seats, and doghouse. You might consider a layer of closed cell foam over the dynamat. I have a generic dynamat and two layers of 1/8" ensolite. It made a huge difference in sound transmission and the floor has a bit of squish and I get some insulation too.

 

[Surfvan]

I appreciate it but I haven't truly attempted it yet!

Floating it in the cab should work out considering all the hold down points like the sills, seats, and doghouse. You might consider a layer of closed cell foam over the dynamat. I have a generic dynamat and two layers of 1/8" ensolite. It made a huge difference in sound transmission and the floor has a bit of squish and I get some insulation too.

I see this is a pretty old post. Did you end up running your flooring all the way through? If so, how did the process go? How is the flooring holding up? Anything you would change? Thanks!

 

[Stewgod]

I'm about to start this project... Home Depot has a 7.5x17 for $199

 

[Surfvan]

I'm about to start this project... Home Depot has a 7.5x17 for $199

Are you insulating? If so with what? Are you going to
Run this flooring all the way through the front cab?