AirForcePonycar

Ok, so long story short, there were severe flash floods in my area earlier in the week and the interior passenger side carpeting of my car got saturated. -_- So I dried the carpet and the mats with towels, used a wet vacuum on them, allowed everything to air dry and shampooed the carpet and mats. Now, the mats are fine, and the carpet is dry, but every time I press down on the carpet I can hear water sloshing around, but none is coming up through the carpet. Is this something that I can let go away in time, or do I have to pull up the carpet and get the water out? I'm trying to avoid rusting and any mildew smells. Thanks!

Planeswalker

Make sure you pop the cover off under the hood and clean the drain out. It's clogged and what happened to you is very common. It's located near/under the cabin air filter.

Don't have advice as to how to keep your carpet and floor from being damaged. I would try using a hair dryer or fan on it. Or even pulling the carpet up in that area.

houtex

Pull the carpet out. Let it dry out. Use a decent carpet cleaner and a carpet brush, and hope.

REPLACE the underlayment. Period. Even if you 'salvage' it, it is destroyed with water, and will mold. You will never get all the water out, and it's cheap enough to just get something at the Cloth World or something than reuse it.

DynamicmustangGT

I agree, pull the carpeting out all together and go new. The situation stinks but to get it right thats what you will need to do. Also make sure that the door drain holes are not plugged. Dealerships tend to forget the plastic plugs but debris can get in there as well.

AirForcePonycar

Thanks alot, good thinking on the drains, ill hit that once it stops raining here. So replacing the padding underneath is what I was dreading but I'm not at all familiar with this sort of thing. Do I need to remove the passenger seat to do all that, or will that just make it easier?

houtex

You will, in effect, gut the interior to take the carpet out. Console, rear seat bottom, sills, kick panels and both front seats. You can probably finagle the carpet under the rear quarter trims in and out pretty easy, I'd guess. It's really not that hard a thing to do, honestly, but it just takes time, and the front seats are kinda heavy... Heh.

And in looking at things, the jute (that's what that underlayment is) is bonded to the carpet. So it's not separate.

for $200, I might just go ahead and replace it:
http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...ss-Back-Carpet

as an example. Plenty of others sellin' this stuff. This happens to have a bit more sound deading, but you can find it without for $150 or such.

I think you've got enough info... Your call, and we'll respect your decision.

AirForcePonycar

Yeah, definitely enough info, thanks bro. I'm probably gonna see how it fares, and if it's looking bad I'll have to find a weekend and take care of business.

houtex

You know, readin' that last... that sounded smarmy, and I'm sorry. I MEANT to say:

"I think we've flooded your brain with lots of stuff... so it's your call"... and the rest.

Even that sounds like a know-it-all statement, and so... I only hope that I've groveled enough to ensure you know I didn't mean to be all snooty.

/worry about things like that.
//too much. yeah, sure, ok...

AirForcePonycar

Hahaha. Yeah, I didn't want to say anything. It's cool bro, I gotcha.