DIY - Drivers Mat Heel pad for only $15

[nzer]

Drivers heel pad - simple solution to make a heel pad for the drivers stock mat that looks fantastic as below for about $15 in total.



One of our 86 club members here in New Zealand, Peter Sullivan (user Tech on the forum now) came up with this brilliant solution and has given me permission to share his DIY writeup with you all.

From Peter:

I purchased a rubber door mat from "The Warehouse" (this is our cheap general purpose big box store like walmart in the USA) for $9.99 and this was sufficient to make 6 heel pads for the 86 drivers mat. It has raised ridges one side and is PERFECTLY SMOOTH on the other - This is important. The backing needs to be smooth without any dimples or non-slip bits. TIP - have a look at the household rubber mats section of the store rather than rubber car mats as most of the rubber car mats will have dimples etc - the household mats won't.

From this I cut a piece measuring 250mm by 150mm using sharp knife. To cut the corners I used an NZ 10 cent piece - the same as an Australian 10 cent piece and similar to a dime in the USA. Use a bigger coin if you want rounder corners and of course feel free to cut into any shape - I just did a simple rectangle.

All the marking and cutting was performed on the smooth side of the rubber.



Velcro is extremely good at attaching itself to carpet fibres as shown in this photo. There is only about 60mm of the "hook" side of the Velcro in contact with the carpet, and yet it is strong enough to suspend the whole carpet in the air.






The Velcro hook is 50mm wide with a self adhesive backing.



Thoroughly clean the smooth side of the rubber with Mentholated sprits to remove any dirt or grease.


Peel off the backing and attach the Velcro. Press firmly on the Velcro for at least 25 seconds. This will give the best adhesion, being a contact glue.


Job done, and it can be moved or removed at any time, but it won't slip underfoot. Thanks Peter!!!



You can get carried away as much as you like and even add a much bigger drivers pad and pads for passengers in the front and rear seats.






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[whaap]

That is just great. Thank you and thank your friend. I will probably do this tomorrow.

[mashal]

Very nice , alot of people will be doing this I'm air

[nzer]

Originally Posted by whaap

That is just great. Thank you and thank your friend. I will probably do this tomorrow.

I'm sure he'll appreciate the thanks - might even encourage him to join the forum as he's a handy chap to know!

[Gixxersixxerman]

I just happen to have rolls and rolls of that same Velcro at home ... Great idea as I've notice quite a bit of wear in three months

[bpracer]

I had just seen the related post in your regional forum and was going to suggest a DIY entry.

My mats looked bad after a a couple weeks of driving. I may try this.

[nzer]

Originally Posted by bpracer

I had just seen the related post in your regional forum and was going to suggest a DIY entry.

My mats looked bad after a a couple weeks of driving. I may try this.

Yep, thought it was a pretty cool solution so I hope the mods don't mind but have posted in the Oz/NZ mat thread as well as the Africa mats thread and put it in the DIY section.



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[Mikesta]

Great thinking esp with the velcro! Cheers.

[wootwoot]

great idea!

[Tech]

Hi. I am Peter and also the author of the worn mat solution, posted by "nzer".
Just joined this forum today and hope to get more actively involved as time goes on.

Happy new year to you all!

[tbwoodlee]

This looks very nice, Good job. I think I might try this as well. My mat looks pretty rough after only 4 months of driving.

[FRSFirestorm]

I did this a couple days ago. A $5 generic rubber rear mat from Walmart and some trimming. Working well.

[nzer]

I decided that the velcro and rubber solution devise by @Tech was so good that I made a much bigger pad to cover most of the drivers mat but it still looks awesome in the car and a pad to cover where the passenger generally has their feet. They don't move at all when installed with the velcro.






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[whaap]

So far I've run into a wall here in Az. Admittedly I've only tried Walmart so far but I checked out all their cheap-o mats and they all have nubbing on the back side to help prevent sliding around. I'll have to consider looking for something else or at least somewhere else.