us000011

Here's a jiffy tecnique for repairing a driver mat damaged by high heels (not in my car!) or other such wear under the accelerator. I bought my 2001CL-P black/tan recently, and didn't notice the wear mark. When I pulled out the mat, I found the heel mark was all the way through the rubber. New mats list around $150, although I found a set online for about $100. Seems a shame since all the mats were in good shape except for the hole.

If you have a similar wear mark, here's a good almost permanent repair method:
1. Clean the area around the hole thoroughly using stain removers, oxyclean type stuff to be sure you get a close color match. Let dry completely.
2. Using an exacto or single edge razor, remove all the rubber nibs from the back of the carpet around the hole, leaving about a 2 inch total diameter that's flat.
3. Assuming the hole is about half an inch to an inch, use the razor blade to remove any bare rubber that doesn't have carpet threads on it. The cleaner the cut here, the easier it will be to fit the new piece in.
4. Pop one of your rear bucket seats out (they lift up front edge first), and trim off a small piece of carpet bigger that the mat hole. I used the small rectangle behind one of the latches. This assumes your mats and carpet are the same color.
5. Use an inner tube/ tire repair patch (kit for $1.88 at Advance Auto) on the back side of the mat to completely cover and seal the hole. Follow the kit directions. Let dry completely.
6. Cut your replacement carpet plug to match the hole. This is where some skill is needed, so that if possible, you want the fibers to extend out from the rubber on both the mat and the plug. This gives you a blend opportunity later.
On the bottom of the plug, use the razor blade to chamfer the rubber backing to help the plug fit into the hole. Trim until the fit looks about right around the edges, and the heights match.
7. Coat the bottom of the hole and the back of the plug with clear silicone adhesive- DO NOT use any other type glue, or the repair will fail. Let set for about 10 minutes, then carefully insert the plug into the hole. Be careful not to get a lot of adhesive on the upper carpet fibers.
8. Let dry overnight. Then use a brush and a sewing needle tip to gently fuzz up and blend the fibers together between the plug and the mat.
9. Vacuum and re-clean lightly. Done!
10. Total cost- Patch kit and silicone adhesive- $5.00

Good luck, and I hope this is useful. Should work even better on black carpets.

C-n-L