Ok, so here in Canada, winter can kinda get annoying, really, really, annoying. I got tired of having to clean my interior after winter of all the salt stains, sand, gravel, and what nots that transferred from outside to inside. So I got me some vinyl. Yeah, that stuff used in taxis and police cars. It ain't gonna look pretty after but at least my carpets will be dry this year, and that a good thing once you see what i got into.

Here'* the vinyl, a roll for $25, does the whole interior and a trunk:


Now first step is to remove the seats and bottom edge trim. Since I was getting into the nitty gritty, I decided to check out the Ground Bus and make sure they're good to go.

Driver side OK!


Passenger side OK! Made sure to cover them with di-electric grease and wrapped them up.


But after checking out the driver side, I found that the corner was rusted out and can see thru to the ground.


Here you can see how the (insulation?) is wet. Pulled it up and dried it out while fixing the hole.


I don't have any pics of the repair work, since it looks like crap and I'm not the best at body work. But I did manage to clean up the rust, seal the hole and did a little preventive maintenance to keep it from happening again.

Also the rear insulation was wet and started to soak thru the paint. Pull that out and dried it, sanded and repainted floor. No more bubbles!




Next, put back everything and clean the carpets. Nothing looks better than clean carpets. And having the seats out makes it hella easy.


That turtle wax oxy clean stuff works great. Just scrub it and vacuum, and it looks like new!


A dash pic for those who care:


Now to layout the vinyl. Decided to do two separate pieces for the front and one for the back. makes it easier to stretch and put down flat against the carpet.


That it for now, I'll have pics of the complete job later. Also, if you noticed, there were rust stains on the carpet from the feet of the seats, got out the grinder and rust paint to fix that. Add some extra grease to the power seat stuff that looked like it could use it.

Lots of work, but it'* looking good.

I pulled my seats and carpet this summer to take care of some water leaks, and took opportunity to clean up and paint some rusted areas. It is not a big job to pull the seats and console, so I plan to do this every year as a regular maintenance item. I will be more than willing to invest a day every year to avoid some of the electrical issues we hear about on our cars.

Keep it up i may have yo do mine! nice work

Ok, after a few cuts and band-aids, I got it all in. Just remember safety first when using razor blades...
All I need now is a good set of winter mats, undercoating is done and winter tires are on. I must say the older bonnevilles look mean with black steelies on.

Back seat:





Of course you gotta have a emergency kit in the trunk, cause you just never know what will happen. Box has 1L of every fluid (1 jug of premixed coolant), extra bulbs, de-icer, thermal blanket, flashlight, bungie cords, wiper blades (yes, I actually had one fly off on me while driving).


Winter ain't got nothing on me. I hope.

lol, u might want a shovel in ur trunk too.... trust me

Why not use the darker side of the vinyl? That seemed like a near-match for your interior'* color.

Also, I'd recommend a couple pairs of gloves in your emergency kit. I also managed to come across a first aid kit and one of those stand-up reflective triangles thanks to some cheesy college raffle. Still, thanks for the reminder — I need to clean out my trunk and get my winter emergency kit together!

And my trunk is lacking a large, bass-producing speaker, but I'm working on getting one of those.

Why not leave the carpet out of the car for the winter.

Actually, I had two different colors of vinyl. The darker one i used in the trunk b/c thats all that was left of it. The lighter color vinyl was enough to finish the whole interior. Although I never really though about leaving the carpet out, that would have saved me some time....

Oh, and that bass producing speaker is only there to shake the snow off

And here I've been brushing snow off my car… I should have thought of that years ago.

I'd suggest leaving the carpet in. You don't want people'* wet feet on bare metal, especially if the roads in your area have some salt mixed in with the sand. That'* just begging for rust. I'd take carpet cleaner over some magical rust remover any day of the week.