He doesn't have bare metal. The entire floor board is covered in vinyl.

Ah, I thought your suggestion of removing the carpet was in lieu of putting the vinyl down. My mistake.

At the very least, the carpet underneath the vinyl will give a little bit of extra softness, for what it'* worth.

I think next year I'm going to pull all my carpet and then clean up the metal and then brush on some bed liner to seal it real good.

When I pulled my carpets, I used a scrub brush with carpet cleaner, power washed it, and left it in the sun to dry. Looks and smells like new. I also bought some special paint from a local auto body supply place that you can paint over rust, and it will stop any further corrosion. I painted all the seams and joints, and any area where it looked like there might be rust.

It really isn't a big job, and gives you a chance to check out all the wiring when everything is out of the car.