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My clutch foot heel wore a hole in my old Lloyd floormats. All the way through to the carpet. I needed a new set to spare my carpets from damage. Perfect timing with the recent thread on authentic Honda extended mats.
But I didn't want these new, expensive mats to suffer the same fate. What good are extended mats that protect the carpet over the bulkheads if your heel has worn through the drivers mat? Too bad these mats don't have some sort of rubber insert or something.
So I decided to find a DIY solution. Had to not increase bulk or height too much, not change appearance too much. I decided on a clear plastic office chair carpet protector. The kind with the spikes on the bottom to keep it from sliding around. I bought one from the local Staples, link below, for only $30:
I laid it on top of my old mat, and cut out a section that would protect the area damaged by my heel, and also the other heel that had started some wear. I have plenty left over to make new ones should this one ever wear out.
I then placed it in the car, and it holds well on the new mat. Doesn't move around, and its not slippery. It has a little bit of a non-slip scuff pattern on the clear plastic. Its meant for a office chair to be wheeled over it daily, so should hold up well. I just have it laying in there, but if it becomes a little floppy I will cut another one, making it closer to the actual size of the mat width wise, so I can secure it with something like those black binder clips.
I am having one issue, that should be easy to fix. Sometimes when I press the clutch, my heel goes past the edge of the plastic, then catches it when I let off the clutch. Making the protector larger, so it it goes past where the firewall starts to curve up, should solve it. Then I would use my heatgun to put a matching permanent fold in the protector so it lays flat with the folded mat. I would suggest doing it this way from the start.
For $30 I have a longterm fix for wearing out my drivers mat long before the passenger or extended mat has any real wear.
Hmmm, I might need to try something like this. Right now I have a small mat covering my floor mat, but doing it this way you can't really see the bottom mat though.
I'm not certain how that would look in the car, but it does look like a durable option.
I looked for something exactly like this and couldn't find anything. Wish I had known about this! Its perfect!
Usually I am really good at googling to find the obscure, but somehow missed this. I would have used this if instead of my home grown solution.
But about my solution, I still haven't found anything to hold it in place, but its really not an issue. If I'm careful with my feet when getting in and out it stays put.
DIY floor mat protectors
