Can anyone tell me how easy it is to remove the carpet from a 2000 Lariat? I am installing a sound system next weekend and want to do a clean job with no wires showing so will be stripping the interior.

Is the carpet fairly easy to remove once the seats are out? or is it a complete pig of a job.

 

personally never done it on my truck...but in al my other cars...you usually have to take off parts of the dash...probably the side panels beside your feet too...but it is all just unscrew remove stuff...usually no problems...be wary of plastic peices that click into other parts...they can break if you are a bute like me...lol

 

You don't need to remove the carpet, unless your putting down dynamat or something like that. There's a geat channel down both sides of the cab to run your wiring. Just pull off the door sill plates and you'll have plenty of room. If you really want to take out the carpet you will need a big torx bit (don't remember what size) to take off the seat bolts.

 

Triton 2002 is correct in that you don't need the carpet out to run wires. I believe there are actually two size torx needed -large and larger. One for the seat bolts and another for the seat belts. Not sure which was which but I do know I needed both to remove all the seats and seat belts when I removed the entire interior (except the dash and headliner) to lay down some Fatmat(dynamat type product.)

The carpet is molded to the contours of the cab and pops right out once the door sills, seats and seat belts are out. You may even get by with just loosening the seat belt bolts.

What a difference that made. I would totally recommend some type of sound deadening material if you do pull the interior out. It allowed me to run the stereo one notch lower on the volume control to get the same sound level and greatly reduced road noise as well as keeps the truck warmer in winter and cooler in summer

Even if you don't do the entire interior I would still add the sound deadening stuff around the speaker mounts. It reduces unwanted vibrations. Check Dynamats or Fatmats web site for more info.

A couple of other notes:

I had exceptional results utilizing a combination of Fatmat and the spray-on undercoating on my little toyota RV. If you use the spray on make sure you get the paintable kind. The non-paintable is designed not to dry out(it remains oily/ greasy). Also get yourself one of those fork shaped(or make one) trim removers. It greatly reduces damage to the clips.

If you do the entire interior PM me and I'll give you a couple of time saving tips- Would take a paragraph or two to explain and I've already been pretty wordy here. Also I'll run down and see what size the torx are if you go that route.

Tim

 

Hey thanks for the replies, not sure yet if I will pull the carpet out. I did pick up some of the Dynamat door kits to go with the front speakers.

I think the decision to remove the carpet or not will be based on where I decide to mount my amplifier. I really want to try and get it in the center console, but at the moment don't know yet if A) it will fit in there, or B) how much of an *** it will be to access cables/controls, and C) not sure yet how much hassle will be involved fitting it in there. I might remove the console and try to mock fit the amp in there with it out of the cab and see how easy I could get everything hooked up. Will then decide on if I want to keep it in there (and remove carpet to run cables to console) or mount the amp somewhere else.

Any suggestions on a good place to mount the amp would be appreciated, I know there is under the seat, but then how do I attach the amp to prevent it sliding around (heavy duty velcro?) and also need to figure out where to put the ground.

Tim, thanks for the tips. Feel free to PM me if you have any info on sound proofing/amp mounting that you think might be useful.

 

Carpet is VERY easy to remove or pull back. Torx tool you will need is t-45 and maybe t-50. You may have these or you can buy at any tool or parts store. Just remove seats and seat belts and sill plates/side kick panels to access carpet. As stated above you have a nice deep channel under the sill plates to run wires but you may want to access carpet to get wires to the positions that you desire. Not that hard just be careful pulling sill plate up because clips like to break off. Use panel popping tool not screw driver to pry up at clip positions to remove panels. Good luck!

 

Put amp on floor under seat and screw down to floorboard with metal screws. this is only good way to do it! Ground amp to main battery ground only! Any other location will void your warranty on amp and cause problems later-guarenteed. This may sound like a lot of work but once you start you will see that it is not all that bad. You will not want to put amp in console because of heat concerns with amp-needs ventillation plus it will take up all of your space.

 

Naiku,

I thought I'd post the info rather than PMing as others may benefit.

IMPORTANT: If you put any material under the seat mounts make sure you go back and retighten the seat (and seat belt) bolts after a short time(like overnight) as the material will compress and you'll be able tighten a little bit more.

I can't decide which was more beneficial:

The mechanics gloves or the blue painters tape:

The mechanics gloves because some of the sheet metal behind the panels is so sharp you won't know you cut yourself until you see blood getting all over. Took 4-5 cuts before I figured that one out.

As for the tape it saved the most time and effort. If you're covering the metal with any type of product (fatmat, dynamat or spray) you'll need to address the holes you come across. Screw holes for the speakers, clip holes for the wiring harness, etc. The product you put on is designed to be permanent and while you can cut, scrape, pull pieces off it tends to be a pain and time consuming.

Before installing the sound deadening product simply cover every hole with tape. Don't be afraid of over doing it- I covered every open space I could find.

As you're laying the material down over the tape press the material harder over the holes- until you see the depression of the hole. After your done with the install simply cut around the depression with a razor knife and lift the cut piece out. Comes off super easy and clean. I would recommend cutting only the holes you need as you're going along. This way it's easier to remember which ones need to be cut and which ones don't. You can always cut ones you missed later.

If you do the inside of the outer door panel make sure you leave the drain holes at the bottom open.

Took me about three weeks to complete as I only worked on it a little here and there. So I drove around with a lot of the interior panels off as well as the rear seats. In doing so I was able to "hear" areas that could benefit from double and triple layers. That back wall, under the rear window is a major culprit. Tapping on the metal will also tell you which areas resonate more.

One other thing- don't start the truck without the electrical connectors under the seat plugged in as you'll end up driving around with your airbag light flashing for about a month. Pulling the battery cables (even overnight) didn't reset the flashing light once I plugged the passenger seat back in. Just about the time I was going to break down and take it in the light stopped flashing. Although I had a little fun with a friend who was riding with me- He asked what the flashing light was for and I explained it was for the airbag sitting in the passenger seat. I was smart enough not to try that line on the wife-she's got a mean backhand.

Hope this helps.
Tim

 

If you end up doing more than just the speaker mounts get the bulk package directly from the mfg. Generally much cheaper than Circuit City and other distributors.

 

Make sure you check where you are drilling before you make an expensive mistake. As for grounding the amp back to the battery, I have heard of this before, but don't think it applies to most modern amps. The ground cable should be as short as possible and ground directly to the cab sheetmetal (scrape paint off and use a little grease).