Project Overview:

I knew I would be getting this Jeep plenty dirty, and I wanted the additional durability and ease of cleaning that a vinyl floor provides. Anyone who works on a farm or at a construction site knows the benefits of a vinyl floor. The drawback, however, is that the jute mat under the vinyl floor absorbs moisture. Since the vinyl can't "breathe" like carpet, that moisture can get trapped and make the floor pan rust. For that reason, I chose to use some close-cell foam-rubber mat under my vinyl floor. It doesn't absorb moisture like cloth jute mat does. It would also provide much better insulation from sound and temperature.

Product Selection:

Product selection was easy... There's only one company that makes a molded vinyl floor for '97 and up Cherokees: Auto Carpet System. They don't sell directly to the public, so I had to order the floor through a local upholstery shop. Also, as far as I could find, they don't have a web site either. The only information I found on them was on retailer web sites.

Other Notes:

My "warning light" should have gone off full tilt when the guy at the upholstery shop told me that "it'll work, but nothing matches the fit of the stock flooring." He told me that I'd be able to get it in, but it may not be perfect. My warning light blinked faintly, but I had my mind set on a vinyl floor. Besides, I can live with some imperfection, as long as it's functional. As it turns out, the fit was much less than acceptable.

I spent a long time trying just to fit in the cargo area flooring. No joy. The area with the gas tank filler tube and left-rear wheel well proved to be too irregular for this "molded" vinyl floor. To be honest, I wouldn't really call it molded at all. Even without comparing it to the stock molded carpet, it seemed pretty flat. I could tell where it had, in fact, been molded somewhat. But, it was nowhere near as molded/cut to fit as the stock carpet.

Unfortunately, each floor is made-to-order. So when you buy it, that's it. You own it. No returns. They tell you that up front. (Again, my warning light should have gone into overdrive.) Damn. I didn't even attempt to install the passenger area portion. Maybe I can sell it on eBay...

Installation:

	This is what the cargo area looked like before I started.
	And this is the passenger area.
	I started by removing the center console. To get the center console out, you have to pull the covers off of the transmission and transfer case shift levers. Getting the cover off of the transfer case lever was easy, but the transmission shift lever eluded me. I thought there might be a release mechanism inside the "T" handle, so I pried out the button (as you can see in this photo). As it turns out, the shift lever handle just pulls straight off. When I pulled it out, the spring and button assembly fell out. As you can see later steps, I didn't really know how they were supposed to go back in.
	Once the lever covers were off, I removed the center console. Getting it off of the transmission lever, transfer case lever and parking brake was a circus act. You have to pull the parking brake up as high as it will go and ease the console out. You can see the HVAC duct still in place in this photo.
	Since the transmission shift handle was in pieces, I decided it would be a good idea to put it back together while I still knew where all the parts were. I put the pieces back into the handle the way I thought they were supposed to fit. It didn't press back together easily, but that didn't come as a surprise. Prying the button out was pretty tough. So, being the overly clever fellow I am, I went and grabbed a mallet. (No, not the Chilton's manual. That's for wimps.) Using a deep-well socket and the mallet, I pounded the button back in.
	Oops. There was a reason it didn't go back in easily. After gluing the button back together, I figured out how it was really supposed to fit. Once I figured it out, it went together easily. A little too easily. Now, unfortunately, the button is a bit loose in the handle. Time to hit the junk yard, I guess.
	After replacing the shift handle so I could drive, I removed the rear seat and seat belts. The rear seat is very easy to remove, by design. You'll need a Torx bit to remove the seat belts. I used an impact wrench to loosen the bolts. Once the rear seat was out, I removed the jack, jack handle and the metal clip that holds them in place. I knew I'd be lifting the Jeep in the near future and putting on bigger tires, so I had no intention of replacing the stock jack.
	Next, I removed the spare tire. Again, I knew I'd be putting on bigger tires soon, so I didn't plan on putting it back in. I wasn't concerned about not having a spare. There's always Road-Side Assistance. And for the times when I hit the trail (really hard to get a tow truck when you're stuck out in the boonies) I would just lay the spare tire in the cargo area.
	After ditching the spare, I pulled out all of the trim molding in the cargo area. To get the side pieces off, you have to remove the seat belt mounts from the roof. It takes a Torx bit, and that impact wrench sure makes it easy. You then have to feed the belt throught the hole in the trim piece.
	I knew that I'd have to remove the cargo tie-downs in the cargo area to get the carpet out. The real bummer is that they're riveted in, instead of bolted in. That sucks.
	Next, I removed the front passenger seat. There weren't any electrical connections to the seat, so pulling it out was relatively easy. It's much lighter than the power driver's seat. Removing the passenger seat also let me plan where my stereo control boxes would go.
	With the passenger seat out of the way, I removed the trim molding up front. To get it off, you have to unbolt the seat belt where it attaches to the base of the B pillar. Again, it takes that Torx bit, and an impact wrench helps. Once the trim piece was off, I replaced the seat belt so it wouldn't be swinging around loose inside.
	I then grabbed my drill and a pair of pliers and went to work on the tie-down rivets. Drilling rivet heads sucks. One of them refused to be drilled straight, so it took a lot of prying with the pliers to get it off. It was pretty much destroyed in the process. Once all four tie-downs were out, I crawled underneath the Jeep and pulled out the other ends from the floor pan.
	When the first sunny weekend rolled around, I got busy on the actual vinyl floor installation. The flooring is much easier to "work" when it's warm. So it's best to let it warm up in the sun before trying to install it. It gets much more pliable when it's warm. So, I set out the vinyl floor pieces and then pulled out the cargo area carpet. In this picture, you can see the difference in the level of "molding" between the stock cargo area carpet and the replacement vinyl floor. Again, my clue light was broken. I was determined.
	This is a close-up shot of the close-cell foam-rubber floor mat I used instead of the jute mat. It would help keep water and grit out of the interior and would also help insulate the Jeep after removing the carpet.
	After pulling out the carpet and jute mat, which is glued to the carpet, there was still something left in the cargo area. I think that maybe at some point in its life it may have been adhesive. It sure as hell was stuck to the floor and wheel wells! I wasn't about to mess around with it - I just left it in there.
	Since I wasn't going to be replacing the stock jack and accessories, I wanted to get rid of the brackets that held them in place. That would let me put something else in there - such as a power inverter, some hand tools or other junk - without being obstructed by the brackets.
	Using my angle grinder, I started cutting out the jack brackets. It was a tight fit down in the under-seat "bin" so I had to use my rotary tool as well. I cut both brackets out in no time and pitched 'em.
	I didn't remove the brakets at the weld, I simply cut off the parts that protruded. So, after cutting, I needed to grind/sand the cuts down so they weren't jagged and dangerous, and so that they would be as flush with the floor as possible.
	All the cutting, grinding and sanding left exposed metal in the under-seat bin. I didn't really care how it looked, especially since I knew I'd be covering it with the floor mat and vinyl floor anyway. However, I wanted to protect the metal from rust with some paint.
	Before painting, I vacuumed out all of the metal debris from cutting and sanding. I also vacuumed up the shavings in the cargo area that were left from drilling the tie-down rivet heads.
	Since I already had paint from my color-matched dash and door trim project, I used it to paint the exposed metal. I could have used any old rust-inhibiting spray paint since it was going to be covered by the new floor. However, since the area was going to be hidden, I wanted to take the opportunity to see how well I could "blend" the rattle-can paint with the stock paint.
	I used two light coats of primer, just for the rust protection. I followed it with only three light coats of color-matched silver. Since the area I was painting was so small, I didn't have to wait long at all for the paint to dry. Even without any sanding, clear coat or buffing, the spray-can paint blended extremely well with the stock paint. That gave me a shot of reassurance for future body-work projects I had in mind.
	Before laying in the new vinyl floor, I plugged the holes from the cargo tie-downs and the spare tire support bracket using some plastic plugs. I wanted to keep as much water out of the floor pan as possible to prevent rust. In a vehicle that's never used off road, this isn't really necessary. But since I knew I'd be getting plenty wet in the future, I didn't want to take any chances.
	With the paint dry and all of the holes plugged, I was ready to instal the floor mat in the cargo area. Since the mat wasn't wide enough to cover the wheel wells, it was pretty much a flat installation. I used white chalk to draw openings for the seat belts and rear seat mounting points. I then used tin snips/shears and a utility knife to cut the holes. With the mat in place, I peeled back the front about a foot. I sprayed in some adhesive and pressed the mat back in place. Once the adhesive had set (which was really fast) I rolled the mat forward from the back. I then sprayed adhesive, unrolled and pressed about a foot at a time until the whole mat was in place.
	Once the main portion of mat was installed in the cargo area, I carefully laid out a cut pieces for the wheel wells. Since the wheel wells are very domed, it took some irregular shaped pieces. I wound up using a fit, cut and glue method to fit it in.
	The left side was much more intricate than the right. The gas fill tube makes the whole process a real challenge. It took a lot of small cut-to-fit pieces to get it all in place properly. At this point, my clue light actually began to flicker. I knew the vinyl floor would have to be extremely pliable and well-molded to fit around the gas fill tube and wheel well. So I examined the piece closely to see how well it would fit. As it turns out, the most prominent molding on the cargo area vinyl floor is where it fits around the gas fill tube. I thought it would be enough...
	With a bit of false assurance, I laid the stock carpet over the vinyl. I rough trimmed around the vinyl to get it to the approximate shape of the carpet. I gave myself about 3" around the perimeter to allow for error. I spent 7 hours trying to get that damn vinyl to fit and conform to the gas fill tube and left wheel well. No matter how much I heated, tugged and stretched, the vinyl simply wouldn't lay flat on the floor between the tube and the wheel well. I tried reinstalling the trim piece to see if it would help hold the vinyl in place. But instead, the small "peninsula" on the trim piece that fits between the fill tube and wheel well wouldn't fit flat against the side of the Jeep. It stuck out, pulled out by the stubborn vinyl floor. I was pretty pissed off, and wasn't in much of a "take a picture" mood, which is why I don't have a picture of it.
	After a full day of struggling with that damn vinyl floor, I finally accepted my defeat. I pulled the jute mat off of the bottom of the stock carpet (since the foam-rubber mat installation was successful) and put the carpet back in. So now, I have a carpet with holes in it for the cargo tie-downs. But I can't replace the tie-downs because I plugged the holes and glued floor mat over them. When I get around to it, I'll cut the plugs from the underside of the jeep and push an awl up through the floor to relocate the tie-down mounting holes. Then I'll replace the tie-downs. But for now, this will do. I didn't even attempt the passenger area. I didn't want mismatched carpet and vinyl floor. So now I'm stuck with two really big pieces of totally useless vinyl. Anyone wanna try their luck with a passenger area vinyl floor installation?