| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevy Silverado
From the outset of the Blue Bomber project, our goal has been to create a precision-handling truck that we could run at the track on the weekends, while still enjoying comfortable driving during the week. As we have moved closer to that goal, the time has come to finally address the creature comforts that the truck is lacking. We will admit that we are rather spoiled and the rubber floor mat and lack of sound dampening in a brand-new truck did nothing to make us want to sit in the driver seat for any length of time. Thankfully, the rubber was easy to clean during track days, but we wanted an upgrade to our driving experience and relief from the noise pollution.
To combat those shortcomings inherent to the Silverado's work truck trim level, we enlisted the help of LMC Truck to get us into the realm of a more modern interior. With its precisely molded carpet kits, LMC has made it easy to upgrade from a rubber floor to a more luxurious carpet, or just replace what you already have, should your carpet be suffering from dirt and stains. For project Blue Bomber, we chose cut pile carpeting in black for a clean and easy-to-maintain appearance. Depending on your make and model, LMC offers many different styles and colors to suit your personal style.
Handling the installation of LMC's carpet kit was Audio Innovations in Glendora, California. Having been in business for nearly 15 years, Joe Provenzano and the team at Audio Innovations have helped us through plenty of installation nightmares with professionalism that only years of experience can bring. Don't think that the carpet was all we saddled them with. Keep an eye out for more interior additions from Audio Innovations in the next issue of Truckin.
1. With the seats removed, you can see that Blue Bomber wasn't making any friends with its oversized plastic floor mat. Designed to be durable and easy to clean for work trucks, we weren't sad to see it go.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado empty Interior
2. Pulling the rubber mat revealed the factory jute padding underneath. Being a new truck, everything was completely sanitary and spotless. We didn't even find loose change. Your results may vary wildly with the age of your truck.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado factory Jute Padding
3. LMC creates the carpets oversized and as such, requires trimming for final fit. The stock floor covering was placed over the LMC premolded carpet to allow us to mark around the edges for cutting.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado lmc Carpet
4. Holes in the mat were used as templates to locate where the LMC carpet needed to be removed for certain floor-mounted accessories. We only marked the carpet, cutting came later.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado marking Carpet
5. As you can see, it was quite a jigsaw puzzle once all the marking was completed.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado marked Carpet
6. While the seats and carpet were out, we wanted to add heavier sound reduction to the Silverado's floor and back wall. These tiles of self-adhesive sound deadener from StP were a piece of cake to install.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado stp Sound Deadener Pads
7. Our chosen install kit was a pair of work gloves, a roller, and a utility knife.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado carpet Install Kit
8. Using the roller tool, the extremely flexible StP Silver panels were worked into all the sheetmetal's undulations. The more area with the StP attached to it, the better.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado rolling On Stp Silver
9. Under the front of the OE jute padding, we found that GM did add strips of some sticky substance to damp a bit of the floor's transmission of sound resonance.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado removing Jute Padding
10. We filled right over it with the StP Silver for even greater sound removal from the cab and our driving enjoyment.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado stp Silver
11. Satisfied the ambient road noise was muffled, we set the LMC carpet into the standard cab.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado placing Carpet
12. Using our traced areas for reference, everything was checked and rechecked before committing to cutting access openings through the new carpet.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado cutting Traced Areas
13. One of the features that we were happy to see was this heel pad. With no floor mats in Blue Bomber, this heel pad will prevent the carpet from being damaged as the miles roll up the odometer and our constantly moving feet shuffle from the throttle to the brake.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado heel Pad
14. LMC's carpet made a huge difference to the appearance of our work truck model Silverado. With the full covering of carpet backed by the StP panels, we sure to find our driving pleasure enhanced while motoring down the road.
| project Blue Bomber Part 5 2011 Chevrolet Silverado finished Carpet
