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Cutting rubber floor mats?

2K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  22GT 
#1 ·
So I purchased the rubber floor mats with the running pony embossed at the top. Since my car is a convertible, they don't fit nicely on the floor board due to the extra space the inner rockers take. Is it customary to trim the edges on these to make them fit? What have you all done, for those that have these mats?
 

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#4 ·
Not to high jack your thread, but I was just looking at floor mats yesterday myself. Why in hell are floor mats so expensive? Being in the product development industry for 26+ years now with a lot of those in injection molding, I was wondering how much money manufacturers could actually have in a set of floor mats. My guess is $5-$10. I think the cheapest set I found was in the $55 range. The carpet you are trying to protect is only 2X the cost of decent set of mats. Just seems ridiculous to me I guess.

Rant Over!

Apologies again for the high jack.
 
#6 ·
How much material cost is in a $2 cup of coffee at Starbucks?
 
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#5 ·
Patrickstapler: Good point. I was thinking the same when I bought these. They are all expensive now, unless you pick up some 'el cheapos' from your favorite auto parts store but they won't fit right or look right in our cars. I looked at that option and I didn't really think it was viable given the amount of time and detail I put into mine - it would have looked like an ugly afterthought.
 
#7 ·
I had to trim my rear mats when I installed my new three point seatbelt. The good news is they trim very easily with a pair of scissors.
 
#9 ·
I have the same issue, and I've always been apprehensive to cut them for my 68 convertible. A gentleman showed me how he had cut them for his 69 convertible and they fit like a glove...
 

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#12 ·
Most factory rubber mats (not just Ford's, but GM as well) are molded universally and intended to be trimmed-to fit for applications that necessitate. GM reproduction mats in particular come out of the box HUGE to fit full-size (b-body), and on the back there are various trim-contours to help fit A-body, F-body, etc... The Pony mats of course were meant to fit Mustangs, but indeed are molded for best-fit in the hardtops, and need trimming for convertible.

Regarding the cost of the mats at retail, do not underestimate the freight-factor in these mats due to WEIGHT. Back in the 80's, I used to drive our E350 into Canada to pick up bulk-purchases of mats from Special Interest Cars (Ray and Karen Nadeau), who had the inside-line to buy them out the back-door of Rubbermaid (Ford's O.E. supplier).

Once I was loaded, holy crap, that 1-ton van was squatting like I had an elephant on the roof. I had to downshift on small hills. :)

Anyhow, just one set of mats is relatively heavy. Imagine the freight bill (which is why I picked mine up myself, because freight $$ was crazy) on 100 sets or 1,000 sets. That gets built-in from Drake's supplier, to Drake. Then, Drake wholesales them to retailers like us, CJ's, MU, Laurel, etc.etc... And once again, the trucking companies make a pretty penny hauling rubber by the ton across the country to us. Then, we've gotta pay by-weight to get the mats to you.

If the manufacturer has $10.00 cost in each mat, which might include any ongoing tooling amortization, they probably want to charge Drake $18-20. By the time Drake pays to get the mats on their floor and pay the heavy-ransom on the freight, they probably want to wholesale them to the retail-distributors for $35.00. By the time we get ours on our floor, and pay our ransom for the freight... There's your $54.95 for a set of mats. :( :)

Rick
NPD
 
#14 ·
Yep. That's why the "frozen concentrated orange juice" industry exists. It's cheaper to build a huge factory, render the OJ to paste, put it in cartons, freeze it, ship it in refrigerated trucks and rail cars, haul it into another huge factory, unpack it, add water, carton it up, and deliver it to stores than it is to just squeeze it and ship it.

And those rubber mats are heavy.

Add to that low volume. For every set of rubber Mustang mats, Wal-Mart probably sells a thousand aftermarket mat sets. That means the tooling and overhead cost get divided a thousand times on the Wal-Mart set. On the Mustang? Not so much. And the green ones are the least popular, made in smaller numbers, costing more per set than other colors, if you can even get them at all, now.
 
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