Replaced moldy padding caused by a windshield leak and saved $5000

Quick recap: I had the dreaded passenger side floor cabin water leak. It ended up being a faulty windshield replacement that was done by an out-of-state dealership right before I bought the truck. Didn't notice the leak until I could SMELL the mildew..
Went through insurance and they were willing to cover both the windshield and the moldy carpet. I got quotes for both: windshield - $1000, Carpet - $5000. I only paid windshield out of pocket and waited for the reimbursement. They ended up reimbursing the full $6K so I figured I'd give it a shot myself. My buddy and I started working on the truck around 10am, got drunk and had a cookout with 5-6 other friends. Took about 4 hours total with 2 cases of beer and constant fighting over the music selection. Probably is a 2 hour job for two sober and normal people.


2020 SR5 AC:


Access cab doors made this so much easier


First thing we did was take the rear seats and panel off. All either 14mm or 10mm bolts and the back panel had like 8 of those red car clips (ended up breaking two of them :/). My buddy here "helped" with all the work.


Fronts seats were super easy, (4) 14mm bolts and minding the cable connections


Center console was essentially two parts clipped together and held down by a couple bolts


With the carpet out, we have underneath padding. This is what a normal padding looks like (driver side):


And this is what a moldy pad with at least 3-4 months of water damage looks like:


Super gross, if you zoom in you can see the little black mold spores


It also seemed to cross over the metal bump in the frame and rot around this body plug


Nasty little mold nugget:



We cut the whole right half of the padding out, note that the padding is form-molded to better fit the contours of the truck body.

 

Underneath the padding it looked dirty and almost like something was spilled.. but I was wondering if it was ALL MOLD so I grabbed some hydrogen peroxide to see if anything bubbled up (indicating reaction with catalases in mold or other living things) and sure enough:


+ 3% hydrogen peroxide:


The sun wasn't cooperating so I let this soak for 15-20 minutes, came in with paper towels and then also bleach it for 10-15 minutes. Then wiped it all dry.

Meanwhile my buddy decided make some salmon/avacado toast and proceed to drop it on my carpet...


4-5 beers before noon has some consequences


Also took this opportunity to install some sound deadening to the back and passenger side (THIS DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DAMPEN ROAD/TIRE NOISE. Oh well). This is 80mil Kilmat with 300mil insulation on top.



Finally I got some jute carpet padding from Homedepot, a whole roll (forgot how much) that would easily cover an entire double cab was $40ish:


Cut to size etc:



And that's it! Put everything back together. The only two things that weren't done/fixed properly are:
the few red clips from the back panel that we broke off, there were enough intact that it's fine
the jute I decided to use is thick so the plastic bolt covers that normally fit behind the seat, don't fit. Purely cosmetic and I don't care.

All in all spent maybe $100 in supplies/tools that I didn't have (sound deadening was a waste lol).. and had a fun cookout as an excuse. I've been driving around for the last week and the smell and dampness is gone.

 

Hell yeah , now were are you putting the rest of the money saved??

 

What I want is a new camera and some camping gear... but realistically probably rent :/

 

Most of the noise in the back comes from those 2 vents on the back wall. People have tried various things to dampen the noise without completely blocking them.

 

<two months from now>

" My truck smells like salmon and avocado...thoughts?"

 

Great write up & pictures along with a laugh too.
Nice job & thanks for sharing.

 

Way to go!

 

Mazel Tov brother! Well done.

 

Very nice. Just as a heads up to anyone who may tackle this job in the future. For my under carpet padding I used yoga mats. Picked them up at Ross for like 12 to 13 bucks each. Took 3 mats to do the front and back seats. I bought the thickets mats they had.

 

That's a great idea with the yoga mats.