Posted by Clint Dixon [172.70.131.54] on Sunday, April 03, 2022 at 19:31:41 :
In Reply to: Re: Floor Mats posted by Keith In Washington [172.70.214.131] on Sunday, April 03, 2022 at 18:08:04 :
Here is an image of an original floor mat on the drivers side. The passenger side is a virtual mirror image only with a profile that fits the shape of the removable center hump.
This is one in my early '51 B3PW. Same as those that were in my '47 WDX. Consists of two pieces that stop at the center hump. Each has a border, as shown in the image, at the firewall end, door side, and seat end. No border at the center hump. Also note that it is correct that these are attached with screws to the floor.
Three flat head screws can be seen in the image with large flat washers under the heads. One near the rear outer corner by the door (close to the sharp corner that was broken off some time ago. One close to the corner near the floor hump that the rear of the removable center hump attaches to, and one near the corner at the junction of the floor hump.
The enter hump has only a thick leather pad covering the horizontal surface around the transmission shift lever, the PTO lever, the parking brake lever, and both of the transfer case levers. All the other surfaces of the center hump were painted black and uncovered with any kind of floor mat.
These mats have a Chrysler part number cast in relief in the rubber in a long oval raised pad that is shown in about the center of this image, although I did not have the camera close enough to get it very legible.
Sometime after the very early '51 B3PW model trucks, Dodge switched to a single floor mat that covered the entire floor from door to door. I do not know exactly when this change took place but these mats are very hard to find in good shape. They did not fit the center hump tightly and had to be removed in one large piece whenever taking the center hump and left and right floor pans out to work on transmission, levers, etc. Most appear to have gotten torn to shreds in the process.
The aftermarket ones have nearly the correct pyramidal pattern on the surface, but they do not have the correct border around the three sides, nor do they have the Chrysler part number.
Floor mats were the worst thing Dodge ever installed on the trucks. It is because of the jute backing on the mats tendency to absorb and hold water against the steel floor that caused so much of the rust that you see on the floors of Power-Wagons today.
I kept the original mats in my '51 for about the first 5 or 6 years that I owned it. I finally pulled them out in order to save the floor while there was still some there TO save.
Hope this helps.
Junior
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