I am looking for a place i can buy a rubber floor for a 1958 Ranger Sedan. I know the early productions were supposed to come with a black rubber floor instead of carpet. I have found on several websites that sell the front rubber floor for a 58 Fairlane, which i believe would work, but i can't find anyone that sells the mat for the back. Does anyone know where i can find this, or am I out of luck. I want to bring mine back to as close as original as possible, so I am hoping to find one of these.
Thanks


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Make sure you don't look directly at my car when I am driving towards you, the chrome will blind you.

My friends think I am crazy for driving a car that is 31 years older than I am.

The replacement rubber floor mats you will find for Ford will fit, but their patterns are all wrong for Edsel (wrong grain, no "E" in the driver's heel "pad", etc.). The originals emulate carpets in that most of the area has an imitation carpet grain molded in, but the driver's side has a rectangular area with forward/aft grooves and a large "E" molded in. The rectangular area is extended upwards under the parking brake pedal as well.

Rangers sold after January 1, 1958 got real carpets from the factory, as did Pacers, except convertible. No wagons got carpet from the factory. If you want a good rubber floor mat of the correct style, about the only place you're likely to find one is in a wrecking yard. Remove the front seat frame before trying to take it out. I moved mine on a particle board or plywood support structure built roughly to match the contours of the floorpan. Otherwise, the mat will tear apart on you while getting it home and into the recipient car. I have also seen the whole thing wrapped up firmly with packaging tape to keep it all together. The old rubber is not all that coherent.

I have one NORS front mat in the color brown for Pacer or Bermuda (those were color-keyed to the interior. It was sold by the Maldaver Company in Detroit, Michigan. It has the "E" in the heel pad, but the FoMoCo emblem on the hump, aft edge, is obliterated, and so is the part number/color table that was molding into the mat under the passenger side seat.

I've visited Maldaver Company (they're still there), and they said the mats were probably produced by the Baldwin Rubber Products Company in Ohio. It's been long since bought out, and I'm almost sure the molds were destroyed long ago, but one never knows. Maldaver's business is to buy after-market replacements from the source manufacturers and package them for retail sales. I got a brief tour of their warehouse, but no I didn't see any forgotten boxes of Edsel mats on the shelves!

Consider putting carpets in, as were available from FoMoCo after production on the 1958 Ford started at extra cost, but free after January 1, 1958. The heel pads on those carpets are plain grooved with no "E".

Thanks, I will probably go with carpets then if the rubber mats would be so difficult to find. I appreciate the help.


_________________
Make sure you don't look directly at my car when I am driving towards you, the chrome will blind you.

My friends think I am crazy for driving a car that is 31 years older than I am.