I recently started looking for sheepskin floor mats for my car and found a company that makes a custom set for $500. That seemed prohibitively expensive and decided to experiment with my own.

I bought a pair of sheepskin pelts in black and also a set of universal cut-to-fit floor mats. I traced my stock floor mats onto the universal ones and cut them out. Then I used 3M interior trim spray adhesive to glue the pelts to the universal mat. Then I cut the pelt to the mat’s shape. Don’t try to cut the pelt to match the floor mat and then glue—it’s too difficult to line up and you get ONE CHANCE with contact adhesive

I’m pleased with the look and they feel absolutely delightful. And while I haven’t lived with them long I expect them to remain cleaner looking longer due to their depth and they are extremely easy to clean—remove and pound them.

enjoy!

 

Very well done! I’m one of the “paid full retail”
for my set guys - and they don’t fit as well as yours!

You might think about adding an inset “heal pad”. Mine has a quilted soft leather (thickly padded) heal pad (same color leather as the sheepskin) and I believe that has added to the longevity of the drivers floor mat.

 

That is an excellent idea.

I recently saved a set of original floor mats for a 1998 Contour SVT by adding a small universal heel pad over a wear spot in the original mat. I stapled the heel pad through the original mat (and bent the tangs down on the other side).

But that car is cheap and so I'll have to come up with a cleaner option for the XJ.

 

Niice job, where did you find the metal grommets, and do you have more info on them?

 

Where did you source the sheep’s pelt and if you don’t mind give us a cost breakdown for this DIY... looks great!

 

Those grommets are from Amazon. I can't recall the size but maybe 1/2" ?

 

https://www.fursource.com/black-fur-rugs-c-283.html

This is where I got the sheepskin pelt. It requires 1 pelt per mat, so that's $240 (+shipping and tax) for four mats. Then the universal floor mats were $30 and trim glue $20. So roughly $310? (I won't add in the first two short hair pelts I first bought off eBay that didn't look right due to the depth of hair and thus a wasted $120!! )

I should add the caveat that the sheepskin pelt that I purchased is not *quite* big enough to cover the factory floor mat area and I was required to add in a piece on the front mats. This isn't an ideal scenario because it could theoretically move/dislodge but I strategically placed the "patches" on the inside back corners, next to the transmission tunnel, where your feet don't drag across or fall (versus the outside edge of the mat).

But the patch I added is indistinguishable on the mat because the hair is so long. Even if I told you where it was you couldn't see it.

 

It’s been a while now… How’s the mats holding up? Did you add the heel pad? Nice mod… 😎👌🏾