Carpet

Hey

Ive got an 88 350 regular cab c1500 and I'm replacing the carpet that was damaged from some water leak. I changed the heater core about 2 months ago to stop the leak and aparently it has stopped, but when I took out the carpet today, it was soaking wet underneath the jute padding. Is this normal, or is there any other place that it can be leaking from. The paint is pretty rusted, and I guess its an indication that the water has been there a while, so I'm guessing all of the leaked water from before just stayed there, but I'm not sure. Now, I'm riding on metal and haven't seen a drop, but I want to make sure no other place can leak before I put the new carpet in. I know about the leak tube for the air conditioner, but water comes out of it from the end of the tube outside the car so I'm assuming its OK. Another question is, what kind of material can I use to clean the rust up on metal that got messed up from the water or is there a good spray I can put down before I lay the carpet, and what are the general layers of carpet that I need to put in my car, i.e. insulation, sound padding, adhesive, etc. ect.

Thanks,
Matthew

You will need to do a simple metal finish repair to fix your rust problem assuming it hasnt ate through the floors yet. If its just surface rust you can sand it down to metal again and use a rust primer to seal it. Then you can replace the carpet or you could even use box liner spray instead of carpet this way it can never happen again (rust on the floor) your dillema is common if you have air conditioning but dont always use it and it is raining outside then water will be let in through the heater core area and onto the floor passenger side the only way to keep the water out when its raining is to either keep the defrost setting on or air conditioner these settings close off the intake for outside air so it can recycle the air. Im sure others have had this problem ive seen it alot myself in Chev/Gm's.