BJ8 carpet woes

[Hoghead]

My carpet got soggy so a simple job has now expanded into ripping out the new but cheesy synthetic carpet and the soggy jute underlay. I have wire brushed the floors and plan to paint with POR 15 tomorrow, before installing Dynamat insulation and Dynaliner underlay.
If there is sufficent material, I think I will Dynamat both sides of the gearbox hump to cut down the heat as much as possible

Not concours but I can see that the jute will be an invitation to rusty floors and mould here in rainy British Columbia. Too bad about deviating from stock but this is owned to be driven.

But which carpet kit?
I imagine that Heritage is very good if not the best, but with all things Heritage, can only assume that this comes with a price. What price will not be known until Tuesday as this is Canada Day long weekend
Other suppliers include Moss of course and these two Fleabay sellers

Britboy

Carrelli

Carrelli sounds too good to be true at 219.00
Britboy sounds OK at 348.00
I am in Canada so would rather not have to import from the UK

The car is a driver, but a nice driver and I will not be happy with a cheap looking carpet. Any experience with various kits or bite the bullet and go with Heritage

Now to figure a way to make it fit around the hump without looking like a lumpy amaturish job like the factory did - another deviation from stock

 

[BigGreen]

Not the answer you asked for, but be sure to leave some space between the "hump" and the gearbox. Some airflow is better than none

Hans

 

[AUSMHLY]

Hoghead,

I like Dynamat Extreme and used it for the floor and sides of the interior. I would not use it for the trans tunnel, for the underside of the transmission tunnel gets hot and there's a chance the Dynamat may start to melt and the self stick glue may let go. Dynamat's main purpose is sound deadening with some heat shielding if using the foil backed Extreme.

I used an Adhesive Backed Aluminized Heat Barrier Cloth on the underside of the transmission tunnel, click here. (1st photo)

Original material used on the outside of the transmission tunnel and under the carpet was jute. Instead of jute, I used another heat reflective product called Low-e insulation. (2nd photo) It does not absorb water. As you know jute hold water like a sponge, and if let wet, it will start to mold. I used the Low-e in place of jute over the Dynamat Extreme too.

I choose the carpet kit from Heritage. The carpet is wilton wool which is the closest thing to the to the original Karvel carpet, which was a wool/synthetic cut-pile coarse "hogshair". Heritage's carpet appears to be correct and although some of the edges are bound around the emergency handle, dip stick flap and the back edge of the front carpet, no edges should be bound on a BJ8, all the rest of the carpets edges are not bound. Heritage's carpet is of good quality and you pay for it. There are times when you do get what you pay for. And with the cheaper carpet kits, you do not get the correct material and all edges are bound, they shouldn't be. It's all in the details I say.

The two vendors, Britboy and Carrelli are offering carpet kits that are not correct for the BJ8. Both of those kits have all the edges of the carpet bound.

The way the carpet is suppose to fit over the transmission cover is with snaps. However, there will be a lot of wrinkles in the carpet. I glued the Low-e to the outside of the trans tunnel, then glued the carpet onto the Low-e. No wrinkles. Not concours, and I knew that when I choose to make it smooth. By the way, I have entered my car in three concours events (two seconds and one first place), and not once did any of the judges ask or take off points for not having any wrinkles in the rug over the transmission tunnel. None of the judges asked me to lift the rug to check if there was jute there. I guess it depends on the caliber of the concours event. Pebble Beach most likely would address those areas.

Anyway, back to the gluing the carpet to the tunnel. I choose to do so because I think it's a cleaner more elegant look without wrinkles. The carpet makes as big an impression of the over all look and finish of the car as does the exterior. Get a quality correctly made carpet and put in the time and patience needed for the trimming and glueing to make the carpet fit the car. A carpet only looks as good as the install.

Good luck with your interior,
Roger

 

[rjc157]

I bought the
carelli carpet it has all the pieces looks decent not concours at the least ,i don't think moss or vb are any better at double the price you might need to trim alittle here and there its a cheap kit ,you get what you pay for its not wilton wool ,heritage will take forever to get and i think their in the 7-8 hundred range now gl

 

[AUSMHLY]

Not the answer you asked for, but be sure to leave some space between the "hump" and the gearbox. Some airflow is better than none
Hans

Hi Hans,

So true Hans, you don't want to restrict any air around the transmission.

On a side note, you don't want any hot air getting into the cabin from the transmission tunnel. You want it air tight. There's a lot of hot air under the transmission tunnel and you don't want it coming into the cabin. There should be a gasket between the transmission tunnel lip and the floor to seal that area. Seal it with some camper seal water resistant foam tape, from your local hardware store, and you'll notice, no more hot air coming in from that spot. Now onto finding all the other areas, firewall, foot well, etc. where hot air comes in. Find those and seal those up too. With some persistence, you can help keep hot air out of the cabin. That's a pretty cool thing to do.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[Hoghead]

Thanks for the tips.
I am not familiar with the low-E sheet. Is this similar to a foam sandwitch with aluminium "bread"
If not, can you describe it, or give an application, or where you bought it?

Understood about Dynamat melting concern on the underside of the hump. Do you have the same heat concern with the outside and is that why you used the low-E

I see that you have a 2 part carpet hump cover. Does this make the installation easier and less lumpy? The ease of hump removal is a given

Looks like you bolted the seat rails right throught the Dynamat, and fitted the low-E around. Presumably the metal plate goes over the Dynamat and under the wood strip

Is the low-E glued to the Dynamat?

As a side note I notice that your rear view mirror is on a stalk while mine is short coupled to the dash and gives me a great view of the boot cover and nothing else. Is yours a stock BJ8 part of aftermarket?

Your carpets are beautiful and I can only hope that mine come out that nicely

 

[TimK]

I got Heritage Karvel carpet kit on sale in the spring of 2009. It retailed for $840, but was on sale at $630. It is provided with precut pieces, but they are oversized and need to be trimmed to fit your car. This needs to be done carefully -- measure twice, cut once or at least don't cut short! Karvel is cheaper than Wilton Wool but is still very nice and more like original carpet installed in my BN7. I also installed Dynamat Extreme under the carpet. Heritage provides a very thick felt pad which I put on top of the Dynamat. I used 3M contact spray adhesive which works well with the felt and carpet. It can be removed if needed (as I had to do to remove my transmission.

 

[AUSMHLY]

Thanks for the tips.
I am not familiar with the low-E sheet. Is this similar to a foam sandwitch with aluminium "bread"
If not, can you describe it, or give an application, or where you bought it?
Click here for info

Understood about Dynamat melting concern on the underside of the hump. Do you have the same heat concern with the outside and is that why you used the low-E
I USED THE LOW-E BECAUSE IT'S A NOISE AND TEMP INSULATOR LIKE JUTE. IT DOES NOT ABSORB WATER LIKE JUTE. DYNAMAT IS A SOUND DEADENING PRODUCT, AND THAT IS NOT THE APPLICATION THIS NEEDED.

I see that you have a 2 part carpet hump cover. Does this make the installation easier and less lumpy? The ease of hump removal is a given
ONE PIECE OF CARPET GOES OVER THE TRANSMISSION TUNNEL. IT GET'S SNAPPED IN PLACE OR IN MY CASE, GLUED DIRECTLY TO THE LOW-E. THE TRANSMISSION TUNNEL IS HELD IN PLACE BY 8 SCREWS.

Looks like you bolted the seat rails right throught the Dynamat, and fitted the low-E around. Presumably the metal plate goes over the Dynamat and under the wood strip
YES.

Is the low-E glued to the Dynamat?
YES

As a side note I notice that your rear view mirror is on a stalk while mine is short coupled to the dash and gives me a great view of the boot cover and nothing else. Is yours a stock BJ8 part of aftermarket?
IT'S AFTERMARKET. I TOO WANTED TO SEE WHAT'S BEHIND ME WHEN THE TOP WAS DOWN, RATHER THAN JUST SEEING THE BOOT COVER. Click here for info

Your carpets are beautiful and I can only hope that mine come out that nicely
THANK YOU AND YOURS WILL IF YOU BUY THE SAME CARPET AND TAKE YOUR TIME WITH THE INSTALLATION. GOOD LUCK!

 

[andybj8]

Hi hogshead
I did my bj8 with dynamat extreme, then jute over the top and then karvel carpet from ahead4healeys in the uk, their us agents are auto farm and I see it's around 360 can dollars. It's as original with unbound edges and the gearbox cover is sewn from a couple of pieces, it's all fixed with the snap rings, there website :
https://www.austinhealey.ca/home.aspx?cat2=13
Hope u like the drawings for the brochure as I can confess knowing the artist
Pictures of my carpet are here on ahead4healeys website:
https://www.ahead4healeys.co.uk/Customer-Healeys-pg54.html
See the blue bj8 from Leicestershire

Ps the original carpet is karvel a coarse corn row type weave and white flecks, not Wilton which is posher and used in jags, the gearbox carpet is also snapped to the cover not glued.

Cheers Andy

 

[andybj8]

I went for concours and the jute hides the karvel (instead of tar paper). The sequence should be tar paper first, jute with metal plate for seat runners on top, then wood packers, then seat rails.
The bottom part of the carpet snaps should be screwed to the floor on top of the jute holding it down then the top halve gripped to the carpet and then clipped down. The carpet is trimmed around the rails (slots) to allow you to unclip and remove.
You can always for go the jute but the floor might be quite hard or trim the jute around the rails (the vertical parts of jute and carpet are glued (side and front pedal box, sills etc)
I also fixed the dynamat to the top of the gearbox cover ( bear in mind if u do it to the underneath it will need big washers and screws or it may fall off with the heat and wrap it self around the drive shaft)
Cheers Andy

 

[AUSMHLY]

Ps the original carpet is karvel a coarse corn row type weave and white flecks, not Wilton which is posher and used in jags, the gearbox carpet is also snapped to the cover not glued.
Cheers Andy

Wow, Andy, I am impressed!
Your transmission carpet is held in place with snaps and the carpet is wrinkle free. That is a photo of your transmission carpet right? Held in place with snaps not glued on, right? Wow. My hat's off to you sir.
Guys, take a look at his craftsmanship. I copied and pasted a couple photos of his transmission carpet for you here. Check it out.

PS. third photo is of mine, glued!

Respectfully,
Roger

 

[Hoghead]

Andy
Thanks for link to Auto Farm as I am in Canada. It seems that the cost for the Carvel for a BJ8 is 446.00 CAD plus the heel pad and snaps

Do I understand correctly that the gearbox tunnel carpet is tailored to some extent?


Roger
Where to buy the mirror stalk?

Robert

 

[andybj8]

Thanks Roger
the centre came in 2 bits, the half circle to be glued onto the cover where the speedo cable runs thru the cover, and the larger bit is unlike yours as the tunnel piece is not seperate but instead stitched to the front g/b piece so comes off in one. I used the original holes for the snaps in the tunnel (2 each side) and the original snaps on the g/b cover. I just had to move the grips around on the carpet to get the best fit at the sides as the centre console then holds the top down (perhaps thats the secret!)
this pic is before i trimmed around the handbrake and the edges onto the floor (trimmed back to 1 inch)

 

[andybj8]

newspaper used to make templates for both jute and carpet

 

[andybj8]

jute and carpet glued to vertical surfaces

 

[andybj8]

forgot this extra triangle piece that was stitched in to help shape, this is just thrown over before i used chalk to mark fixing places for top of snaps, several adjustments later

 

[andybj8]

this pic shows the few creases but these are either hidden or pulled down by the centre console, i concentrated on a good fit around the sides, the bit you see

 

[andybj8]

quite a lot of hours later, but a nice job to do and very satisfying

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

Ps the original carpet is karvel a coarse corn row type weave and white flecks, not Wilton which is posher and used in jags, the gearbox carpet is also snapped to the cover not glued.
Cheers Andy

Wow, Andy, I am impressed!
Your transmission carpet is held in place with snaps and the carpet is wrinkle free. That is a photo of your transmission carpet right? Held in place with snaps not glued on, right? Wow. My hat's off to you sir.
Guys, take a look at his craftsmanship. I copied and pasted a couple photos of his transmission carpet for you here. Check it out.

PS. third photo is of mine, glued!

Respectfully,
Roger

Good carpet install should always be a "snap"(LOL)
Both installs look impressive! I recently saw an original carpet and shreaded as it was, there was definitely more sewn seams, etc, than the replacements. I suspect that the seams were there for a better fit from the factory. The last carpet set I bought for mine was back in '76 and the quality was awful. All the bound edges came part and the back was latex which added to even more problems!

 

[AUSMHLY]

Roger
Where to buy the mirror stalk?
Robert

Robert, click on that link I provided, in the post.