• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Carpet

jmwuva05

Senior Member
Country flag
Offline
Ok i have a bit of a delima. I have a set of green carpet which came from AH spares that the PO bought. I also have a hardura trunk kit that matches the original perfect. I just dont like the color of the green carpet. There would be four different shades of green on the car; Body, InteriorTrim, Carpet, and Hardura. I thought about buying a black carpet set. Does anyone have a preference Moss vs VB. Also do their BE kits have material that covers the differential tunnel and wheel wells, I almost think I would like to use the hardura I have.
 
can you get it dyed? - likely the cheapest solution
 
One more reason to visit your local auto upholstry shop.
You can get the seats done for less than the kits, buy material from the same roll as the seats are finished in to cover the dash and panels.
While you are there, match the material to any of the 100s of carpet colors and you have a matching interior that looks nice.
Everything to redo an entire interior costs about $150.
Add a couple hundred for the guy to cover the seats and you are STILL cheaper than buying seat covers that don't match the interior panels.
I just did a complete interior in a 58 Bugeye last year for $400.
I am doing a 67 Sprite now, I already had the seats done, $200 for the pair right down to the correct carpet on the bottom of the seat backs. They were a bit cheaper than the Bugeye seats because he didn't have to make the old english white piping, I opted for plain ole white piping on the 67 but the Bugeye red seats with white piping just didn't go with the car color. White piping he can buy, OEW piping he had to make.
 
Question on prep and road noise reduction before carpet installed.

'78 Midget. Area below feet on both sides, and drive shaft tunnel are covered with a black hard rubber/asphalt that I'm guessing is an original and not very effective sound absorbing material.

Was this stuff used on earlier Spridgets? How effective is it?

When installing newer sound absorption products like Dynamat/B-Quiet/Brown Bread is it better to remove the old asphalt and secure the new stuff right to the metal? ....or is it better to install the new stuff directly over the old asphalt.

I can only guess good reasons to use either method. These products work in at least 2 major ways; They dampen vibration by changing the natural frequency (and harmonics) of the sheet metal (Acoustic Loss Factor - ALF), and deaden the sound waves that do actually transmit thru the metal (Transmission Loss - TL). The manufacturer's instructions show rolling the product on firmly after good cleaning. It is my impression that good adhesion is quite important.

Some of the asphalt on the tunnel sides loose. If new product is laid over loose asphalt seems like it will loose vibration dampening.

However, just like beer 30 years ago, the more the merrier. Therefore, seems that installing new product on top of pre-existing would have a cumulative effect, especially where the original bond is still good.

BTW, Dynamat has the great reputation, but is crazy expensive. B-Quiet/Brown Bread and Dynamat are all tested to the exact same ASTM E756 Standard, identical Hz and temperature. B-Quiet is certified better at almost every Hz and temp, and is only half-crazy expensive.

B-Quiet, 50 sq feet, $109 plus shipping. b-quiet.com
Dynamat, 36 sq feet, $270 plus shipping. dynamat.com

Haven't used either but just ordered B-Quiet. I figured that since the bulk carpet was only $40, I could spend a few $$ on noise reduction.

Looking for the sound killer guru to speak. Thanks in advance.

Blueghost
 
Wow! Guess I would leave the asphalt where it is attached well and remove what is loose.
 
I would remove the asphalt. If there are air gaps, then you have a place where condensation and rust can occur and the dynamat will not be very effective. Also, your carpet and panels will fit better without the extra thickness.

I'd remove the asphalt and wire brush any rust, then paint with a good enamel before applying the sound deadening material.
 
Oh, assumed there was no rust. I must be getting old or something. By all means get rid of rust.
 
Jack, there is almost no corrosion. Paint had bubbled at seat rail attach areas, scraped clean sanded, primed.

Agree w/ Trevor regarding loose areas. However, thickness is not as issue as these rubber/asphalt sheets are approx .065" thick. 90% of areas appear to be well bonded. Heat gun will probably loosen and make removal possible, but not easy.

Does anyone have experience w/ this stuff? ...and was it in older models?

Blueghost
 
I had it in my '76. There seems to be at least three sources.

1. the tar that the previous carpet was glued down with. This was particularly on the transmission hump. I removed this with a heat gun and solvent - carb cleaner works better though.

2. Seam sealer. this seems to have been painted/sprayed? liberally on the seams inside the cockpit & in the engine bay - I kinf of regret removing this as keeping it would have made the car more original - scraped & solvent

3. Pads on the floorboards - I actually kept these for originality sake as they will become rarer & rarer -

BTW media blasting doesn't touch it

FWIW
 
I removed the asphalt sheets on the floorpans, and replaced with dynomat (as I was repainting them). Not expensive for their small kit (4 ft. sq.) which was enough to do both front floorpans.

These are never going to be quiet cars... My two cents would be, it's just a matter of dampening the tympanic resonation. YMMV.
 
JP,
1) Carpet glue removed by previous owner. I will strip tunnel this week-end. Also noted the stuff on the tunnel is about .065” / .075” thick, whereas stuff on floor is closer to .125 thick. Will keep old floor on passenger side as it is in excellant condition. Will replace driver side as it has seen too many miles w/ heels and ground in trash.
2) Yes, I planned on leaving the seam sealer. It is well bonded everywhere, and serves a good purpose. Would like to know just what it is, as I would use same stuff in a few other areas.

Tosoutherncars, Did Dynamat seem to be any better / worse / too close to call, than the old perforated asphalt?
 
3M makes seam sealer. Used it on Miss Agatha before paint.
 
I dug out some Press and Stick Floor tiles and used thiem in place of the asphalt / tar paper base in there. DPO had left oil pressure hose off of engine when he started engine and it is amazing how much oil can be pumped sideways and enter the clutch slave access port to pump oil all over the PS on the interior. I had half a quart that had been soaking the floorboards and kickpanels for almost a year when I bought Bugsy. A total mess but when I removed and scrpaed out the tarpaper all nice and light green underneath with no rust on the inside. Floor times added some sound deadener and stiffening to the floorboards. Probably with 5 years more of experience would do differently but carpet goes over the top and you never see it. I did before anything went down on top, primered and then Black Rustoleum, and then sprayed floor with exterior undercoating tar like stuff to seal it all up before floor tiles were installed. Not the best but as a member of the "we tight club" it worked. Carpet from bulk roll from Pep Boys looks nice still 5 years later. ASk me the trick on seaming around the shift lever, it isn't hard.
 
Back
Top