• 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

Recarpet Project

Share this page

B

Bruce74B

Jedi Knight
Offline
When I bought my car last year it had a brand new Deluxe Carpet kit with it, but no hardware or instructions. Since then I have found a few articles on replacing the carpet that have been useful, but they all refer to the instructions and hardware that came with the kit. Since my car has the orginal rubber mats on the floors, I wonder if I should carpet the whole floor.

If i do so, I was wondering which pieces should be snapped in place instead of glued??? I know the rear deck over the battery cover is snapped in, but somewhere I read that the footwell pieces were originally snapped in...can anyone give me some suggestions here?

My seat tracks were mounted on the steel spacer and had 1/4 inch wood shims under the rest of the tracks...do these come out when I install the seats over the carpet?

Thanks for any and all input!

Bruce
 
Oh and one more question...

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to treat the seams? Some of the pieces are bound so it is likely that they would be butt-jointed, but the unfinished edges would be lapped with the edge of the top piece unfinished?

I know..that was two more questions ;-(

Any and all ideas would be appreciated here!

Thanks,

Bruce
 
Bruce, I just recarpeted the 66B last summer, so let's see if I can help ...

I'm surprised that you have original rubber mats. This is a 1974? If these are indeed original ones, I believe they should be snapped into the floor. If not, they may be replacements someone put in.

I have snaps for my footwell pieces, but haven't bothered to put them in yet. My floorpans were replaced, so I don't have the male snaps already riveted to the floors, and it just seemed like a pain to do. The carpet pieces I have fit snug enough so they fit just fine sitting there "loose." Plus I use the heavy rubber Amco mats on top of them for everyday use, to keep them clean, so the carpet's not going anywhere.

The advantage, then, is that it's real easy to just pull them out to clean (or dry!) them. Of course, if you put the snaps in, it's just about as easy to remove them.

The only other snaps are the ones on the battery compartment cover.

I don't know if you're already planning to or not, but I strongly suggest putting some heatshield insulation down under the carpet. It's made an amazing difference in my car in terms of being quieter and cooler. (The transmission tunnel, especially, used to really heat things up.)

Let's see, what else. Oh, I also strongly recommend a small investment in replacement "packing strips" under the seats. Get rid of the old wooden strips, which just collect water and moisture and eventually rot your carpet and floorboards. You can try making your own, or check out Gerry Masterman's fit-as-original alumnium or PVC replacement strips, which come complete with new spacers and new bolts:

GEM Enterprises

As far as overlapping pieces go, I think you must be referring to the transmission tunnel pieces? The carpet kit I got had a one-piece molded transmission tunnel, so I don't have any experience with the two-piece kind you have to fit.

I can't think of any other pieces that would overlap, except for maybe the kind of strange arrangement of the pieces at the wheel arches. First you put down those weird little dog leg pieces on the edge of the horizontal battery compartment frame. Then the wheel arch pieces kind of go over them, kind of. That's not too helpful, I know. I've got to get to work now, but let me see if I can find some photos that would help.

Good luck!
 
Thanks Kim ;-))

I appreciate the help! I like the idea of replacing the wood with non porous material. My floors have been replaced recently...they did a poor job and I don't have any male snaps in place and will order them this weekend probably. I have extra insulation to use on the tunnel and the carpet has insulation on the floor pieces. While working on the carpet (and sitting and thinking and sometimes just sitting), I have discovered several other minor projects to be done while I have the interior out...like a new horn ring, repair or replacemnt of dash switches, tranmission oil change and a good cleaning and repairs to the cocktpit...so I think I will be working on this for a while...any other suggestions and help is appreciated from anyone who wants to help!

Bruce
 
Bruce
I have just fitted an MGOC "Ultimate Carpet Set" to my 72 Roadster here in UK. The following pieces were glued using aerosol spray adhesive: Both inner sills (start at front), over the wheel arches, the central tunnel and the heelboard carpet which is glued to the vertical panel with the plastic strip glued along the top edge of the panel. The passenger footwell has two pieces of carpet which are bound at the edges. One is screwed to the engine bulkhead with 4 self tappers and cup washers (black), the other to the panel in front of the central tunnel carpet. The driver's side has one piece screwed to the bulkhead and a rubber cover over the starter motor bulge. (This will be the other way round on LHD cars) Both footwell carpets are each held in place by two press studs in the area where your heels go. The carpets under the seats are held in place by the seat runners/wooden spacers.
The carpet over the battery cover is held by four press studs, one at each end and two equidistant along the leading edge. I blind rivetted the male parts of the press studs to the floor and battery panel. The female parts are held in place by a circular steel ring with three spikes that are pushed from the top of the carpet into into three holes around the edge of female parts and bent outward to hold them firm. You will need a minimum of eight of these type of fixings. I hope that helps you. John J, West Sussex UK
 
Bruce -- Don't know what shape your floorpans, etc. are in, but with the carpet out you want to do whatever you can to clean up, rust treat, rust proof your floor boards.

Mine were new, but had a good bit of surface rust from too many top-down soakings. I clean it all off, treated it with rust preventer, then sprayed it all with truck-bed liner, which worked really great. (It's tough and plasticized, so should do a good job of keeping water away from the metal.)

Good luck! I look forward to seeing your car this summer sometime.
 
Thanks Kim,

I've seen some of that bed liner in a spray can ... what a great idea! My floors were replaced by a PO and are in good shape. I was going to clean them up real good and use rustoleum on them, but may do the bed liner thing.
smile.gif
It has to look better the the original orange paint which shows through every little gap in the interior trim. Thanks again!

Bruce
 
Has anyone ever used "POR15" as a sealer coating fore the interior? It is advertised as a rust preventor and all around great invention, but I'm wondering how it will adhere to the painted areas? There are a couple of preperation solutions available too. Anyone ever use the POR15?

Bruce
 
Por 15 actually works, following the instructions and steps the co. provides. Did the runk and floors of my 72 Cutlass a few years ago, as well as A frames, and the rust never returned. Use proper ventillation and skin covering. Worth the money. Did my 70 BGT witk it last summer amd it worked again.
 
I was going to POR15 my floors (even bought a can), but then someone convinced me it would be overkill.

The main thing that convinced me not to us POR15 was the need to pretreat with a special cleaner and then rinse it off. I didn't relish the idea of "rinsing" the inside of the car, and it would have been tedious to sponge it up.

But POR15 comes highly recommended as an inpenetrable coating to anything that might rust.

I'm real happy with the truck-bed liner on the floors, though. It's tough enough (after all, it is underneath insulation and carpeting), and plenty waterproof. And real easy to work with and touch up whenever you need it.
 
Brian, if it helps at all, here are some photos I took during my recarpeting project. Sorry I don't have any photos of the floors with just the truckbed liner on them. The photos I do have show the truck bed liner and the sound deadener kit I put in from Moss. (That's the funky black-and-pink strips.)

This is an Ofoto album, you have to sign in to see it, but it's free:

66B Interior Project
 
Thanks Kim!

I think I have a little time to decide on POR15 or the Truck bed liner spray...I do appreciate the pictures...they look so familiar LOL All I need now is some decent weather so I can open the garage doors and turn off the gas furnace to treat and paint the floors...I think I have prepped enough to eat off the floors. Meanwhile I am spending way too much time with little incidental projects...like rust repair, combatting the "Lucas-Prince of Darkness" problems, and changing the transmission oil.

I'm looking forward to seeing your car this summer...but might make my Dolly Clementine a little envious!

Bruce
 
Back
Top