'80 Carpet change - Rear Compartment, HOW?
11-22-2014, 11:13 AM
#1
Pro
Thread Starter
'80 Carpet change - Rear Compartment Doors, HOW?
Updating the carpet in my '80 and am looking at the rear compartment hatch covers and trying to figure out how to remove and replace the carpet on them. It's sort of a 'clam-shell' design in that the carpet is sandwiched between the upper and lower frame. Problem is the upper and lower frames appear to be fused together and not removable.
Am I missing something here? Do I need to buy new frames just to change my carpet!?
Am I missing something here? Do I need to buy new frames just to change my carpet!?
Last edited by gbarmore; 11-22-2014 at 11:52 AM.
11-22-2014, 01:21 PM
#2
Safety Car
Member Since: Jun 2004
Location: Beecher Illinois
Posts: 4,236
Likes: 0
Received 170 Likes
on
137 Posts
The trim rings that cover the carpet edges on 78-82 are kinda like plastic welded to the doors.
The way I've recarpeted mine was to pretty much destroy the trim pieces, smooth over any remnants on the doors from where they were attached, and replace them with new trim pieces that screw on through the edges.
Find the smallest screws you can and then maybe even clip the length down a bit. Fit the trim, drill shallow pilot holes and put the screws it.
The way I've recarpeted mine was to pretty much destroy the trim pieces, smooth over any remnants on the doors from where they were attached, and replace them with new trim pieces that screw on through the edges.
Find the smallest screws you can and then maybe even clip the length down a bit. Fit the trim, drill shallow pilot holes and put the screws it.
11-22-2014, 01:51 PM
#3
Pro
Thread Starter
The trim rings that cover the carpet edges on 78-82 are kinda like plastic welded to the doors.
The way I've recarpeted mine was to pretty much destroy the trim pieces, smooth over any remnants on the doors from where they were attached, and replace them with new trim pieces that screw on through the edges.
Find the smallest screws you can and then maybe even clip the length down a bit. Fit the trim, drill shallow pilot holes and put the screws it.
The way I've recarpeted mine was to pretty much destroy the trim pieces, smooth over any remnants on the doors from where they were attached, and replace them with new trim pieces that screw on through the edges.
Find the smallest screws you can and then maybe even clip the length down a bit. Fit the trim, drill shallow pilot holes and put the screws it.
Thanks for the ideas!
11-22-2014, 04:17 PM
#4
Race Director
Years ago, someone explained to me how Chevrolet assembled the 79-82 two door rear compartment doors. From what I remember, they where assembled using some sort of process where the door, frame and carpet, were all bonded together using heat.
Because of the process used, if you want to reuse your original doors, you have to break the old frames off, and replace them with new ones. This process seemed to cause the size of the door to vary some, so once you've removed the old frames, you may find that the doors are to big for the new frames. To fit the new frames, you likely end up having to grind the plastic doors down some, to get the frames to fit. All of the vendors sell the correct size screws, to attach the door frames.
If you don't want to reuse your old doors, you can buy repro doors, but they're made out of fiberboard, not plastic like the originals. You can also buy complete, pre-assembled rear compartment door assemblies, for around $170, but these use the fiberboard doors also.
You may want to reach out to Tom DeWitt. Besides doing the best radiators in the hobby, he also use to do rear compartment door assemblies. He sold off that part of the business about 8-10 years ago, but he should be able to give you pretty good instructions on how to do the job. Tom is on the Forum as "Tom DeWitt".
Because of the process used, if you want to reuse your original doors, you have to break the old frames off, and replace them with new ones. This process seemed to cause the size of the door to vary some, so once you've removed the old frames, you may find that the doors are to big for the new frames. To fit the new frames, you likely end up having to grind the plastic doors down some, to get the frames to fit. All of the vendors sell the correct size screws, to attach the door frames.
If you don't want to reuse your old doors, you can buy repro doors, but they're made out of fiberboard, not plastic like the originals. You can also buy complete, pre-assembled rear compartment door assemblies, for around $170, but these use the fiberboard doors also.
You may want to reach out to Tom DeWitt. Besides doing the best radiators in the hobby, he also use to do rear compartment door assemblies. He sold off that part of the business about 8-10 years ago, but he should be able to give you pretty good instructions on how to do the job. Tom is on the Forum as "Tom DeWitt".
Last edited by gbvette62; 11-22-2014 at 04:20 PM.
11-23-2014, 07:08 PM
#5
Pro
Thread Starter
Years ago, someone explained to me how Chevrolet assembled the 79-82 two door rear compartment doors. From what I remember, they where assembled using some sort of process where the door, frame and carpet, were all bonded together using heat.
Because of the process used, if you want to reuse your original doors, you have to break the old frames off, and replace them with new ones. This process seemed to cause the size of the door to vary some, so once you've removed the old frames, you may find that the doors are to big for the new frames. To fit the new frames, you likely end up having to grind the plastic doors down some, to get the frames to fit. All of the vendors sell the correct size screws, to attach the door frames.
If you don't want to reuse your old doors, you can buy repro doors, but they're made out of fiberboard, not plastic like the originals. You can also buy complete, pre-assembled rear compartment door assemblies, for around $170, but these use the fiberboard doors also.
You may want to reach out to Tom DeWitt. Besides doing the best radiators in the hobby, he also use to do rear compartment door assemblies. He sold off that part of the business about 8-10 years ago, but he should be able to give you pretty good instructions on how to do the job. Tom is on the Forum as "Tom DeWitt".
Because of the process used, if you want to reuse your original doors, you have to break the old frames off, and replace them with new ones. This process seemed to cause the size of the door to vary some, so once you've removed the old frames, you may find that the doors are to big for the new frames. To fit the new frames, you likely end up having to grind the plastic doors down some, to get the frames to fit. All of the vendors sell the correct size screws, to attach the door frames.
If you don't want to reuse your old doors, you can buy repro doors, but they're made out of fiberboard, not plastic like the originals. You can also buy complete, pre-assembled rear compartment door assemblies, for around $170, but these use the fiberboard doors also.
You may want to reach out to Tom DeWitt. Besides doing the best radiators in the hobby, he also use to do rear compartment door assemblies. He sold off that part of the business about 8-10 years ago, but he should be able to give you pretty good instructions on how to do the job. Tom is on the Forum as "Tom DeWitt".