ok....I tried to use the search function and it blew me off like normal...so I will just ask instead...first Knoch carpet

Tips on installing the carpet in a C1?

It doesn't want to lay nice and tight.

Does it need to be steamed?

Suggestions are welcomed!

thanks, Herb

 

I'm just about finished installing carpet in my 63. I bought the carpet from Wilcox. Very happy with the product. Many people recommend 3m spray adhesive. It didn't work well for me. I used a paste carpet adhesive. It worked very well. The only things that learned were: take your time--If you have to trim some pieces, make sure your measurements are correct. I used heavy objects, like a paint can to hold the flat surfaces in place while the glue dried. To make sure that I had a tight fit on the rocker panels, I cut a few pieces of wood and used wood clamps to hold the carpet in place in place. I wasn't worried about driving the car so I left the paint cans and clamps in place for a few days. I'm pleased with the results and I can't wait til spring gets here. Good Luck.

 

As I have said before, the suppliers in most cases could care less about their quality control. It drove me nuts until I finally accepted it. It seemed like everything that I purchased had a problem of one sort or another. An example now is the mirrror on the door, at speed above 65 it moves all over, no tension to hold it in a position.

With regards to your carpets, mine came from Al and it was short and needed a lot of help to make it work. I took it to a installer. He had a 67 coupe at the same time that they had to sew on carpet from the original one to use it. It would not be seen, so it worked fine.

 

Just what doesn't fit right - I bought my carpet from Corvette Central and it was easy -- much easier than carpeting vintage Mustangs I've done...
The only tricky part was getting the shift plate installed without cutting too much so I made an initial cut in the carpet where the ashtray goes (it has the most room for error) then stuck the ashtray in which sort of 'locks' the carpet in place so you can cut the hole around the shifter and get the plate down.

 

What's preventing it from laying flat? All the carpet pieces are designed to be laid flat. There's no formed pieces. You should not need to glue it to get it to lay flat and stay put. A little glue might be useful later. But it should fit right out of the box.

You may need to let it sit in place for a few days to "relax." If the carpet pieces were tightly folded and sat in a box for a while, it might take some time for those folds and creases to "relax" out flat.

Write back on what's not fitting in particular.

 

I have the same POS mirror. The one on passenger door is from a different vendor, is rock solid tho. I cant wait to remove the big clip to fix it. Most likely I'll run the screw driver across the mirror when I slip!!! My carpet sucked too, way to short at the rear. Rant over...

 

I recently redid the 60 with Wilcox (ACC) and was very pleased.

I would make sure the carpet is warm since mine was not stiff and was installed during warm weather. I started with the piece that wraps around the base of the glovebox between the seats: did some trimming around where the seat tracks mount and tightly glued down with 3M spray glue where the base of the glovebox meets the tranny tunnel (first, check fit your SS trim pieces here since they fit snug down over the carpet). Then, I glued down the next piece in back of the radio console, next glue down the piece in front of the console making sure it is glued tight where it meets the glovebox carpet piece, centered around the shifter opening, and around radio console. The driver and pass pieces are last and are just glued where they climb the door sill areas.

As was asked above, where are you having problems?

 

Herb - Installing the carpet it pretty easy on a C-1. Only parts I glued were the pieces that go over the tunnel. The pieces on drivers side and pass side just lay there nice and easy (Front bolts on seats go through the carpet to hold it in place. Only small part to cut on those pieces is the hole for the dimmer switch and piece that accellerator pedal snaps to. On tunnel pieces I think only the hole for shifter gets cut. Al Knoch pieces are quality. I don't know what others are ranting about on other pieces, but I've bought at least two sets from Knoch over the years and there are excellent pieces ( I wear them out by abuse, not because they are thin pieces).

 

we used contact cement (I hope I am not the next one to remove the carpet) in just about a 2 square inch area on either side of the tunnel. It didn't want to lay tight without some encouragement.

Got the encouragement in place, looks good, now need to get a new shift boot....duh, with all the stuff you order from these places you would have thought I would have remembered that! It is looking good for only having the tunnel in place. Where the gas pedal goes you have to remember that I am not using stock there either....got a Lokar pedal set up with the cable on the other side of the firewall. I had the garage set up some of the stuff and I am not particularly fond of how high it is on the fire wall.

But it is what it is for now.......if I don't like it I can change it later.....perhaps I will take one more look at it and then move on.

We are going out of town next weekend to Germany for a 3 day get away. Then the following weekend I am back finishing up details on the car, except on Saturday I head to Elkhart to pick up the new enclosed trailer.

The following weekend I am off to Shanghai for work, then home the next weekend, the following weekend we are in Mexico and when I come back my boss is talking about me going to a meeting in Spain for a few days and then it is the show......so you can see time is running out....just a few things to do yet!

Stay tuned.....more to come.....thank you to everyone, couldn't do this stuff without all of you.....


by the way, today the young man that painted my car came over and detailed it one more time and I took the seals off the deck lid and the hood because I didn't like the way they were fitting, so I spent a good 6 hours today with goo-off getting that black adhesive gunk off the hood/deck lid! Yuck!