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Sharing my experience installing an Al Knock 63 (early) carpet set, and everything I did, in hopes it could help someone else with the process.
Old carpet was sun faded and showed signs of padded foam/rubber backing breaking apart and disintegrating. I assumed this was not original carpet, as the early 63 carpet had cut-outs for the under-seat toolbox buckets, and that was missing from this carpet set; no sound-deadening material or underlayment was present, except for a tattered layer of carpet jute underneath the front leg compartments.
After all the carpets were out, we took 8-10 hours to meticulously remove as much adhesive and excess foam that remained on the fiberglass tub. We used razor blades, puddy scrapers, and chisels. Once the fiberglass was raw, a mold and mildew spray was applied and scrubbed on the fiberglass to ensure nothing remained on the fiberglass and we had a clean surface. This was then removed with water, and allowed to dry.
We placed a single layer across nearly every surface of fiberglass of dynamat extreme sound deadening butyl rubber. This was cut and trimmed to the contours of the body. We just bought the big sheets, not a precut kit and it worked just fine. We additionally placed layers of ceramic foil heat barrier on all areas that were expected to be exposed to heat from under the tub to help mitigate heat transfer. I've read the various reviews, that this works for some and some reported that it may be a waste. I figured it couldn't hurt, so I'll report back my experience after some time.
The Al Knock interior kit was applied with a 3M 90 contact adhesive and was installed with minimal trimming required. Just in a few spots, most notably around the drivers pedal. The original metal plate seat brackets were replaced with new. The bolts for the accelerator were replaced with new as well. I decided to place the seat bracket for the rear part of the seat on top of the carpet itself, rather than cutting the carpet out all together in this area. Read a few different options, and I felt this provided the cleanest look for the install, and allowed me to not have to cut more carpet out. In the tool buckets under the seat, we painted them body color, and just placed a layer of jute inside of them (not glued) just to have some sort of insulate material, as we don't use them, but I also didn't want to hide them all together.
Once this project was complete, the decklid spring showed signs of weakness as the deck lid would not stay up. As we had the interior disassembled, we took the opportunity to remove the decklid hinges completely. We removed the springs from the hinges and replaced the passenger side hinge bottom bracket that had rust present. This was to avoid any structural issue that could have arisen by installing the rusty part back into the car. We removed the bottom assembly by drilling out the welds, and reattached the new part. We painted the hinge assemblies, and installed a pair of new springs, one on each side, and the decklid operates very well. This also gave us access to the #4 body mount, which was very dirty, which was cleaned with evaporust, polished with a wire wheel, and painted with Eastwood rust encapsolator.
With the new springs in the car, and the new carpets installed we identified the source of the water leaking into the car which led to the rust in the first place which was a clogged drain from the decklid trim drain holes. We cleaned the holes by using a wire clothes hanger extended straight, and ran through the drain holes; and tested the operation and now the car drains properly behind the rear wheels correctly.
All in all the longest process was cleaning the fiberglass once the old carpets removed. The underlayment took a day (8-10 hours) but probably could have gone faster? (took my time). And the carpets took roughly 6-7 hours. Overall, this was a major upgrade to the car, and allowed us to clean up some parts that needed to be addressed. Very pleased with the result - hope this helps someone with the same project.
I recently did my SWC with AAC carpet. Looks like they precut for the tool tubs much differently. They allow the front and rear seat mounts to be directly on the bare fiberglass as original. If your having your car judged the ACC set up is correct. There was only minimal trimming. 63 coupe carpet installation is a real challenge due to the 19 pieces involved. I used a 1” putty knife for removal as Pat did. Time consuming but worked well.
63 Carpet Install
