Finally got my carpet so I started removing the old threads. Can't believe how many penetrations there are with some large cut outs. Before I get started I was just wondering if there were any tips on making this job easier before I hack up the new rug. I thought about tracing the openings onto the new carpet but didn't feel comfortable with the way it was lining up.

 

Use the old to give you a pattern for the new. A heat gun is nice for molding is bends and depressions. 3M spray adhesive. Also a nice trick is to set the carpet in the sun all folded out so it heats it up and makes it easier to work with.

hth,

Sully

 

Hi,
When ever possible I made the cuts with the carpet in place.
If I thought I needed to cut off 1", I'd make the cuts 1/4" at a time and check the fit after each cut.
On occasion as the carpet gets closer to the size and shape it needs to be to fit smoothly you'll find the cut didn't need to be as much as you thought.
If you cut it all at once, and miss measure, you can't go back.
Take your time.
Regards,
Alan

 

The AIM is helpful for showing how it was done at the plant. Work slowly.

 

I just put carpet in mine and I found it helpful to attach the carpet at the rocker panel first. (Mine had a plastic strip that the screws went through, so you can't adjust this side of the carpet.)
Then work slowly, checking the original carpet for the types of openings you need to cut. (Some are circular, others are 'U shaped, etc.)
I found that you can push an awl through the carpet to locate the holes for screws on the cargo straps and the like. Then put the screws through and you're golden.
Good luck

 

Thanks for all the tips, I'm going to check the AIM (didn't even think about that resource) and hopefully get started tomorrow.

 

I redid my interior floor and tuned the seats this winter. I bought molded carpets and a 3/16" thick urethane foam with adhesive on one side and foil on the other for insulation. I stipped everything out and the old carpet which looked okay sort of ripped it was so bad when I started and then I got all the old jute stuff out, took a paint tool and scraped all the obvious stuff out of the floor of the cage. Then I steel wooled the metal floor, sanded it, vacuumed it, spray painted it a vht flat black paint and started putting the insulation in. Seats were out. When it came time to put the carpet in which was molded it fit so well when test fitting I barely cut anything, just a little under the door lip/ledge molding and it was solid so I put it in without glue. It is held in place and everyone who's seen it says it's perfect....and then put the seats back in but reversed them, drivers to passengers, etc. Was way easier than I thought. Turned out very well in addition. I had allowed three to four mental weeks and did it in three days.

The insulation factor is far superior. Oh, the molded had some kind of insulation glued to the bottom of it about 3/8" thick, some kind of fibrous material. I took all but the area under the footwell off and kept that then put the carpet in. It looks perfect.

Can't remember who I bought the carpet from but the less cutting is the right way to go. For holes, don't pre punch, fit the carpet and you can use awl punches to find the holes. I actually used pointed bamboo skewers for the barbecue for the four holes for the seats and that worked well.

Lance...

 

I just did mine. Everything was out, and I had no old carpet to go from. I started with the back over the wheels, then the rear deck. Then the riser between the seats and the rear deck. Lastly I did the front. I made sure the molded areas were perfectly in place, then went out to center and sides from there. I used 3M 8090 spray adhesive and put down foil heat barrier first. I made the holes for bolts using a red-hot 5/8" bolt. Heat it and make your holes with it. You will have no frays that way. Keep a water bottle handy and spray it after the hole is made to cool the material.

 

A soldering iron works great for making holes....

 

I am no NCRS judge....but my original carpet looks like Edward Scissor hands got a hold of it....or some "hack" butcher at the corvette factory was having a bad day.... WOW.... you probably will do a much better job than factory...just take your time...and if you screw up... just tell everyone it came from the factory that way!

 

73..the odds of your vette's carpeting still being factory installed are about like winning the half billion dollar lottery after 39 years. More likely, especially if butchered, that it was a p.o.

my 76 which I bought two years ago was owned by a vp of a fredericksburg trucking company who had the mechanic who works on diesels work on it on weekends. He had so many things wrong and not right that it took me five months to get it all correctly functioning though it shined nicely. He had plugs gapped at .030", had rebuilt the carb which broke the choke, had gaskets in the rebuild blocking ports, hanging out the side, etc. Horns were unhooked, switch for dash on headlight position was broken and hanging, exhaust looked like swiss cheese and when one cast iron ram's horn exhaust manifold cracked he replaced that but didn't check the other one. When we redid all that and converted to true duals with bullet cats and flowmasters we removed both exhaust manifolds, replaced the cracked one and installed the other one correctly...and that's before we talk about the brakes which had been rebuilt instead of having new calipers installed.

P.O's are not all created equal. It was all correctible but my initial list for a car that looked good was 28 items. I just redid the apparently good carpet in early Jan with new insulation and new molded carpets though the other didn't look bad, it just was bad.

Lance P.

 

Lance this car has 58 thousand actual miles on it... not 158,000 I can tell,I've had lots of experience in verifying wear and age of classic and muscle cars....it has the right patina in all the right places, and it is positively, absolutely, the original carpet..... as was the rest of the interior....the car fortunately had to have lived in a garage in Texas or Oklahoma for most of its life.....because it is in unbelievably nice condition for a survivor car....Bloomington Gold quality. I know what your saying and its hard to believe that nearly 40 year old components can look this good, so, it makes you wonder what kind of abuse some of these babys had to endure.....makes you want to cry. It does appear that a PO had the carpet out in the front to put in some old school heat protection.....and may have hacked it a bit but you still can tell that most of it particularly in the back hadn't been tampered with at all.....

 

Sorry Slopoke don't mean to hijack your thread....and don't like defending myself......it is what it is. Good luck with your carpet install. Was being a little facetious about the factory....

 

that's great..mine is buckskin interior as well. I didn't have to redo the rear shelf, just the seat carpets to the beginning of the shelf which made it much easier. My car at 15712 or something like that in the run was brown when it came off the line but someone before me painted it red and I like the red much better. Not a sign of brown anywhere on it that I can see so someone stripped it well before painting it. There is one area with some minor orange peel on one corner of the hood but not enough to justify redoing all that.

these cars are great. Tomorrow a lady friend and I will take mine about 95 miles on some local twisties and cross the James river at Jamestown on the ferry for lunch at Berretts seafood in Williamsburg then home on the other shore past the colonial mansions. a great drive on a 72 degree sunny and clear day. T tops stay in the garage in their cases but I do put a rain top on when I park it just to keep people out. One time at Pierces in Lightfoot came out after lunch to find some clown sitting in it with his girlfriend shooting photos of him in MY Corvette! Brassy Mother.....with no remorse whatsoever.

Lance P.

 

Cool......have a great trip! Sounds like fun....

 

by the way if you haven't used it yet the vinyl spray coatings work great. My two visors on top showed a fair amount of fade from the sun and I got a can of buckskin and removed them, cleaned the metal parts and taped then sprayed them with the vinyl spray. Perfect. It looks like absolutely new and very professional. The only way you'd tell it wasn't factory is the sewn thread is also now buckskin colored but not a soul who isn't an officianado would know that. pvc vinyl is very porous and takes the spray coatings for it extremely well in my experience to spruce up the interior as well.

When I had the car up and ended up doing the footwells, insulating and the carpet which is this thread, I also climbed under the car with degreaser, soap, steel wool and paint and cardboard block and cleaned the running gear and repainted where necessary to make the cosmetics underneath look better too. Used vht silver on exhaust pipes and vht flat black on some and then orange on the oil pan. Looks better and finally got the p.o's last remaining grease off. Also rebuilt the springs and stuff on the headlight mechanisms while down there and checked the vacuum on the vacuum reservoir under the nose while at it.
Lance P.

 

I have only one piece of advice for you, slopoke: Remember, you can always cut it smaller, but you can't cut it bigger!


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

Unless you're cutting out a hole, in which case, you have the oposite problem.

 

If you remember the vendor, would you pass along the name?

 

Wiseguy!!!


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott