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I'm trying to put the ACC carpet from Wilcox in my '68 which came without carpet. It ain't fun... The current question is on the piece of the carpet that goes on the little "wall" behind the seats. How does the flap at the top get held in place? I would expect that it would extend down to the compartment doors and get pinched under them like the back, but it seems like it's way too short for that. It only goes about halfway down the backside of the wall. Surely it's not just glued there and the rest of the wall and front edge of the compartment left uncarpeted??
Hi EM,
As M said... originally that side of the seat bulkhead carpet was tucked under the compartment frame.
Regards,
Alan
I used pieces of tape to hold the edge of the carpet in place until I screwed down the compartment door frame which then 'trapped' the carpet in place.
Replacing the carpet in my '73 was one of the most exhausting processes I've endured thus far on my car...
not sure if the problem was the brand ACC or my scissors were dull or my attitude was wrong... but it just sucked from start to finish.
It looks good now but what an a$$ whoopin' it was to get it there.
mardyn
I chuckled to myself when reading this reply.
Mardyn, I share your disdain for this project. I think I've done just about everything that can be done on my '72 convertible in the 13 years I've owned it. Two projects stick with me as the most challenging:
Replacing the trip odometer reset cable with the speedo still in the dash. My eyes couldn't focus short enough to see (while laying upside down on the floor) and my hands were too big, therefore, challenged to get the cable tip fed into the speedo head.
Carpet. Whew, carpet. Perhaps not the most difficult project, but it caused me pain - real pain. While tucking and poking the carpet material up above the deck lid striker on the LH side, I tore the ligament on the tip joint of my left index finger. Diagnosis - mallet sprain. What a pain in the...
... finger. The tip joint wouldn't work for 10 weeks until I got the splint off. Guys, use a tool when tucking your carpet into the corners and crevices. Learn from my mistake.
A public thanks again to Alan for his tape hold down tip. I followed that advice and it helped perfectly!
Hope this helps.
Last edited by redrdstr72; Feb 4, 2018 at 10:38 AM.
Replacing the carpet in my '73 was one of the most exhausting processes I've endured thus far on my car...
not sure if the problem was the brand ACC or my scissors were dull or my attitude was wrong... but it just sucked from start to finish.
It looks good now but what an a$$ whoopin' it was to get it there.
mardyn
Feeling that. I have way too many hours in the stupid carpet. Thanks for the replies everybody. I see no conclusion besides my bulkhead piece just being too short. I’ll contact Wilcox this week.
Hi EM,
PART of the difficulty in installing the seat bulkhead carpet well is caused by what the carpet is that's being sold now.
The current carpet has a heavy plastic coating on it's back side. The original carpet used for the bulkhead had no backing.
This made the carpet very flexible and thus easiler to fit over the top of the bulkhead and under the compartment frame.
It really makes a difference.
Regards,
Alan
On the left... original carpet, no backing, used on the seat bulkhead.
In the center... original carpet used throughout the rest of the interior. A thin layer of 'plastic' left it quite flexible and easy to work with.
On the right... reproduction carpet with a very thick layer of plastic that makes it quite stiff and more difficult to fit in to place properly.
A follow-up for posterity's sake.
I messed with this for a while this weekend before deciding there was absolutely no way to get the carpet tucked under the compartment door. This morning, I contacted Willcox and sent them the measurement of the carpet I got. I've asked Willcox several questions over the years and always gotten excellent customer service. I expected as much this time, and got it. It seems '68 and '69 rear bulkhead carpets are different from '70+. Here's the response I got:
[Quote from Willcox email:] The original 1968 carpet sets had a jute backing that glued to the metal back wall of the rear riser, (show below stuck to the carpet) this pushed the carpet into the edge of the rear storage compartment but it did not travel backwards to tuck under the forward edge of the RCU. The riser was only this way for 2 years, 1968 and 1969. On the later cars, 1970 and newer it was a different story.
So, I got tied up here and still have not left and Kevin came back from lunch so I had him pull the original carpet set down from storage and measure it again... 22". Also keep in mind that the 1968-1969 carpet sets being made by ACC were made from the original set I show in the picture below. ACC doesn't put the jute on the back of the riser because it was originally glued to the back of the metal riser and not to the carpet set, we just got lucky on this car and it stuck to the riser when we removed it.
Hi,
To add to the Willcox information.
This is original seat bulkhead carpet from a mid-January 71 built car.
You can see small piece of jute.
The carpet was long enough so it's edge could 'just' be tucked under the compartment frame.
It had a single swipe of glue across the bulkhead that the carpet stuck to in a couple of places, also a bit of glue across the top of the bulkhead.
What held the carpet in place was the fact that it was tucked under the compartment frame, and behind the quarter trim on each side, and also tucked between the bulkhead and the wheel well on each side. It was also tucked behind the end of the parking brake console.
Here are a couple pictures of the original carpet on my 68. You can see it goes down to but not under the door frame.
In front, where the bulkhead carpet and floor pieces came together it left an un-carpeted gap on my car. Chevrolet filled it in with a left over scrap piece of carpet.
Hi John,
In your photos it appears both the bottom edge of the bulkhead carpet AND the rear edge of the floor carpet are bound.
Is that so?
On later cars the edge bulkhead piece was bound, but not the edge of the front floor piece. The bulkhead piece 'draped' over the floor piece hiding the cut edge.
There was no binding at all on the left or right side front carpet pieces.
Regards,
Alan
The front floor pieces extend up under the bulkhead piece at least several inches.
Yes, both pieces are bound. I don't think all carpets were that way, but there were at least some that were. So many things changed during the 68 model year it's almost impossible to keep track.
Just to add to this, I was to have left early yesterday while Kevin was at lunch, but I got tied up with something and he arrived back. So he pulled the original 68 carpet set down from the warehouse and here is a picture of the carpet with the exact dimension... It was 22" on the money. This is part of the original carpet set that we had ACC use to fix their molds a few years back. However, this carpet riser was from a early 1968 car, so we also pulled the 1969 original set down and measured it... Again, 22" on the money.
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Feb 6, 2018 at 09:37 AM.
Just to add to this, I was to have left early yesterday while Kevin was at lunch, but I got tied up with something and he arrived back. So he pulled the original 68 carpet set down from the warehouse and here is a picture of the carpet with the exact dimension... It was 22" on the money. This is part of the original carpet set that we had ACC use to fix their molds a few years back. However, this carpet riser was from a early 1968 car, so we also pulled the 1969 original set down and measured it... Again, 22" on the money.
What size should a 70 Convertible be behind the seats? I have an original carpet that only measures about 20-3/4". Sorry to jump in on a thread from last year but when I saw the carpet should tuck under the frame it made me go hmmm.
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Carpet fitment behind seats
