Your carpet should fit right in without modification.

I recently did mine (bought from ACC) and it was excellent. World of dif from the old crap that was in it.

TAKE YOUR TIME!

 

Put the carpet down first. It should be press molded so when you lay it in it will fit without needing to be trimmed.

Did you remember to buy the rubber carpet retainers? There are 6 in the front, three per side.

If by bracket openings you are referring to the console bracket, the entire console goes on top of the carpet.

cc

 

I remember when my interior looked like that.
That was a lot of money ago.

 

I bought the complete carpet kit from Wilcox. Yesterday I did a dry fit and the car looked 100% better immediately. There appears to be a little extra carpet in the back and near the sill plates, but not too much that I can't trim later when it is in. Thanks for the advice on this, next up for me is to figure out the glue. I bought a can of it but don't have a sprayer so what was I thinking there? More money than sense I guess.
Have a good 4th to you all and enjoy your Corvette Summer.
David and Adam Howard

 

You dont need to glue the carpet in.Put your carpet in and let it lay for a day or so.It should mold out and usually you dont have to cut at all.
Cutting-dont cut out or remove at all in the beginning-just make a slice -this slice can always be layed back down-if you cut it out its hard to put it back.

 

Just for the record he will need no rubber plugs on the 77. 72 was the last year for the plugs in the front. The plugs on the back wall were used after 72 for a few years.

 

I only found a couple of plugs in the front, one on each side, and they were not drain plugs, just hole pluggers. I did get two new ones and will put them in place. I have two plastic plugs in the door jams under the sill plates but they look good so I don't feel compelled to replace them. I do need three new plugs for the back carpet and have to cut those holes in the carpet but not today. Today we are reinstalling a new steering wheel and trying to get the horn to quit honking continuously. Irritating noise that horm makes when you don't want it to...
Thanks for the plug advice, I went scrambling to see if I had missed something.
Have a good 4th weekend.
David and Adam Howard

 

Don't Glue! No need to. Let the ride sit out in the hot sun for a day or two and it will look factory installed!

You will probably need to trim a little. Go very slow! I had to buy a second set of front carpets because of my haste.

Bill

 

The best way I have found to get a nice hole in the carpet for the plugs in the rear is use a cheap pencil solidering iron. Have the hole located and burn the hole in. It stinks but the perfect round hole makes the plug go in easy and their is no chance to cut the hole to big.

 

Bill, you are absolutely correct in that the reproduction lower left pad does not fit properly and has caused us a lot of issues trying to get the upper pad, right pad and now the upper console to work. They don't fit together now and the whole job looks like a cross eyed idiot did the work. My son and I covered the car today and said "Enough it enough" and decided to take a vacation from the car. I can't recall where I bought the lower left pad from right now but I will and have to be honest that the pad doesn't represent a quality part at all. I will begin my search for an NOS or a good used part before going any further and while the removal and replacement will be a PITA again I would gladly do it to avoid the garbage look I have with the car now. Very disappointed in this and over $200 lighter in the pocket too. I looked up my receipt and I bought it from Wilcox on June 26, 2008 on Invoice 591872. I think I should let Wilcox know that the part doesn't fix the car and align properly and that they should not sell them if they don't fit. I'll start looking for a suitable replacement.
Thanks for the advice Bill, you were dead on with it.
David

 

77Sleeper.

Now that you have dug this deep be sure to check your door hinge pins. On mine I had to unbolt the doors form the hinges and unbolt the top hinge to tip it to drift it out. If not it would hit the fiber glass. Mine was **** luck by having my dash out at the time.

Just saying check your door hinge pins befor you put your dash back.

Michael.

 

I checked them and there is no resistance so I appear to be good to go for now. Amazing what can go wrong when you don't know what to look for in advance. I think the combined knowledge of the forum members could write a book entitled "What I learned that you want to avoid when working on your C-3". If someone wrote it I would buy it for sure. Maybe we could add some humor in there somewhere as well? I look forward to the day when these stories of mine are funny to me. Until then I will continue to listen : to all of you willing to advise me.
Thanks for your help.
David and Adam Howard

 

77 sleeper, I just sent you an email. I tried to call you, and left a message. If you received my message, give me a call on the number I left for you.

Willcox

 

We went out this weekend and bought the soldering iron. Tested it on the old carpet and bingo, you are correct. Thanks for the tip. Have to resolve the lower left dash pad first, then on to carpet, so thanks for the tip.
David and Adam Howard

 

I just want to give credit here where credit is due. I have spoken to Willcox Corvette three times now and they are working with me to get the lower left dash issues ironed out. They didn't like the fit and finish issues I had either, so all the dash parts are back out of the car and the dash pads (both new and old) have been shipped to the mfg locations for review. For those that have ever taken out the lower left successfully I salute you. For those that have never had the pleasure let me offer some simple advice, that is, ask a lot of questions first, then start taking off the parts. Ernie gave a guide telling how they recommend them to be removed and it works well. Had I done this in the first place, well, the original pad would be back in and the dash would be done. It has been a costly mistake but it will guide us through the rest of the work.

So thank you to all that offer help and guidance, it is very much appreciated.

David and Adam Howard

 

I am catching up in my thank you notes and wanted to let you know this worked perfectly. So thank you.

 

Latest update on the lower left dash. Well rebuilding the old one is out of the question. The dash pad was broken prior to me owning the car and a couple of the pieces were missing when we took it out again, so it is out of the question for rebuilding and replacing. I am moving my work to the back of the car interior while we work through this now so the rear carpet and rear storage box are will be on the agenda for tomorrow. I have the new storage box in and all the parts off the old one to install in the new one, just cleaning them up and will assemble today. This might be a good time to remove old weather stripping and put new weather stripping on the car too. Have it, just haven't tackled it yet.
More on the dash pad as it happens. Thanks for your help.
77Sleeper

 

We managed to find a used Red 77 Lower Left Dash Pad and with the effort of some great folks at Willcox and Corvette America we have watched the pad go from nearly pristine red to like new black. The pad was delivered on Saturday evening and we have begun to make plans to install the tach and speedo on the pad and prepare the steering column, wiring, and all necessary parts for the return to the car. We will photo document the events and will post them shortly. For now, here is the red pad before and after its transformation, amazing.

Red Pad Purchased

Now it is a black pad


I'll be back in touch soon.

77Sleeper

 

I sent you an email about the rack. We can do it way cheaper than the re-chome. I rec. the "Out of office reply".

E

 

No e-mail received, e-mail sent to you for clarity. Please check your e-mail when you can.
Thank you.
77Sleeper