Hey gang I figured I would Chronicle my installation of my carpet set from Auto Custom Carpets. Before I get into too much detail I will tell you that the carpet is of decent quality however, if you read my other post you will know that their ad States the carpet comes with padding but it does not. I called them and they state that they only put padding on the floor carpet and the piece that goes behind the front seats. So I had to go out and buy a roll of jute padding so I could put it in the areas where it was needed. The carpet is a decent fit Straight Out of the Box, put some pieces they cut too short. I had to have them cut me a new piece for one of the knee bolsters which they did very fast. The piece that goes in the hatch that covers the storage compartments is definitely cut too short. Where it lays on the floor and then goes up to the back glass will not lay flat, there is always a curve to it. Below is my progress so far, I just did the hatch area in the area behind the seats for today. It will be a little while before I can post the door panels and the front of the car as I had to order some vinyl dye to change the color of the plastic pieces. They are severely faded and they no longer match the carpet. Also an added note, if you are doing new carpet, pay extra for the mass backing! The original had mass backing, do not get it without. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them.

Lay it out for 24 hours

New jute padding

Contact cement for the knee bolsters

What a pain

Placing the new jute

It takes time to get it right, you can only trim once.

The lighting makes it look two different colors.

Much better!


Comparing the new to the old sill plates.

Test fitting.


Starting to lay down the contact cement.

A few clamps to hold the stubborn areas down.


And now to trim.

After the trimming.

Had to clamp again and add more glue.

Looking good.

Trim channel back on.

Passenger carpet in and sill plate test fitting.


Passenger floor carpet and sill plate in.

Driver side floor carpet and sill plate in.

Time to glue!


Passenger side tunnel carpet.

Driver side tunnel carpet.


Before cutting the speaker opening.

Finished product.


Here you can see the door panels installed along with the bread box back in the dash.

Shot of the passenger rear.

I just finished rebuilding my seat tracks with new transmissions.

Driver's side rear.

 

Looks good

 

Seems like the carpet I installed in 2010 came from the same place. I also went with the mass-backed option for more sound abatement. FWIW, the sun can be your friend. If you let it sit outside (in the hot summer sun), it becomes more pliable for installation.

Man, I remember how much time I spent on that project...especially pulling old carpet from the door/dash panels! NOT FUN!

Great job using installation and/or sound/heat material or both. Either way, you'll be impressed with the rolling road noise reduction. I know it will sound funny, but I removed my rear outer wheel wells and put insulation behind them too. By itself, it makes quite a bit of difference considering the well is just behind your head! That insulation has been there since 2010 w/o problem.

There is night/day difference in road noise and (lack of) rattles in mine vs other stock C4's...mostly due to the insulation. Maybe a little because the entire plastic interior was removed, dyed, and reinstalled too?

Looking good!

 

- good choice on the ACC carpet set. installed same in my 85 some 12-15 years ago. still looks good today.

 

A-men! Getting the old carpet off of the (knee) panels was especially tedious!!! Heat gun and "Orange stuff" adhesive solvent and putty knife took quite a while to get the old glue off!

 

Maybe a wacky idea (knee panels), but the SEM plastic/vinyl paint says you can use it on carpet. I was considering using it on the rear speaker grill/carpet and under the driver's side on my '96 knee panel....thoughts?

 

Yes...people have redyed carpet before. If you spray generously, and rub in with rubber gloves, the results can be very good. Used car dealers do this ALL THE TIME!

I can't speak to how permanent it would be in carpet but SEM on my interior plastic has held up quite nicely over the past 10 years. That said, I've also seen it wash out of fabric which means it might not be "colorfast" if you ever went to shampoo your carpet.

I swapped carpet because I changed from lt grey to black. Though I dyed (sprayed) the lt-grey door panels, I wasn't overly confident about saturating carpet well enough for a complete color change....without the fibers drying "clumpy". To dye carpet, I assume that's the trick...hitting the right combo between enough and too much saturation of the fibers.

Plus...I completely dyed the leather seats of an older car to make it look nicer for my daughter. The results were great BUT it did have a paint smell until it went through a hot summer. I would expect the same if attempting entire carpet refurb. For whatever reason, I didn't notice any smell after spraying several panels in my Corvette. I attribute this difference to absorbent vs non-absorbent objects.

 

I see heat insulation on your trans tunnel. I'm thinking about the same for my '95. Is this installed in entire cockpit or just the tunnel, and how effective is it? Seems like my heat problem stems from just tunnel. Thanks

 

I covered the entire interior with sound deadening and reflectix heat insulation. The more the merrier. So far it seems to reduce heat very well. If you search my posts you will see that I have an entire thread dedicated to this.

 

How was the condition of your original jute? The oem jute in the rear of my car looks good and doesn't smell, but the stuff under drivers.pass. side was trashed. Should I refresh, double up or just use the oem jute that is in good condition?

 

Thanks Greg! Your post inspired needed confidence.

I like you ditched the dingy gray carpet and I bought a nice set of torch red and door panels from another member. I recently shampooed it and I don't think I will have to in the future, just a good vacuuming. With that said I am really just doing some plastic pieces, rear speaker grills (concerned about painting plastic/grill carpet at the same time, maybe do them separately) and the kick panels and if I'm feeling brave, maybe repaint the door panels.

 

I am a big fan of only doing things once. Most of my jute padding was in poor shape. We're talkin a car that's 30 years old so I decided to just replace everything. I figured that way it will last a nice long time. Plus if I ever decide to sell her which I probably won't, I'm sure the new owner will appreciate that almost everything is brand new.

 

Your installation is top notch! That is the way to do the job right. Your car will look fantastic when you are finished. You are right about the carpet being cut short on some pieces, my set was the same way. I managed to get mine installed without having to get replacement pieces.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of the completed job.

 

Thanks. I will before starting. Goint to insulate when replacing brake booster

 

There pics of my interior transformation here.

Nothing detailed on ACC carpet swap...not trying to hijack this thread! Just showing how plastics can be renewed/changed with anyone else's interior refurb!

Keep up the great work!

 

Great pics Gregg! No hi-jacking, A.O. is full of info and that is why he started this thread, to help and you are

 

Okay gang I've been pretty busy on my days off however I did manage to get a little work done on the Corvette. If you haven't seen it already check out my thread on sem color coat application.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...plication.html

I got pretty much all of my interior pieces sprayed. I did decide to try to tackle applying some more carpet and I chose the sill plate pieces to work on. If you have never done this make sure that you have time and really good contact cement, and if U clamps won't hurt either. Below you can see the progress from the time I test fitting the pieces to the gluing to the final piece. I have realized with gluing these pieces it's best to do as much as you can and then walk away and let it sit for a day or two and when you come back to it the areas that are difficult to hold down the glue will be much more tacky and will definitely hold. As always enjoy the pictures and if you have any questions let me know.


Laying out the pieces before I get started

Test fitting to make sure they match up


A little bit of glue a few clamps should do the trick



Starting to look like Factory


I put the sill plate covers on just to help hold the carpet down in place.

 

You should have linked that thread in the first sentence above!

Man...it's been so long since I did my carpet, I can't even remember what I used for glue on those sill pieces! Prolly was some thick, gooey contact cement (like you're mentioned) but that would have bonded immediately and not required clamps? Might want to comment more on that?

Keep up the good work!

 

Done and done, thanks!

 

Question....when I install the foil backed killmat sound deadening, what can I put between it and the PKE antenna so there is no interference with the signal?