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Carpet installation, lesons learned

Joined
Feb 1, 2002
Messages
185
Location
Falls Church, Va
Corvette
1972 Coupe ZZ4 / 4 Speed
Last weekend we installed a new carpet set in a 1980. I won't bore you with all the details, but here are some of the things we wouldn't do differently next time:


1) Do the little parts first. Speaker grills, kick panels. These things take a lot of time. The kick panels have staples in them. PITA


2) Do the front first. The left and right are two seperate jobs. The back will take longer.

3) The storage compartment lids on latter C3's have a plastic edge which the carpet tucks under. The plastic is really easy to break too.

4) The seat bolts, the original carpet is cut so that the carpet will "flap" over the seat tracks. They cut three sides. NOT the side towards the front of the car.

5) The center console carpet doesn't come with the fiberboard, you should buy that too.

6) You'll need the Torx star to remove the seat belt bolts. They will be very tight.

7) you'll need new insulation to go under the pad.

-Gööney0
 
Glad you got it done though eh? Im going to replace all the interior this month (nov.) and Im starting w/ the carpet so this is very helpful. If you want you can bore me w/ the details, I wont mind. I was very curious about the center console stuff. I looked at the stuff in Ecklers and Corvette america and didnt hear any mention of the cardboard underneath. Can you buy this from them along w/ the carpet or do you have to get it somewhere locally? How do you get it to stay as well?

Two more questions: How do you get the carpet around the front seat if there not cut for it? Just cut it yurself? Where do you get the padding from as well? Sorry for 20 questions but Im a details guy.

Steve'O
 
Macgyver,

Well... its not done, cause it's wasn't my car! :-( I still have to do mine.

I don't know how he bought the center console sides.

The pad comes attached to the bottom of the carpet set. But the sound deadener is not included.

As for the seats here is what we did:

1) remove seats

2) replace carpet. You can find the front two hole by pushing a punch through the bottom of the car. Then measure to find the back, or put the seat in for a minute and poke around.

-Gööney0
 
Just finished mine last weekend.

Only differance I had was I did the back first so i wouldn't be crawling all over the new front carpet.

I didn't have a lot of luck with the spay adheasive on the small parts, regular contact cement worked much better.

Any hints on getting the console sides to fit better? mine look ok but not perfect.


Mike
 
Yeah the console sides don't fit great.

As for the glue, we used Weatherstrip adhesive. It works like a champ, but it's yellow and can make a mess...


-Gooney0
 
Also when removing the old carpet, set it on the ground/floor exacly the way it was installed. THis makes it alot easer to match up pieces. I used a 3M spray with good success, not much clean up.
Gary
 
I finished up the interior on Rare about a month ago :D Check out This Thread in the L81VetteRegistry Forum there are a few photo attachments toward the bottom of page one ;)

Mike,
I think your 78 and my 81 are probably the same side console panel design. If you like I will take the seats out and make a copy of the panels and send them to you. I traced the old console panels and made new ones from 1/4" particle board.
 
I bought the new panel precut but they still don't fit really well. But at this point they will stay as is. I was just wondering if there are any tricks to make it fill all the gaps. Thanks for the offer.
Mike
 
hello , i have an extra right side console piece if someone needs it. it's the part that covers the right side of the radio..
let me know i am negotiable or will trade...

robin
 
I did the carpet in my 80 last spring.I got some relectix(metalic heat barrier)from Lowes but have seen it at Pepboys since for about $20.00 a roll.Get 2 rolls at least!I also used the aluminum tape to seal all the seams and it sure was cooler all summer here in the Texas sun.I laid out the new carpet for a couple days so it flattened out from being folded up in the box !
As far as the console panels mine were both broken in 2 or 3 places so I got some 1/4 particle board as well and stenciled from originals as close a possible.I then fitted them before applying carpet and used a box cutter to work out the high spots then applied carpet and they fit great!
Your right on the storage panels.Took me forever to get then cleaned up and used dremel to shave them down enough to get the plastic strips around them.I did a quick fit then then glued carpet and put tool boxes on them to get the carpet on securely and let them dry first then put outside rings on and razored off the little excess.I also used some short screws to secure the outter rings on for a good tight fit.
It all turned out well and took a couple evenings to do but well worth it as really cooled off the cockpit.Don't have any pics for ya but good luck with it.
 

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