How to get the rear carpet off?

[speedbird1229]

Hi,

When I drove my Vette on Tuesday, I decided to take a container of anti-freeze with me because I had previously encountered some problems with the cooling system (it's nothing major, the radiator cap was bad and I hadn't tested the new one yet so I was expecting the upper radiator hose to come off the radiator again). I strongly secured the cap on the container and put it inside a plastic bag, then placed it on the rear carpet behind the seats. When I had driven around in the city an hour or so, I noticed the pink anti-freeze flowing over the carpet area and it had leaked badly over the carpet behind the three compartments. I ofcourse quickly drove home and began cleaning it up with carpet cleaning foams that I had. It helped a lot and after I had gone through ~5 cleaning cycles, the major stuff was gone but I still have a pinkish shade to the carpet. I'm so mad at myself that I would want to kick myself but it won't help anymore :bash Since I'm not sure if cleaning with these foams helps enough and due to cold weather the carpet seems to be drying really slow, I'd like to remove that carpet and perhaps take it to chemical cleaning.

Is it complicated to remove it and what are the most complicated parts of the job? I suppose that the whole compartments frame needs to be removed... And is that piece of the carpet ending behind the seats?

Thank you!

 

[6880 Mike]

Rear carpet is glued down. Usually, from the rear bulkhead to in front of the rear compartment doors is one piece of carpet. You should be able to remove it without fiddling with the wheel house carpets or the riser carpet. You will have to remove the rear compartment doors and frame.

It won't be easy to get the rear carpet out with the intent of reinstalling it after you clean it. You will have to work carefully not to tear it or pull threads.

Good luck.

 

[speedbird1229]

Rear carpet is glued down. Usually, from the rear bulkhead to in front of the rear compartment doors is one piece of carpet. You should be able to remove it without fiddling with the wheel house carpets or the riser carpet. You will have to remove the rear compartment doors and frame.

It won't be easy to get the rear carpet out with the intent of reinstalling it after you clean it. You will have to work carefully not to tear it or pull threads.

Good luck.

Thanks. I'm also thinking that perhaps I used so intensive water based cleaners that the bottom of the carpet is also very wet and I know that C3 can't take too much moisture in certain areas or it will slowly begin to rust from there. Perhaps it's really a good idea to just remove the carpet and clean under it as well.

I was just looking at new carpet sets for the whole interior and I believe it would really improve the whole interior if I installed all new carpets. The set seems to be priced at about 250 USD.

How would you rate the carpet installation as a job? Is it fairly simple to do?

 

[Yoda]

....... . . ..How would you rate the carpet installation as a job? Is it fairly simple to do?

It is not a bad job at all. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed doing it and was very happy with the results. Not everything we do to our cars are projects that we can step back and see such improvement and sense of Pride in doing it

Plus it does as you suggest, it gives you the chance to clean up under the carpets and apply paint or rust prevention and restore/replace run new speaker wire or a lot of other improvements that can be done while the carpet is out and before installing the new set

Getting the seats out is easy, taking the side panels off the console is easy and getting the old carpet out is easy. Fitting the New Carpet isn't just throw it in and go. It takes a bit of lay out and fit, esp. for the speaker panels in ther rear, and the kick plates on the passenger and drivers side.

You can also insulate better. Alot of folks have used the aluminum bubble insulation to keep heat out of the cabin. About the only special tool you'll need is a Torq or star type socket to remove the floor mounted seat belts.

One important key is to lay the carpets out in a warm (at least 70 degrees or room temp.) over night or a few hours ~ it makes the carpet easier to bend and fit..

AND, if you have any questions, there are a few seasoned Carpet Installer around here to answer your questions

I would rate the job, on a scale of 1 ~ 10 (with 10 being too tough to tackle) at around 2 or 3 ...

Bud

Here is a link to when I did my Carpet: Rare Phase II toward the bottom of the page are photo's of the new carpet

 

[6880 Mike]

I agree. Carpet replacement isn't as much difficult as it is timely. You want to work slowly and get a good fit. The assembly instruction manual (AIM) will be useful and you will want to keep the old carpet as intact as possible as you remove it in order to be able to use it as a template for the new.

Order your replacement carpet from a reputable Corvette aftermarket provider and order the finest grade. Some of the almost-too-good-to-be- true priced kits are not good quality.

 

[speedbird1229]

Thanks guys, very helpful information. Yesterday I tried to find out how the carpet was attached and after removing the compartment doors and frame, I was able to look under the carpet. There was a white very soft heating material under it (attached to the carpet) and everything was quite wet under there, although not flowing around or anything. In the very bottom there's the stronger plate made of cloth. The bottom surface of the area was damp and I just added old newspapers between every layer to ease the drying. It seems like some previous owner has really carefully installed everything back there so it would be a pain to take it all out. My friend told me about chemical car interior cleaning service where they will just do it inside the car. I must find out if that's an option.

 

[mkapp7879]

My opinion, if you took the compartment door frame off, keep going. Early 79s use the channels along the door jambs to hold the front part in place. The rear clips on under the package shade. Remove the rear speakers or speaker blockoffs and the footman loops(strap mounts)and the carpet should be ready to come out.
Hang it over a fence and thoroughly flush it out with water. Do it a couple times if necessary. Let it dry, and if necessary, use some of the spray dye available from the Corvette vendors to redye it. Mid America uses a relabled SEM brand considered the best.
Spray it thoroughly, let it dry, and take a bristle brush and fluff it up. Spray it as many times as necessary, working the dye into the roots of the carpet.

I had to do this on the pass side of one of mine. Heater core leaked sometime in the past and who ever repaired it didn't do anything about the carpet. It always just felt grimey. Now it's good as new, feels and smells clean. I put it off for years, glad I finally cleaned it.

Also, my windows used to fog up, I think the dampness in the carpet caused this.