Well, it's been waaaaay to long to get this project done, but I'm nearing the end. I have had the dash and carpet out for over a year now and it's time to get this thing done. I've refreshed the dash cluster and all gauges, new bulbs, polished lenses, new woodgrain, new headlight switches and cig lighter, rechromed radio bezel, steering column bottom cover, and gauge cluster housing. Freshened the firewall insulation pad, painted the heater box, and repainted the clutch & brake pedals. Cleaned and SEM painted the gas pedal pad. Still need to SEM paint the kick panels yet. The floors are very nice and original. Cleaned a small amount of surface rust, Oshpho treated, epoxy primed and sealed floors. Installed Dynomat Extreme. Repainted the entire metal dash surround, NOS ashtray, repainted glovebox, new glovebox liner. Rebuilt the vent flappers (cleaned, painted, made new seals). New vent cables and knobs. Finally ready to install carpet. Have a new carpet kit from AAC, correct LOOP pile and press molded for AUTOMATIC car as I was informed by Flynbuick and Duane Heckman to get the AUTO carpet and trim for 4 speed. Just bought the NOV edition of MUSCLE CAR REVIEW and there is a pretty good article on carpet install. I bought the 08090 3M adhesive today. I have new shifter boots as well. So, I'm looking for any extra advice from the board BEFORE I begin fitting and trimming the carpet. I'm a little anxious about getting it perfect (I'm very picky) and trimming around the shifter cutout and getting it glued in with a RINKLE FREE finish. So, let me hear all your expert advice as I want to get the car done and take it to the TURKEY ROD RUN in DAYTONA BEACH!!! Thanks and I'll post some pics!!
Some pics. Note my helper sanding the clutch & brake pedals. He's my 4 year old and I can't do a thing without him....and I love it!! Practice cussing? I'm an expert so no practice required. I hope it's not going to be THAT bad. Any tricks for trimming around the shifter hole and getting wrinkles out? The MCR article shows them using a heat gun to work the wrinkles out. How about a steamer? I don't have either but I'll get whatever I need to do it right.
OK, here goes... Take the shifter lever off the shifter so that the carpet lays flat. I leave the carpet to settle down on its own for a couple of days. After it settles, if you can get under the car, trace the shifter hole on the bottom side of the carpet with a sharpie. Cut the hole inside the line because you can't add if you make the cut out too large. If you can't get under the car to trace the opening, start cutting in an "X" pattern staring approximately in the center of the hole. Then enlarge the hole carefully, once again making sure you don't cut too much. (This all happens after the settling time) I know that some "experts" suggest gluing the carpet, but I don't agree. I've never used glue and the carpets always come out smooth with the 2 day settling system. I agree with the advice to use automatic carpets for Buick 4 speeds. I've found that the 4 speed humps on Chevelles are much larger than Buick humps. (All carpets are made for Chevelles but all A bodies are the same.) When it comes to the kick panels do them last and leave 1/2" extra to what you think you need. Once again, you can't stretch carpet if it's too short. Good luck with it! Harvey
I'll second what Harv said....Don't glue down anything. The carpet already should have jute glued to the back of it. One exception might be areas where you need to ADD JUTE to make up for the "oversized" carpet that all these ACC kits seem to be these days. For example...over the driveshaft tunnel in the rear seat area. I see a lot of these sets with fairly large gaps b/n the carpet underside and the d-shaft tunnel back there. I think it's better to fill the gap with some additional grey jute. You can't "pull" the carpet down closer to the tunnel as the carpet is already molded to the floor pans. If you don't put anything in there the carpet will just sit there ABOVE the tunnel and maybe eventually FOLD SOMEWHERE and flatten out. Then you have an ugly, sharp fold. The trans tunnels can get somewhat oversized also on these ACC carpets. You've hopefully solved most of that problem by purchasing the Automatic carpet set. Still...you may have some extra in there that AGAIN, can't be pushed down without causing a fold somewhere. Extra jute on top of the floorpan/dynomat would be the answer there. To me, what you want is the carpet to set in there nice WITHOUT ANY AIRGAPS...these end up as UGLY FOLDS OR BENDS in the carpet over time. Seat tracks should be THROUGH THE CARPET, not on top. If you have your original carpet you may see a slit or access flap cut where the seat tracks go through the carpet. Bolting the tracks down on top may pull the carpet and distort it/not allow it to settle in. One recent set of ACC carpet I installed was cut short by the supplier out under the front kick panels and also below the inside firewall heater box area...fairly decent gap and we had to take corrective measures. CHECK FOR ALL THESE GAPS FIRST as they may be very close or way off...don't know. But at least you'll know if there are areas of the carpet that can't be "adjusted" much once you start fitting other areas. Take your time and the results should be very nice.
I have never used glue, but on the other hand a few dabs probably would not ultimately be a problem, especially if you have a "bubble" that you just must get to lay flat for sanity during the install. I would suggest unrolling the carpet to let it "relax" and to get it as warm as possible as it seems to help the process and you can get a more accurate read of the carpet-to-floor contours. Of course, winter is not always easiest to warm the carpet up from the sun laying on the driveway. My experience is also that quality of the carpet goes aloooonnnggg way toward a good experience and result. The old rule "measure twice, cut once" appliese to this install in spades, so you may want to do a "rough" cut before the final cuts and remember, you can never, never recheck the other sides enough when you adjust one side or make the final trim cuts. And, the original carpet makes a great guide for cuts, etc. I am very interested in your objective feelings about the Dyna Mat sound deadener as I am getting ready to do the same thing. I used to know an upholstery guy a while back who would regulary install new carpet over old carpet - an overlay - to specifically reduce noise inside the cabin. This really seemed bit of a stretch, I mean old carpet, yuck. But he claimed it worked and you couldn't tell from the end result.
Today I set the carpet out in the sun for a couple of hours to warm things up so I could do some trial fitting to see hows it's going to lay in the car. While the carpet was warming up in the Florida sun I took the time to check that the rear lights all worked since the wiring runs under the carpet. I wanted to make sure that I didn't complete the carpet only to find out I had some kind of electrical wiring problem. I also ran the rear speaker wire and wanted to check the rear defroster. The defroster has never run so I am thinking it's one of 3 things; defrost motor, wiring, or switch. I removed the defroster and tested it direct to a battery and is runs smooth and quiet. So I located the switch (haven't reinstalled dash and gauges/switches yet) and plugged it in; NO JOY, the motor doesn't run. So, I need to run this down before carpet install completion just in case I need to run new wire. So, I clean the floorboards and vacuum everything so I can lay the carpet in for a trial fit. I start with the rear section and it lays into the floorboards VERY NICELY and very well fitted to the contours, a near perfect fit. I'm getting excited and thinking this is going to be smooth and easy....... I take the front section and lay it in the car. The floor footwell areas do form fit nicely, but..... the trans tunnel hump is HUGE compared the actual floor. There is easily a 6" high gap at the middle. This is way more that I think should be dealt with by trying an extra layer of jute padding. It would take about 6 extra layers or more to even come close to filling e space. I'm pretty disappointed as I am trying to get things done before Thanksgiving. I'm going to contact AAC first thing Monday and see what they can do. I would love to get a replacement front section by the middle of the week. Anyhow, keep you fingers crossed for me so I can take the car to the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona!!
Normal fit in my experience. The 4 speed cut is an even more comical fit on the drive tunnel. This is one reason why I said to practice your cussing. I agree with the more jute suggestion that was made. Still their will be more than ideal slop over the tunnel. There is no need to call ACC because they never understand that their tunnel fit for a Buick 4 spped is way off. If they do they have never corrected it.
Hi Jim, After seeing how well the rear section fit I thought that ACC really does know what they're doing. I ordered the AUTOMATIC carpet kit in the hopes this would help with the fit over the tunnel. The fit I have is rediculous. It's really more than I can possibly imagine dealing with. There is no way I'm going to be happy using jute padding to fill a 6-8" high gap over the tunnel. Also, how in the world would I get the console to mount? I'd need 6" long screws to reach the tunnel for mounting. There would also be a very odd fit for the shifter coming up through the boot if things were mounted that high. I can't imagine cutting the carpet unless I learned how to re-seam it with carpet seam tape (special iron to melt the glue) and take out the slack with a seam right in the center of the tunnel. Most of it would be covered with the console, but it's still not right to have to fuss with it this much. Anyhow, I'll look at it some more but I will still contact ACC and complain and ask for a replacement front section.
In my experience they have no replacement to send you that is superior unless you got a 4 speed carpet by mistake. Pay a pro to come over to cut the tunnel to fit.
Your oversized front carpet would be ideal for someone with a Tremek 5 speed and raised drive shaft tunnel...
Sounds like the 4 spd carpet set....may be worth trying to get an exchange on the front part. Same thing I went through on a recent 4 speed car...ridiculous amount of extra space!! Is this a console car?? If you end up with the same deal on an exchange don't lose hope. You should be able to get away with a cut/trim on the carpet from the shifter area forward. Essentially, what you would do is find the "line" where any exposed area of the slice is the most out-of-sight and the shortest. Usually this will be top dead center on the tunnel where just a little peeks out from under the front edge of the console. You could probably offset your slice/seam some to one side just to move the seam out of the natural line of sight (which the top center would be). I did this on a '70 Olds console car and the console is a different shape. Nonetheless, there were a few inches of carpet out in front of the console that were exposed. I did the cut offsetting it slightly to the Driver's side. You have a number of choices...slice it, trim CAREFULLY (a little at a time to sort of "sneak up" on the right amount). You don't want to overtrim to the point where you are pulling up on the sides of the carpet that run down the sides of the tunnel. Just enough so it lays flat. Make sure you have the areas down in the floor pans all done and fit. In other words...this would likely be your last step in the process. Now....you can use a good carpet tape underneath to join the two cuts. You can even get in there with some good strong thread (Black thread if the carpet's black) and push the nap aside so you can feed the needle straight into the rubbery base material of the carpet. Obviously, you don't want to pull the thread extremely tight where it starts bunching up the carpet. Just enough to hold the edges together. Another option....leave one side of the "cut" long and trim away the nap from it...this would then be a tab that would slide under the other edge. This technique would be a lap type joint instead of a butt type joint (with the thread). You can then use some GOOD glue to glue the "tab" onto the underside of the other part. Remove any jute from back of the topside piece of the tab so you have a good surface to glue the tab under. Removing the nap on the underside part of the tab gives you a good glue surfacea also. You need some good contact cement like Weldwood (cheap to buy in a small bottle at Lowes/HDepot..you brush it on BOTH surfaces and wait for it to tack up...read the instructions). OOOOOPS!!---You have a gap!!!!----Not a problem. You saved the "trimmings" off other parts of the carpet didn't you!!?? You can do some surgery by cutting away a slice of the carpet and gluing it into the gap (think hair transplant surgery!!). This technique won't get you a discount at The Hair Club for Men or anything like that but it will serve to hide any gaps. Don't over-worry it....building these cars is never easy. Most of these parts need a little tweaking and fitting so that's part of the challenge. Definitely a labor of love. What the heck anyway....you are now a "customizer":beers2:
Patton, It does seem like they may have sent me a 4 speed carpet set. The advice you offer is exactly the scenarios I was thinking about last night as I went ti sleep mulling this over. My car is bucket seats and it has the shifter console but not the larger storage console. So, the carpet will also be seen between the front bucket seats. I need to look at it some more to get a better feel for how much excess material I would have to trim. I still want to try a new front section of carpet as I have been taking my time on the complete dash restoration project and everything is coming out better than I was hoping. It would be frustrating for me to have the carpet be an area of problems. I'm very picky and I have high standards for myself. If there is a seam and it's not quite right I will ALWAYS see it every time I get into the car. I know that 99% of other people would never know or see it, but I would know its there. In the end I'm sure it will all work out fine, I just like to do things the correct way and the front carpet section I have currently is NOT the right piece. I'm going to redirect efforts to reinstalling the dash and gauges as well as glove box and radio and other trim pieces. I'll keep you all posted.
When I did the carpet on Gary's 70 4 speed car, I had to move the front section way forward towards the firewall to minimize the "hump". I had only a inch or 2 overlap between the front/rear sections.Where the front/rear meet in the middle, I used hot glue to "join" the front and rear together, starting in the middle and working towards the rockers, gluing 6-8" at a time ,then switching sides. This eliminated the gaps between front/rear that are seen-between the buckets at the back of the console, and on the sides by the seat belts. Install the sill plates AFTER the seats are installed to avoid scratching them when wrestling with the seats. Good Luck!
Called 1A Auto this morning to discuss my situation with the ACC carpet I bought through them. Very helpful and understanding and asked me to email pictures and they would send them to ACC to discuss. I told them the product numbers from the box and they said it is an AUTOMATIC carpet set based on the numbers (still may have been miss-boxed with a 4 speed set). I specifically ordered the AUTO set to get the smaller molded hump area. I took photos and emailed them. Got a call back a couple of hours later from 1A Auto. Said they sent pics to ACC and they said it should have been a 4 speed set since the clutch pedal was in the photo.......arghhh. Anyhow, I speak with Duane today and he talks me through the "extra layers of Jute" scenario and how it is a common practice. So I took the jute from the old carpet and laid it in as a sub layer. Then I took the new molded carpet and did another trial fit........ I was surprised at how much better it fit. Not perfect but at least an 80% improvement. I think I can play with the footwell areas enough to make this work out to an acceptable finish. I just glued the old jute padding in for the front section of carpet. Tomorrow I'll work on gluing the rear section and then getting the front glued in. I will use a minor amount of the 3M 8090 spray adhesive to hold things in place and keep the carpet from sliding when getting in-out of the car. I'll post more pics when finished.....
ACC has a memory of convenience. Their 4 speed specific Buick carpet is worse on the hump than what you have. They say it fits. They have been told by customers like me and I am sure Duane before but they never seem to come to grips with it.
Ok - rear carpet section is installed, glued and mounting holes trimmed. I cut another section of JUTE to put on top of the tunned to see if a second layer (in addition to the jute glued to the back of the new carpet) would make the fit even better. It did help some with further removing the excess volume of carpet in this area. Thinking ahead I wanted to see how the shifter console fit with all the extra JUTE under the carpet. It seems like it sits high since all the extra JUTE is under the carpet. The front chrome TriShield emblem housing seems to sit very close to the bottom of the metal dash surround and the ashtray area. I looked for some online poictures and found a couple from Flynbuicks restoration thread. They help some but I would like some better pictures showing a closeup of just how close the console is to the bottom of the dash. THe last thing I want to do is end up solving the carpet problem with extra JUTE and then creating another problem with the positioning of the console. Can some of you send me some close up pics of the shifter console and how close it sits to the bottom of the dash? Thanks!!
Well, I removed the 2nd extra layer of jute because I felt it would have raised the height of the shifter console to be too close the bottom of the dash. I then worked with the front section doing another trial fit. Figured I could stretch it side-to-side a bit to pull it down over the trans tunnel just a little bit more and work it a bit wider into the footwell areas. I then made a template with poster board to do the trimming for the shifter. Mounted the lower shifter boot and boot ring. I then cut a small "H" for the center section of the shifter to come through the carpet. I made sure I hade the driver footwell area exactly where I wanted it and tried my best to position the heel mat squarely below the pedals. Moved and stretched things to get them where I wanted them. Peeled back the driver footwell area and sprayed some 3M 8090 adhesive. Worked things into place and I'm pleased with that side. Now I smoothed things up and over the tunnel near the shifter to work down against the tunnel as tightly as I could. Took my shifter cutout template and marked the carpet with chalk. Since I had not glued the passenger side footwell I could lift the carpet over the tunnel and used scissors to trim for the shifter boot. Then stretched to reposition the passenger side. Got it where I was happy and peeled it back to apply adhesive. Worked it into place. Again happy with the position. Trimming the edges and tucking the top under the firewall insulation matt. I'll admitt that when I first trial fit the carpet I could not believe that it could be made to fit well since the area over the trans tunnel was so sloppy and loose. Installing the extra layer of JUTE only over the tunnel made a HUGE difference. That combined with stretching the carpet side-to-side to pull things down over the tunnel and a bit deeper width wise in the footwell made things work out nicely. I'll post some more pics tonight.
