Carpet Fitting

[Frank]

Good Morning All
Come on all you carpet fitters.I have just bought a new carpet set from Aldridge with
my pocket money and would really appreciate some advice.Removing the old carpet has
left a residue of adhesive,should i attempt to remove this,if so with what? or can i
safely apply the new adhesive over the top.Would also appreciate some guidance
on what adhesive to use.

Regards
Frank

[V Mad]

Frank, if the old adhesive is not easily coming off, it will provide a good surface for the new adhesive to stick to. Use ordinary contact adhesive (Evo-stick type). One warning: if you fit a piece of carpet, and the glue has set, pulling if off may pull out the pile! I suggest you dont wait to allow the adhesive to set in case it needs repositioning.

Most time consuming part is fitting the carpet piece to the seat belt binnacle; a fiddly job!

Good luck.

[Frank]

Thanks Chris
Presumably a spray adhesive would be ok or would brush application be better and do you apply to both surfaces?
Regards
Frank

[jleyton]

Hi Frank,

I did mine last year and completely endorse Chris's comments about pulling the pile through and also the seat belt binnacle.

In fact, because I knew I'd be taking mine out again to do some more work, I didn't glue mine at all (apart from the aforementioned seat belt binnacle) and it all sits very nicely with the added bonus of being easy to remove for anti corrosion treatment and not having the worry about pulling the pile through if you ever have to remove it !

In fact I think I'm going to leave mine unglued permanently. The only area that you can tell is on the heel board but the top is trapped under the front of the rear seat and the bottom is held reasonably taut by the rear footwell carpets.

Why not try leaving it unglued to see what you think as it's easy enough to glue later if you want.

Having said all that, I'm a great believer in using ordinary evo stick contact glue (used it for my headlining replacement and other trim bits in the car) and it is definitely a case of coating both surfaces then resisting the temptation to put them together until they are truly tacky.

Good luck and cheers

Julian

[V Mad]

Thanks Chris
Presumably a spray adhesive would be ok or would brush application be better and do you apply to both surfaces?
Regards
Frank

I rarely find that spray-on is strong enough, I would use brush-on. I would also go along with Julian's comment to some extent about not gluing, except I would apply glue to some limited areas eg concave parts where carpet is needed to follow contour of body; and obviously vertical surfaces.
Evo-stick is expensive for large areas; there are some good deals for trade contact adhesive on ebay. I suggest at least 1/2 litre, which should leave some spare for other jobs later.

[Ian F]

Frank

Just completed mine and go with most of the comments already made. I have glued mine however, at least on the sills and rear heelboard - although I agree it may not be strictly necessary.

I cleaned some of the glue residue off, but rustproofed and Hammerite'd the inside floor before re-fitting. Main issue for me was the floor carpets (complete with underlay) from Coverdale were slightly too large. I ended up ungluing where they had overlapped the edges to the underlay, reducing the size slightly and re-glueing. Dare not go too small as I am sure the underlay will compress on its own in time - but better too big than too small. Used aerosol/spray glue provided with the carpets but when I ran out - sent her indoors to a local carpet fitter (Plenty in Kidderminster) and bought another can. Seems to work well.

Seat belt console was a fiddle, but the carpet for it was pre-cut and once trimmed and glued - quite proud of it. Waiting now for new dash, then I can re-build the dash console and get ready for the scorching red hot summer - I hope.

Good luck - it will be worth it.

Ian F

[Arbman Al]

I'm going to be doing my carpets soon.
If the carpet is not glued, how does it attach in the footwell area behind the pedals and by the fuse board?

My old carpets flop down in these areas.

Cheers.....Al

[marcusclive]

I'm going to be doing my carpets soon.
If the carpet is not glued, how does it attach in the footwell area behind the pedals and by the fuse board?

My old carpets flop down in these areas.

Cheers.....Al

Mine do that as well, would also be interested to know.

[Ian F]

Al

On mine the carpet has the cut-out for the column on the drivers side, and "wraps around it", with this and the thickness of the carpet it just stays there (or so I hope). This was the same with the carpets I took out, although they were a cr*p fit over the tunnel beneath the heater. Passenger footwell tucks slightly beneath the fuse board and again holds up in place - no glue or fastenings needed - so far.

Ian F

[Moraystag]

Gents did mine last July. The only place I glued was the heal board in the back. All the rest I secured with velcro for ease of removal in the future if required. Along the tunnel all velcro strips. Where your feat go and up the sides, just about everywhere I needed. Has,nt moved and sits perfect. To be perfectly honest I used about 3 meter of 30mm width in total which is not a lot and the result is good. Carpet came from Aldridge. However I had a very clean surface to stick the velcro to as it had just been re floored and sprayed. Old glue should come off with cellulose thinners and a good cloth though as I removed some old glue this way

Go for velcro it's pretty easy and not all that dear. If you need to lift carpets in the future for any reason BINGO no damaged carpet

Mike

[Frank]

Thanks everyone i will offer the carpet pieces up first and then probably stick done
where necessary,might also consider velcro
Kind Regards to all
Frank

[hophead]

One question I have - do people fit sound proofing under the carpet when replacing or not? As once the seats are sorted, a new carpet is on the list for later this year...

[Ian F]

Hophead - Mine came with sound proofing attached to the tunnel and floor areas carpet but none on the sills or rear kick panel - but that helps in fixing them.

I would say yes - you need the sound insulation.

Ian F