replacing carpet in a "66"

[ltdpt]

Getting ready to replace the carpet in our 1966 deluxe. We took the old carpet out, it had the big metal and rubber section for the drivers side front that was pretty much gone. the new carpets offered have just the "heel gaurd" made into the carpet. My queston is, do i need to remove the two metal brackets, spot welded to the floor pan, that the old section screwed down to. it looks like it won't be used with the new carpet.

[Toronado66]

I'd recommend getting a new driver 'mat' from a parts car (the metal piece). It will look way better than the simple 'heel' pad you get with replacement carpet...you'll just put the entire 'mat' over the top...hopefully the heel pad will be entirely covered. Of course then you need a reproduction rubber mat to go on the metal 'mat' piece.

Darwin Falk
TOA#7

[Stubbe]

I cut the carpet around the mounts and got a new matt from fusick

[ltdpt]

Thanks for the info, i didn't know Fusick made a replacement mat, now....................where did I put the metal frame??????????lol

[Stubbe]

I am sure someone here has one if it is bad...one other think I did was carefuly cut the stitching off that heel pad and removed it before installing the pan and matt. One more thing leave extra carpet when cutting it I used a soldering iron to make the holes for the seat and seatbelt holes and set the seat in and cut along the line left by the adhesive from the old carpet.

Mike

[Toronado66]

I am sure someone here has one if it is bad...one other think I did was carefuly cut the stitching off that heel pad and removed it before installing the pan and matt. One more thing leave extra carpet when cutting it I used a soldering iron to make the holes for the seat and seatbelt holes and set the seat in and cut along the line left by the adhesive from the old carpet.

Mike

Um... To clarify... the seats are NOT originally mounted on top of the carpeting at all. No need for a soldering iron to make holes. If you have to make holes to mount the seats, you're doing it differently than it originally was. You should be bolting the seat directly on to the uncarpeted floor. The carpet was then cut around the mounted seat to lay completely over and to totally hide the bolt heads. So, for example, to get the seat removed from the car originally, you have to remove the door sill plates... then fold the carpet up to even get at the bolt heads. The original carpeting just was cut into as in U shaped slots... that lay exactly over the top of the entire bolt heads... completely concealing the mounts.

Darwin Falk
TOA#7

[ltdpt]

Well, after much searching, we did scrap the metal frame for the mat, so....................if anyone has one we would be intersted in buying it. we ordered the new headliner, carpet & trunk mat from a company called "Stock Interiors" in S.C. Anyone ever use this company? So far they have been very helpfull. i will post when we get the parts and let you know what we think.

[Stubbe]

I would get samples first I found that SMS had the only exact matching materail

[ltdpt]

Well, our carpet & headliner arrived this week for our "66". We will be installing them this weekend, i will let you know how it went! We did order from "Stock Interiors" in SC, very nice to do business with, very prompt in delivery. I checked laid out the carpet & headliner, headliner looks like an exact match, we upgraded to a plush carpet so I can't compare it to the original.

[roland]

@ toronado66

...You should be bolting the seat directly on to the uncarpeted floor. The carpet was then cut around the mounted seat to lay completely over and to totally hide the bolt heads...

Interesting - but seems be an easy way to ruin a new carpet.

What is the right way to do that if there is no old carpet to copy the cuts?

Roland #860