Xanth's Interior Build/Restoration (Page 4/6)
Xanth JUL 03, 04:31 PM
The visors and Sunshade were done by FieroNews.net, FieroThomas on here.

The visors are beautiful, I know he had some issues with my chosen material but they came out very nice.

The new sunshade bag is very nice, made of Faux leather it feels of very high-quality. It is very supple to the touch, much nicer than the factory vinyl bag. It doesn't have the thick lining on the inside, but I don't think that is a problem at all.
Xanth AUG 17, 12:46 PM
Well, I forgot to grab a picture but I managed to snag one of the older FieroStore repro carpets on ebay. It has the correct salt and pepper pattern to match the factory carpet.

What I need to do now is find a way to remove the foot pads from a factory carpet and put them on this one.
matchmade AUG 17, 07:13 PM
That's looking absolutely incredible, I may have to borrow a few of your ideas when I get around to the interior of my project car. I second the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers NOTHING cleans out all the ground in dirt as easily.
Xanth SEP 19, 06:18 PM
Today's Project:



I'm uploading more pictures now.
Xanth SEP 19, 06:39 PM
Okay, a while ago I acquired an old FieroStore carpet off Ebay. The thing that makes it special is it actually has the correct salt and pepper style pattern as stock, unlike the solid colors available now.

First thing, take apart the interior pieces and pull out the old carpet piece:



Now, the common practice with these seems to be to install the new FieroStore carpet directly over the old carpet. The FieroStore carpet does not have the molded foam, only a pad underneath so I can understand why. However, I am not going to get new carpet just to leave my old carpet underneath.

Here is the underside of the original carpet, showing the molded foam:


And here is the molded foam, now liberated from the carpet:
Xanth SEP 19, 06:52 PM
Next step, the insulation:



I used my old carpet as a template for cutting out the insulation, then fit and trimmed it in the car.

Fitting in pretty good:


And now the foam pad to smooth everything out. With the pad in place you don't feel any of the floor moldings or ribs:
Xanth SEP 19, 07:22 PM
And here's a close-up of the replacement carpet, you can see it has the correct salt and pepper color scheme:


Working it into place:





Here's a shot comparing the original door carpeting, to the new carpeting, to my eyes the new one is just about dead-on:
Xanth SEP 19, 07:24 PM
Same song, second verse:


Oh noes! This side of the car was soaked in coolant from a broken heater core before I got it, I'm guessing that's what caused this. Project for another day.


Insulation and foam in place:


Carpet down:
Xerces_Blackthorne SEP 19, 07:40 PM
Xanth, how hard was it to lay the carpet? I'm looking at putting new carpet in myself from automotiveinteriors.com and would like to know what I'm getting myself into... What tools are needed? What all needs to be removed to get the old carpet out?

Can't wait to see how this turns out, looks really good so far.

Oh yea, how hard was it to redo the speaker grills? I have new covers coming from Rodney's website... What did you use for glue to stick everything down?
Xanth SEP 19, 07:51 PM
Doing the carpet isn't too bad, the fitment is decent, not great. I haven't used an automotive interiors carpet. though it will probably be similar. Its a bit wrinkly right now, but I expect it will smooth out over time then I may use some trim adhesive to bond it to the foam backing.

To make things easier for yourself, take out the interior 1/4 panel, the lower trim, and the center console pieces. As you can see in the pics I left the front console in, but its actually easier if you take it out. All you really need is the 13mm wrench for the seats, a torx for the seatbelt bolts (I can't remember what the size is), the interior torx bit, and the 7mm driver for the interior trim screws. The carpet just pulls up, it will probably stick to the floor a bit but its not really secured down. You can carefully remove the foam backing just prying at it with your fingers, or at least I was able to. The difficult of removing the foam probably depends on the condition of the carpet. Some good snips are very helpful, with the Fierostore carpet there was some trimming needed on the outer edges, there is some excess allowing you to work the carpet into place.

When putting in the new carpet, spend as much time as you need to be certain you have the carpet in the right place before cutting the bolt and seat belt holes. I accidentally cut away too much for the driver's side seatbelt hole, fortunately its not really visible.

The speaker grills weren't too hard. I used a combination of Soldering iron and trim adhesive to do them. I started along one edge, aligning the material with the grain going the direction I wanted. I then used a razor blade to hold a section in place on the bottom, and use the soldering iron to melt the plastic frame into the new material. Do one end, then the opposite end while pulling it tight. I folded the excess material over and used trim adhesive on the underside of the frame. Careful not to spray any adhesive on the underside of your top material, it ruins it.

It is much easier to redo it if you leave in the honeycomb material, but I found the sound was noticeably improved by removing all that material. I'll see if I have any images better showing off the process.

[This message has been edited by Xanth (edited 09-19-2008).]