71 carpet questions

[Pete B.]

Hi All!

I am in the home stretch on my body off and am beginning to plan the carpet installation. I apoligize if these are repeats, but I did not see my questions answered specifically. Car is a coupe.


What did the factory put in as far as underlayment was concerned? Mine had been replaced and the PO glued down sheet foam where there was not jute attached to the new carpet. So there was a mish mash of scraps glued in. My carpet kit from Al Knock has jute in maybe 70% of the carpet area.

Where is, if anywhere, the carpet glued to the car in some fashion (directly to the body) Example; was it glued to the bulkhead, directly behind the seats?..there appears to be old spray adhesive there. And there seems to be some glue splashed about in other areas...I just want to be able to plan ahead for a good job. (I'm using Al Knocks carpet)

Besides the high tech insulations, can I just use more of the jute padding? Realistically, the car is a small block, I'm not worried about noise and it wont be going on road trips so I'm not too concerned about heat.

Thanks in advance....Pete

[Edward J.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

Hi All!

I am in the home stretch on my body off and am beginning to plan the carpet installation. I apoligize if these are repeats, but I did not see my questions answered specifically. Car is a coupe.


What did the factory put in as far as underlayment was concerned? Mine had been replaced and the PO glued down sheet foam where there was not jute attached to the new carpet. So there was a mish mash of scraps glued in. My carpet kit from Al Knock has jute in maybe 70% of the carpet area.

Where is, if anywhere, the carpet glued to the car in some fashion (directly to the body) Example; was it glued to the bulkhead, directly behind the seats?..there appears to be old spray adhesive there. And there seems to be some glue splashed about in other areas...I just want to be able to plan ahead for a good job. (I'm using Al Knocks carpet)

Besides the high tech insulations, can I just use more of the jute padding? Realistically, the car is a small block, I'm not worried about noise and it wont be going on road trips so I'm not too concerned about heat.

Thanks in advance....Pete

Pete, I did a 68 conv. last summer for a friend with the original carpet and the underlayment was a rubber backed jute through out the whole car,with the exception of the area behind the seat. just cemented to the fiberglass.

The replacement carpets are nothing like the original in respect the the backing just the 80/20 loop is correct and sometimes the loop is not correct, it has a corn row patten in the loop for the C3 cars. The Al Konch carpet is what I installed also, the heel pad was not the same and the imo marking was not there.There was also a problem with one of the rear pieces being cut incorrectly so we sent it back with the origianl piece and he made up a correctly fitted piece.( this was the rear area where the conv. hinges)

The heat barrier kit are great, I did this to my owe 72 car when I installed my carpet It will help with the heat and nosie.

[Jim M.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

Pete, when I installed new carpet in my 69, I too noticed old glue stuck to the bulkhead directly behind the seats, but I had no way of telling if the carpet behind the seats was original or not since the whole care was really a basket case. I decided not to glue that portion down and just let it lay over the bulkhead. I can't see any reason for that piece to be glued.However the portion of that piece at the very top that rolls over and down to the storage compartment doors needs to be glued to properly install the storage compartment surround and doors. I also glued the fenderwell peices and of course the verticle piece at the very back. I used the 3M spray contact cement found at a local auto parts shop. Oh, and I didn't glue anything in the front, from under the seats to the front bulkhead, no real need to. Jim

[Reba W.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

Jim's description matches what most often is seen on original cars. Original material did not have the opaque backing on the piece behind the seats; thus, it lay flatter without being glued.

I have seen some restored cars that have the carpet behind the seat glued, but it usually has puffy places. The fit seems to be better with no glue.

[Randy C.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

I just replaced the carpet in my '71 small block automatic, and here's where I found the glue:

(1) For the front floor pieces, the glue was only on the outboard sides. There was no sign of glue forward, in the middle, or in any inboard area. The number "103" (don't know what it means) was written on the passenger side of the transmission tunnel, partially obscured by the shift console.
(2) Piece behind the seats - there was glue on the upper part, above where the wiring harness comes across. The glue died out below the wiring harness. There was no glue over the top, but there was signs of glue on the back side where the piece heads down towards the rear compartments.
(3) Back center piece - no sign of glue at all. And lots of option markings on the flat portion just behind the compartment opening (UH6 (I believe the "H" is really an "A" as I do have the factory alarm system), 437 (don't know what this means), AC, M40).
(4) Pieces over the wheel wells - lots of glue on the upper part, from about where the vent tubes come across, and down to the adjustable bracket that is used as a brace for the quarter panel on each side (screw goes thru the panel and into the bracket). Just a little bit of glue below that point.

The old glue was a yellowish color. Although I'm not the original owner of my car, and I just replaced carpet that I had put in the car 30 years ago, I'm pretty sure that old glue was the original stuff. The carpet I put in back in 1980 wasn't glued in at all - it just laid there.

Now that I've finished this carpet installation (I used a kit from Romeo Engineering Inc and it appears to be a quality product), I'd like to get the same kit and do it again so I won't make the mistakes I made with this installation!

Randy C.

[Pete B.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

Thank you all for the responses! I had the opportunity to look at a friends 71 this weekend to confirm some of your observations.

Thanks Again!!!

[Alan S.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

Hi Pete,
Here are some of the pictures we talked about.
1. The driver's side wheel well... all the padding has black rubber backing and is loosely glued in place.
2. The bulkhead behind the seat... just plain jute at the top (faced the rear compartment), glued in place
3. The rear compartment floor and rear bulkhead... just plain jute glued to the top and rubber backed jute loose on the floor of the compartment.
If you'd like some more detailed pictures just let me know!
Regards,
Alan

[Pete B.]

Re: 71 carpet questions

Thanks Alan! It helps a lot!
Sort of demonstraits that insulation was not real complete.