Carpets II - The Revenge

Well following on from the other thread - http://www.renaultalpineownersclub.com/ ... php?t=6556

I today carried on with the re-carpeting work.

So far so good. Front side panels are done so I thought I'd replace the engine bay cover.



Four way stretch as I said before so wrinkle free.

For the side panels I actually used the old fabric as a template. The other panels I've made oversized and carefully then trimmed to size using a stanley knife. There's no room under the side glass to do this, but this method worked perfectly even if it was a little more tricky to get the material exactly lined up.




Moving on to the interior, drivers seat out, you can see how bad the carpet is after 25 years.



So main carpet ripped out (pretty easy to do) and then offside trim (just below the lever for the luggage compartment) and I find this:



Obviously I have attacked it here with my screwdriver but needless to say it was totally invisible prior to removing the panel, carpet and kickplate. It was a relatively small hole in both places but the steel was paper thin, made of rust.

Good (!) news would appear to be that you can feel up inside the actual door pillar and from what I can tell that seems very solid. Totally smooth and rust free in fact, so it seems to be restricted to the inside of the sill - there's no evidence from the outside and it's never been picked up on in an MOT or service, so I'm hoping it can be welded and patched quite effectively.

I'm expecting the other side to be the same as that certainly shows evidence of rust staining

I'd noticed this previously and it was another reason to pull out the carpets. I was expecting to have to clean and hammerite that, but now I'm not so sure.

Anyway it was booked into the local garage tomorrow to have the MOT stuff looked at, so more to add to the list.

Two steps forward and three steps back.

[phildini]

...Good (!) news would appear to be that you can feel up inside the actual door pillar and from what I can tell that seems very solid. Totally smooth and rust free in fact.....

Best thing to do is remove the door. Then where the wiring goes through into the car you can then check it properly and will have the opportunity to spray some cavity way

To be honest you can view without removing the door and that looks good.

What's worrying is that I've seen the rust stains on other members cars - it's all hiding behind that carpet and trim.

....So main carpet ripped out (pretty easy to do) and then offside trim (just below the lever for the luggage compartment) and I find this:Two steps forward and three steps back.

that looks familiar.....

Well car is back from the garage, welding done, MOT passed. Waiting on tax disc now, so today I finished the carpets.



Sorry it's a tad blurred, the light was fading so the phone was struggling to get a good focus.



Works well with the new mats I think. You can see in the one above that I followed the ribbed contours on the footplate. (You can also see the bits of grass I need to hoover up - disadvantage of cutting and glueing on the lawn)




I need to retrim the stereo surrounf before anyone comments. I've got some biscuit colour leather to match the doorcards, just need some time to make up a new plate. And some more spray on impact adhesive as I've run out.

[mettersl]

Looks very tidy!

Glad I let you do that job now ,looks great
.I've just laid a carpet in middle boys room ,it's only a simple square but I managed to muck it up

[BIG_MVS]

That looks like a proper job Darren well done. Infact it looks far better than DaveG's efforts back in the day...

Cheers boys.

Yep I'm pleased with it. I'd say if you're going to do it then go for it, it's not that tricky, getting the seats out is the hardest bit.

The fabric isn't a normal heavy duty carpet, but with mats in place it doesn't really have to be that hard wearing and anything is better than the old stuff once it's past its sell by date.

I should add that after 6 hours of cutting and glueing I could only see Fuzzy Felt shapes everytime I closed my eyes

What was the extent of the rust in the sill?

having looked at the post by Simon says, previously.

Did you have to cut any fibreglass out?


Carpets look great with the seats.

Dave

Glad to see you have her back on the road after a long gap.javascript:emoticon(':D')

No the rust stopped short of the floor or fibreglass.

I think they were very careful when they cut it out though as the steel panels they made up are certainly the height of the sill and fairly long on the drivers side so it's not just a few holes that have been patched, more a replacement of that section.

Passenger side was not so bad, smaller panel and just on the leading corner of the door.

I guess a bit of luck maybe, as sticking your finger through the hole you could gauge the extent of the corrosion and it where it wasn't rusty it was still pretty smooth.

Hi Darren

Did you remove the centre console? Or can you just push the carpet up under it?

Cheers

Nick

No need to remove the console, the carpet just goes up to or under. (The same is true of the original when you rip it out)

No need to remove the console, the carpet just goes up to or under. (The same is true of the original when you rip it out)

I see what you mean now

Just finished the passenger side. Wish the car had a flat floor!