Solutions for carpet removal and replacement?

[shinyknight]

Hi folks

I've got the idea to replace the carpet of my 1980 911.

It is old, dirty and quite frankly horrible to smell and look at; tried to fix it using spray paint made for carpet, which made things better but the carpet is so old and ruined that is ripping apart in various places.

I've seen a set sold on the site here, but I am not sure if it includes the whole interior or just the carpet...the side panels of the doors also needs some love, and same goes for the rear speaker panel and the rear side panels/targa roll bar trims.

I am tempted to take it to someone and have it done, but I do not know anyone (I am in the bay area), and I suspect that is not cheap, so if the carpet work is easy enough, I may have that done by myself and leave the rest of the work to professionals.

Could you advice? Is carpet replacement something easy to do, for a novice? Do you know a shop in my area that could do the work, and would be convenient to let them do the whole thing directly?

I am not aiming at exact replica nor concourse; I want something that is clean, is for my car and also is not stinky

Thanks in advance for your advices!

[NYNick]

Shiny,

Plenty of posts on this topic, and our host sells the kits. The job is not for the faint of heart=time and patience. There are a lot of pieces to fit, no directions, and plenty of clean up and ripping out to do.
If you get it done by an outsider, make sure he's done a 911 before.

Nick

[sobamaflyer]

I just completed gutting my entire interior and redoing every suface, none of it is hard but it's certainly time consuming (took me 2 months of pretty regular nights and weekends).

Pay super careful attention to how it all comes apart, bag up all screws in separate baggies for each item (door panels, door pockets, seat bolts, seat belts, "X" trim screws....etc) Take lots of pics for reference later.

The carpet kit will only be the carpet, but should include door pocket carpet, all floors, and rear seatback carpets. I made new panels for the rear with good success, cleaned up and colorchanged the back deck. You could re-make the door panels or buy new ones. Seat covering kits are available from many places, the list goes on (but don't expect to find one comprehensive "kit")

As noted above there are a bunch of threads documenting this process, you can click my blog below as I did a play by play with a bunch of pictures of mine. Good luck, search is your friend, ask questions

[Guvnor]

I'm in the Bay Area too and bought the complete carpet and leather seat kit from World Upholstery in SoCal (they do nice work). I'm doing the carpet myself and bringing the seats and dash/rear deck to Jack's Auto Upholstery in San Mateo to recover.

I haven't seen Jack's work yet, only going off a recommendation from a friend. I also looked at Mr Stitch, in San Mateo, but he is busy for the next few weeks (and kind of a nut on the phone). Mr. Stitch specializes in installing kits so if you wanted him to do the entire job things add up fast; to the tune of $50 per hour. He quoted me $260 per seat just to recover.

Hope this helps.

Steve

[shinyknight]

Thanks for your reply

NYNick: indeed there are many posts, but it is hard to get a complete set of directions, since every person does it in their own way; I was hoping in something "step by step"

The problem is also that some people just say "yes, I did 911" only to get the job...quicker to ask here instead than trust the shop guy.

Sobamaflyer: 2 months? Wow...that's quite a long time to commit...I thought that in a week, working 3-4 hours a day, was possible to do it. I guess most of the time goes on the cleaning of the old carpet and glue?

Thanks for the advices; I've got the front seats and dyed, since I was not able to find the exact color to match; but now I am planning to cover the side panels and replace the carpet; I will follow your suggestion and carefully keep track of where goes what.

Guvnor: so he charge the same also for carpet? In this case would cost a fortune if it takes more than few days (but if he does a good job and is faster than me for sure, probably should not be more than 1500-2000 for the total right?)

[sobamaflyer]

Originally Posted by shinyknight

Sobamaflyer: 2 months? Wow...that's quite a long time to commit...

Full disclosure: 2 months working 2-3 hours/night 2 or 3 nights/week and a bit on both weekend days. Wife/4 year old maniac/Job keep me hopping. I've seen threads where folks replaced carpet over the weekend. I had a whole lot more than a simple carpet replacement going on.

By my best guess I'd have paid a good shop $6-8k for the labor alone outside of what I spent in materials.

[Guvnor]

Originally Posted by shinyknight

Guvnor: so he charge the same also for carpet? In this case would cost a fortune if it takes more than few days (but if he does a good job and is faster than me for sure, probably should not be more than 1500-2000 for the total right?)

Yes, $50 per hour is his flat rate for kit work. For a carpet kit install, I got the feeling from my phone convo that he takes out old and puts in new carpet as quickly as possible (no real cleaning or renewing of sound proofing materials). I was always planning on doing the carpet myself so never asked him for a time estimate or further details.

[shinyknight]

Originally Posted by sobamaflyer

Full disclosure: 2 months working 2-3 hours/night 2 or 3 nights/week and a bit on both weekend days. Wife/4 year old maniac/Job keep me hopping. I've seen threads where folks replaced carpet over the weekend. I had a whole lot more than a simple carpet replacement going on.

By my best guess I'd have paid a good shop $6-8k for the labor alone outside of what I spent in materials.

I see, so you were doing it part time; I have kids too so I guess I would be in the same situation as you

Since it is my daily drive, I can't start the job unless I finish it...I was planning to take something like a week off and do only that, 8 hours a day, will see if that is realistic (even because once I take all apart I can't just put back the old one...so it is a swim or sink kind of issue).

6-8k is probably out of my wallet range....I guess I can only do it on my own and hope for the best Thanks for the insight!

[shinyknight]

Originally Posted by Guvnor

Yes, $50 per hour is his flat rate for kit work. For a carpet kit install, I got the feeling from my phone convo that he takes out old and puts in new carpet as quickly as possible (no real cleaning or renewing of sound proofing materials). I was always planning on doing the carpet myself so never asked him for a time estimate or further details.

Got it; so he does the quick thing....my only issue is the possibility that the carpet just lift and flap around...as you can have quick and crappy paint job, you can have quick and crappy interior jobs...at that point I prefer to try on my own, and if I mess up at least I can only blame myself (and throw away the money of the material only ).

I can try to give the place a call, and see what they say; Thanks!

[eastbay]

Really, the hardest part is pulling the seats. After that just pull it out, clean the sheet metal and lay in the new.



Part way pic, what are there, only 14, 15 pieces?

[shinyknight]

In that case should be not that hard then...I've replaced the seats

[sobamaflyer]

Daily driver certainly changes the game. It's my toy and didn't hurt my feelings to have it torn all apart in the garage for the hottest, wettest months of an Alabama summer.

I can see the carpet being simply replaced easily over a good weekend of work, assuming you don't uncover floorboards that needed attention like I did. Even then you could disassemble and repair one weekend and ride with no carpet 1 week till you could install new next weekend.

Other parts of the project could handily be done bit by bit while it stays on the road. Biggest thing kept mine off was I took out the windshield to redo the dash and had the seats all apart recovering.

I like the pride of getting it done myself and tend to dump the $ saved on someone else's labor on more upgrades

Travis, sent from my Galaxy S3

[nineball]

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/543379-seems-like-everyone-else-has-done-so-why-not-me-interior.html

[Jcslocum]

I just did this in the past few weeks. I got carpets and tore out the old ones. Cleaned the metal and then used 3M-76 or 90. Takes time, lots of time. This is a huge opportunity to go all "while I'm in there" and do lots of stuff. Lots of cleaning to do, switches, seals, loose trim, etc....

It can be done, on a DD if you make a good plan. The center section under the console, shifter and ebrake needs to be done with both seats out. The carpets need to be installed from rear to front, but they are split side to side in the mid section where the 2 seats are. So, rip it out, start at the back and install the center section and the piece on the sill on the drivers side. Put seat back in and use as a DD. continue with th passenger side then the door pockets and kick panels. The glue on the kick panels and door pockets is like cryptonite. I tried a few techniques but leaving the pats out in the sun all day laying on the driveway, helped soften the glue to make it pretty easy to just peel the old crap off.

The door pocket carpets are held in the glue and staples. Very short staples.

Save all parts as you pull them out so you can figure where it all goes. Mark pieces with a sharpie.

The new carpets fitted perfectly and look fabulous. I used 2 cans of 3M spray to hold it all in.

[poorsha]

Did this last night in about 1 hour:



Tonight I will start a good cleanup.

[G50-Love]

What do you do in terms of covering the opening in the front of the tunnel? The one by the pedals?

[shinyknight]

Thanks for the links! It is great to see what others did, and avoid common mistakes

Indeed I wish that I had the chance to leave the car in the garage, and finish it....when my wife told me that I can have only one car, I had to make the choice between the boring sedan and the car of my dreams. I can say that I really enjoy my 911, since I drive it every single day, on any road I have to go (altho driving on hwy1 is much better than getting stuck on 101 )

I will follow your suggestions and get the carpet set; I just hope that the size of the pieces will be spot on...saw many posts about complaints for the non precise cuts done for the carpet (mainly about the carpet sold here, but I've seen also few ones coming from non Pelican customers).

I've got the mantra here: go back to front and replace piece by piece, to trim and fit perfectly. I thought that there were much lesser piece, but it makes sense...if you rip or ruin one piece, you don't want to replace the whole thing.

btw once that I put down the carpet with the spray glue (gotta glue both sides, if I understand correctly),how long do I have to make adjustment? It is like instant glue or do I have a bit of room to re-position the pieces to fit perfectly?

Excellent job Nineball!

[shinyknight]

Originally Posted by poorsha

Did this last night in about 1 hour:


Tonight I will start a good cleanup.

WOW! I wish mine will be so clean after one hour !

Wait, what's that black stuff molded like the seats ? Is that the insulation layer? I was checking mine now and I can't see it on the back of my carpet; I just have a sort of "black wool", which is firmly glued to the metal; if I lift it it just come apart from the carpet (not from the metal).

Since I have a targa, I doubt that I should worry about noise Plus I love to hear the engine noise. Or is there some other safety reasons to have the noise insulation below the carpet?

[nineball]

before you glue anything dry fit the pieces you will be working on. they all overlap and if you screw up early it may bite you in the end.

i got mine from world upholstery and while i was happy with the carpet a later transaction kinda burned me with them.

the 3m 74 that i used should be applied to both surfaces, then sit for a minute or two (read the can). you have a couple tries to get the piece right so careful positioning is your friend. i suggest getting a scrap or sample of regular carpet from a store and practice gluing that to some wood. that should get you familiar with the work time. experience > instructions for that.

and thanks. it feels good to know you did the repair job to your car no matter if it is engine related or new carpet.

feel free to ask any questions there are lots of folks here who did it and can offer help. before you do that learn to love the search, and use the advanced to narrow your results.

[nineball]

Originally Posted by shinyknight

Wait, what's that black stuff molded like the seats ? Is that the insulation layer? I was checking mine now and I can't see it on the back of my carpet; I just have a sort of "black wool", which is firmly glued to the metal; if I lift it it just come apart from the carpet (not from the metal).

that is the factory sound insulation pad. it works but it is pretty heavy. if you don't have one of those someone has already been into your carpet.

i would look again before you think it is gone. the rear seat pads are just glued to it with no bottom, just the horse hair (i think that's what it was) and after ~30 years it can appear to be like metal. then again it could be gone