I am building custom kick panels for my components and I need to put carpet back on them and was wondering if anyone who has done this can give me any tips on what style carpet to run or anything. How well does that indoor/outdoor capret work that you see on padio decks and pool decks. Would any capet store carry something very thin for me to do this? It has to kinda closely match my black carpet in the car as well.

 

I got the carpet i used on my box at a parts store. Its thin and pretty easy to work with. I think it was just called automotive carpet.

 

I've used parts store carpet but last time I couldn't find any red, so I tried Stinger carpet. Stinger carpet is unbacked and will stretch very easily around corners. I got mine from www.cardomain.com

 

The unbacked carpet that Justin mentioned is what you want. Anything that's got a backing won't be nearly flexible enough to cover something like kick panels. Make sure to use a good spray adhesive too. I've found that the 3M Super 77 Spray adhesive holds carpet very well, although my results with vinyl haven't been so good.

Anyway, that stuff is a little bit hard to find (www.partsexpress.com has it, along with plenty of carpet), so most people use the regular 3M spray adhesive from the automotive department of Wal Mart. This stuff will hold the carpet well, but it's much more fussy about how much you put on and how long you let it tack up. The 77 is much easier because it goes on more evenly, tacks up faster, and stays tacky longer.

 

A Tip for covering anything using spray glue...

Spray glue on both surfaces heavily.... let glue begin to dry until tacky... Then stick the two together. It's much easier to work with it when it's not sliding all over the place. I've been using this method for 6 years or so when making custom kick, or door panels, and sub boxes. This method is especially helpful when covering something in vinyl.

-Jim

 

My problems with the Super 77 didn't show up until a year later when the vinyl decided to fall.

I'm going to have to get some better glue and get a cheap spray gun to apply it.

 

For glue, i used a VERY THIN layer of tile adhesive on my interior plastics. Make sure to not go so heavy otherwise it will soak through. The sun has nothing on tile glue!