How much of a pain is this? Any tips / tricks?
thanks.

 

It's not hard, just requires a little patience. It won't fit as well as the factory carpet did, however, it certainly will look good. It comes oversized a little, so you'll need to trim some. Go slow, be patient. Fit, trim small, refit...so on and so forth. Finally, it's MUCH easier if it's warm out. Let that carpet sit in the car out in the sun. Makes it a LOT easier to work with.

 

I'm about to do my carpet in a couple of weeks. Being that you are in PA, you might want to get a little heater. I plan on laying my carpet in the car, put the heater inside the car with the windows up, and warm it up that way. My car is in my garage though. Never tried this, but I'm guessing this will help. I don't want to wait until the summer. Everything Abubaca said is what I've read so I will follow that advice. Good luck!

 

Pull it out of the box and let it sit out for a while.

There's a lot of bad advice out there, the big one, do not use your old carpet as a template. There's a decent video on Youtube by ACC or some one that covers the basic. Fit the new carpet to your car, basically get it in place and make very minor cuts, adjusting as needed.

There's a lot of place that the carpet wants to hang up, the rear seat humps and then around the console, so you have to muscle it in place. Getting it to pull completely forward was the biggest pain for me.

 

Really great video by ACC, Mustangs but similar concept


CJ Pony Parts

 

I just did this about 2 years ago or so. Very simple. Have everything out of the interior ready to go. All I used was a razor knife and some metal snips (new) that were more like over sized scissors, (I had mass backing also, so it was very thick to cut). Don't cut anything ahead of time - ONLY when you have to. Mine was an auto, so I only had to elongate a little bit of the hole at the shifter (it came with the hole there already, and already pre-formed), just to get it over and into position. The console will cover everything well if you don't over cut. Work everything from the center out. The only other trimming I had to do, was at the doors. Don't cut these either, until you are totally done and ready to put the plastic trim back (you will reposition the carpet as a whole a couple times. Used the razor knife to cut for seat bolts, etc. after I had the console in and I knew the carpet wasn't needing shifted or anything anymore. It did not lay perfect (especially on the tunnel) when finished, but in time, it has laid nicely - I would even say you wouldn't tell the difference now from when the car was new. I also had put down sound deadener/heat blocker type of material, so that help fill out some of the voids and make it fit a little tighter too. Along the tops of the footwells (toward the firewall) and any flat areas that I was trying to get the carpet to bond to, I also sprayed a 3M adhesive to keep the carpet in place, although I think this only sorta works.
GL...

 

Thanks.. yeh I'm trying to have it done by spring time!

 

One thing I meant to say, and Neil touched on it too.... ....it can be a pain to get it to seat fully forward. It's the ONLY place it can interfere with actually driving as it sits under the pedals. I've done it twice and the first time I fought it for months before it finally needed a little trimming. You couldn't SEE it...but I knew I had to make a cut. Second time I looked out for it and STILL seemed to not wanna quite sit up in there perfectly. Seemed like i'd pull it up and fit it, only to have it slowly creep back!

 

Having some weights to help hold it in place while you are fitting it makes it a whole lot easier. I had a couple bags of lead shot from reloading. Held it down and helped the carpet conform the humps in the floor pans too. Make some temporary sandbags using large ziplock bags?