So I just put a giant amoeba like blob of carpet into my car. Positioning this thing will be a pain. Do I put the gear shift **** through the center hole and cut more for the e-brake? Any advise on making the center cut-out larger?

 

If it's still cut the same as it was in 99-2000, the holes will all be undersized. Just go slowly, cut away a little at a time until it fits. You can always trim carpet away, it's harder to put carpet back on.

 

i'm also installing acc mass backed carpet in my car , i know how you feel.

as was said above the hole is just a starting point. take your time trimming and test fit your console as needed. you will end up trimming quite a bit from that opening.

i found it easier to start at the front and move back. i had to trim a bit from the front to start off with to get it lined up front to rear then i did the rest of the trimming on the console opening. i still have to finish the rear section behind the console and trimming the sides to fit.

if you have the mass backed carpet it's kind of a pain to work with

 

I installed the mass backing carpet with console cut-out in my 82 back in 2007 and had some difficulty as well. A little trick I did was to cut a seam from the console cut-out forward to the front dead center. This made it easier to get it in and position the entire carpet front to back and fine tune cutting around the shift assembly and console mounting points to make sure the carpet will stay under the console. Cut too much, and it will work it's way out from under the console. I've seen this in many thirdgens over the years with carpet replaced. Once everything is installed back in the car, you will not see this seam since it is hidden up under the dash. As an added measure if you wanted, once you are done cutting out everything and shifting the carpet and getting it where you want, you could apply some adhesive to each side of the seam and press it down to the transmission tunnel. I didn't and mine's never moved so far and I still can't see the seam.

 

Thanks for the replies and tip. Does the dotted line in the below pic show where you cut the seam? If so, I'll try that. When my back feels better that is.

 

Yes, exactly. After fighting with mine for an hour, I took it out, laid a straight edge across there and marked a line with a sharpie and used a fresh utility knife blade and cut all of the way to the end. I had it positioned in 15 minutes after that.

Some more tips on how I did mine: don't trim any of the carpet or cut seat belt or seat stud holes until you have pressed it into the shapes of the floor front to back, removing the wrinkles and making sure it's where you want it. Just let the sides, front and back run wild until you have shaped it to the floor. The rear seat bolt mounts will be a pain to shape around. Get in there with some sock feet, no shoes.

You will want to test fit the lower rear plastic armrest panels, door sill plates and kick panels before you trim. It may also be too tall in the front getting in the way of the accelerator linkage, but I trimmed the front last. It helps to remove the lower plastic hush panels of the dash. I trimmed the sides just enough to not be "puffy" and placed small holes in the carpet at the door sill screw locations. My carpet rides all the way to the standing metal lips under the sill plates

Good luck with your project! I'm doing this again myself on my 89 pretty soon.

 

Does the original carpet have the "mass backing", or is that an after market upgrade?...

 

Yep , despite the advertising of the carpet being an exact fit , there is a LOT of trimming left for the installer to do . If you've installed carpet before it's not a bad job to do , but if this is your first time installing aftermarket carpet in a car , "learning on the go" can result in several frustrating hours of figuring out exactly what to cut and where . It is by NO means "plug & play" , as in just drop it in place and it fits perfectly right out of the box , a few "tricks of the trade" being needed to ensure it actually looks like a factory installation . I can't imagine these cars rolling down the assembly line needing a few hours of fitting for the carpet to actually lay in place perfectly , like the few hours of cutting/fitting required to make this aftermarket carpet look like the factory carpet your trying to replace ......

 

Yes originally came with Mass Backing.

 

I did what kentuckyKITT did as well, kinda regretted doing it afterwords but you can always go back in the and stitch it up tight and never worry about it sagging. I haven't had any issues with it moving though.

It did make installing the carpet a lot easier though.

 

The funny part is you can pull the carpet out of any thirdgen, wad it up in the back of the family truckster, or the corner of the garage for a month, then shake it out and drop it in another thirdgen and it'll fit like a glove. Just too bad finding good carpet in a junkyard these days isn't very likely.

 

Was it a challenge to cut a hole for the e-brake? Looks like I need to cut 2 holes behind the one ACC provided. Below are 2 pictures of my factory carpet before I removed it. The hole for the e-brake looks off center towards the passenger side.

 

i've used a garment steamer to help mold it,
works good

 

You don't need to mirror the factory cuts, as long as you can bolt everything back in, and the carpet lays flat and covers everything.

Personally, I'd probably remove the two bolts, pull the cotterpin and ebrake cable clevis pin, and take the lever out until the carpet is roughly laid into the car. Once the carpet is smoothed out, you can start in the center and work your way out to the edges, cutting away only what you need to remove to get the car back together.

Single edge razor blades cut carpet like butter. Check the wallpaper section of your local hardware store, spend a little extra to get blades made in the USA - they last longer. Don't be shy about trashing a blade when it shows the first hint of getting dull, that's why you buy them by 100ct packs.

Cut X's for studs, seat belt bolts, wire harness access, etc. Use an awl to poke small trim screw holes. Use the same awl to line up the panels with the original screw holes. Don't lay your oldschool 60 watt incandescent trouble bubble on carpet...

When you get all the way to the edges, cut away only what you need to remove to fit the door sill plates, etc.

Oh, and it should be obvious, but people on here have actually made this mistake before, the vinyl wear pad goes under the brake pedal, not in the backseat or on the passenger's side. LOL No really, in an older thread dude put the carpet in sideways or backwards and couldn't figure out why it didn't fit...

 

 

Grab a 13mm wrench, and slip the open end over the clippy bits. Then the cable will pull straight out.

 

It's puzzling why they make the carpet bigger as if some thirdgens magically differ in length and width. This is apparently true of all aftermarket carpets though. I have a 79 Chevy Caprice Coupe and the carpet for those cars is the same way, too big, has to be trimmed everywhere, even though they used the same floor pan from 77-96 2 and 4 door.lol

 

Thanks - that worked perfectly!

 

I’m a month into the carpet install, and the going is slow. I should have picked a different time of the year to do this. Texas summers are brutal. The garage has approached 100 degrees at times. The heat didn’t make the mass backing any more pliable.

I finally got a good fit up front. I may have trimmed a tad too much under the passenger dash. The carpet kept binding it that area and wouldn’t slide in position.

The rear is now my latest challenge. Like so many have said, the carpet won’t settle on the transmission tunnel. On one carpet thread, someone said he used lead birdshot to weigh down the carpet while he positioned it. I may go buy a 50 lbs bag of sand and try that.

A carpet from any thirdgen would drop in and fit perfectly. I wish ACC sold their carpet like that. Even a more accurate center cut out would help. Too bad this one is the wrong color.

 

That carpet is stubborn!!

 

Looks like you need to cut out for the rear seat brackets. Or remove the brackets and tell people that ask to ride in the back to get their own car.

 

Def have to cut out the rear seat bracket area or itll never be right.

 

By the way, did you lay that out in the sun for awhile before installing it? That's what they recommended when I bought mine. It sucks, you have to babysit it in case of birds, but if you lay it out in the sun for awhile (I used a truck bed so as not to get grass all over it) it will be more pliable.

 

 

 

 

Almost done.

 

I use a piece of pipe to cut the holes in the carpet. I ground down a piece of black pipe to a nice sharp bevel, then put a piece of wood under the area where the hole needs to be and drive the pipe with a hammer until I get to the wood. Makes PERFECTLY clean neat holes very quickly. Even holes for around the seat studs so the carpet isn't a mess there.

 

That sounds easier than my drill method. It made a perfect hole, but it was tough to get the cutting started. The carpet's mass backing is quite resistant to the razor blade. That's what got me looking for an alternate method for the seatbelt holes.

 

I finished installing the carpet, and I almost have the interior put back together. The pictures don’t do it justice. This project took much longer than I thought it would, but I’m pleased with the results.

 

Good work John!

 

That turned out great! Good work!

 

 

Where's a good place to buy the ACC carpet today? I've seen prices all over the place.

 

It's been a while since I bought mine so I don't remember the exact price , but after much comparison shopping I found my best price on Ebay , of all places ...

 

Rock auto, even with the shipping it was cheaper than anywhere else I looked

 

Thanks I ordered a medium doeskin today, much cheaper indeed !

 

they also have good prices on acc floor mats