console carpet and mounting screws

This might be the dumb question of the day but my car didn't have any carpet in it when I bought it. None on the floor and none on the console.

The console is attached to the floor with 4 screws.(2 inside the storage compartment and 2 at the front on either side) Are the front screws supposed to be installed "through" the carpet or installed before the carpet is glued onto the sides?

I looked at the consoles of every A-body I saw at two shows this past weekend and didn't see any visible screws showing however, the carpet wasn't installed very nicely on most of them. It seems weird that the carpet would be glued on top of the mounting screws. That would make removal difficult.

The rusty screws I removed from the front mounting locations were chrome philips head screws with a tapered head. No washers were under the screw heads. Is that correct? I've seen some people use those tapered washers under the screws.