Installed New Carpet from ACC

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cchrishefish

cchrishefish

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I installed new carpet in my 1964 Dart GT yesterday. It looks really nice. I still need to install the passenger seat, seat belts, and kick panels. I used the premium version of ACC carpet with the extra heavy backing. The soldering iron trick really helped with cutting the holes for the seats ETC. It is very overcast today so I am sorry about the dark picture. I just wanted to point out that I really did not like the look of my inner carpet sill plates. I tried everything on them, scuff pad, wd40, mothers polish, and they still looked pretty crappy. So, I remembered an old trick someone used on bumpers, SOS pads. Would it work? You be the judge.

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Could you elaborate on the "soldering iron trick" to cut the holes? What type of iron did you use? Wattage? Do you go from the back or front of the carpet?
 
Bob Jasinski said:
Could you elaborate on the "soldering iron trick" to cut the holes? What type of iron did you use? Wattage? Do you go from the back or front of the carpet?
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Yes, I used a cheap pencil style 30 watt soldering iron because the good trigger style solder irons were out of stock. I made sure the carpet layed out in the sun for a while before placing the carpet in my car. I used the OCD method to make sure the carpet was perfectly set before cutting any holes. I carefuly lifted the carpet from inside the car to check for the seat holes ETC. Then I marked the locations with pieces of blue painters tape. Then I poked a screwdriver through each tape area to verify that it was properly aligned with the hole. Then I placed the hot solder iron on each location. I did not want to crawl under the car to do this which some members may prefer. However, the gas pedal holes were difficult to mark from inside the car so I hit the solder iron from underneath. The gas pedal studs are not long enough to penetrate the thick carpet to install the nuts from underneath therfore, I had to make a small slice in the carpet and insert the pedal mounting bracket under the carpet pad. My holes were right on the money the only trouble I had was with the seat belt bolts because my holes did not allow the larger diameter bolt to penetrate the heavy vinyl backing on the premium carpet that I ordered. Therefore, I had to enlarge those holes with a razor utility knife.
 
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I installed the seat belts on the passenger side today and I made the holes for the passenger seat, I placed the passenger seat in the car and it dropped right in after some maneuvering. I stopped right there. I did not want to move the car out in the rain to install the seat bolts. I will wait for a nice day to bolt the passenger seat, install the kick panels, and carpet sill plates.
 
inner carpet sill plates.
Bumpers are chrome, the inner sill plates are anodized aluminum. The anoziding process puts a micro thin layer on the surface of the aluminum to stop corrosion, unfortunately the discoloration that forms under it is also protected by the anodizing.
The trick to get a good polish on anodized aluminum is to get the anodized layer off. Search you tube, there are videos on home methods. Or if you are near any large to moderate sized city there is probably a metal coating - processing plant in your area that does anodizing. The one near me actually stripped the anodizing off my door sills for $20.00 and handed them back to me. The door sills then polished up fine and I returned the door sills where they re anodized them at no additional cost. They look factory new and will stay that way a long time. If there is a professional car restoration shop in your area, ask them where they send their aluminum parts for anodizing work, they also would know where to get it done.
 
A long weekend with nice weather allowed me to finish it up. I have everything installed now, but the thicker carpet requires me to find some longer screws for the carpet sill plates. I also relocated my underdash gauges and underdash stereo which now angle slightly toward the driver seat. I also rewired my alternator with a new fusible link going to the starter relay. And, I intalled a longer positive battery cable to clear the area for my future intake and header install. A lot of work being done with all of this social distancing. I also installed new brake shoes since they were 8 years old.
 
cchrishefish said:
I installed new carpet in my 1964 Dart GT yesterday. It looks really nice. I still need to install the passenger seat, seat belts, and kick panels. I used the premium version of ACC carpet with the extra heavy backing. The soldering iron trick really helped with cutting the holes for the seats ETC. It is very overcast today so I am sorry about the dark picture. I just wanted to point out that I really did not like the look of my inner carpet sill plates. I tried everything on them, scuff pad, wd40, mothers polish, and they still looked pretty crappy. So, I remembered an old trick someone used on bumpers, SOS pads. Would it work? You be the judge.

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Carpet looks really good. as for the sill plates. get yourself a large plastic bag or piece of plastic you can cover the sill plates with. then get some "yellow top" original easy off oven cleaner spray on the top of the sill plates and cover with plastic to help keep it "wet " for longer. wait an hour and take out rinse with water and fine 000 steel wool. see if all the anodizing has been removed, if not start again and another application till the gray smut is gone. polish to you hearts content, I'd use one of those drill mounted balls to help with the creases and curves. wax they'll look pretty good after that.
 
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