[Matt Kennedy]

Starting this step tonight. Thought I'd ask the veterans for advice.

- Any cutting required?
- Overlap or butt all edges?
- Any mistakes I can avoid?

Thanks!
-Matt

 

[Jim Ergler]

Matt, I don't know what's the best way to do the carpets, but this is the way I would do it if I were doing another one.I would install the floors first and leave equal spaces all around the bottom edges. Then do the back large piece and butt it against the floor and try to have the sides line up with their respective corners.If it is a little short wdith-wise you might gain a little by trimming some off the bottom.Because the sides are tapered you will gain width by dropping the back piece a little.Also watch where they cut the slits for the seat belts when you do this. then I would just install each side piece going around the cockpit and butting them against the floor and the sides of its mating piece.This might require slight trimming of the sides to mate perfectly with the preceding piece.There is a little fussing to do around the door latch piece. I used contact cement with a paint brush to try and eliminate the overspray you get with spray adhesives, but if you're careful the sprays work good. I'm no expert (I've only done one), but I hope these tips help a little.
Ergie

 

[Richard Oben]

In general we find it only necessary to cut the long edges off and very rarely do we do that. UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTLEY POSITIVE IT NEEDS TO BE TRIMMED, AS IN MEASURED 10 TIME AND STILL TOO LONG, DO NOT CUT IT. We find the FFR cut pretty good where it needs to fit right. The rear wall pieces are especially like this. It looks like they fit poorly until you get them in the right place. We butt the area where the tunnel meets the front and rear wall and let the floors overlap the side pieces by about a quarter inch. The front part of the tunnel we never trim the footbox pieces, we never trim the front wall, and only slightly trim anything else. The dropped box we trim around the new cage (if you have it). If you have the new cage the sides we just push in behind and glue the edges. On the back wall make sure it is in perfectly lined up with the tunnel. Otherwise the tunnel will not fit right. We trim around the door latches and when finished all you see is the chome catch, the rest is covered. I hope this helps. I need to have more pics on the site but I just don't have time. Cheers Richard.

[ April 17, 2002, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: Richard Oben ]

 

[Tim S]

I don't remmber what I did, but when I did mine years ago I laid something hot on the tranny tunney carpet (light bulb maybe?) Left a nice mark that I had to fix. I'd recommend not doing that.

Tim

 

[Matt Kennedy]

Jim, Richard, Tim thanks for the great input! This should make a great FAQ.

Couple of more questions...

How about applying the spray adhesive. Do you applu to the aluminum or to the carpet or both?

Any issues with positioning and re-positioning? I suspect once it touches the contact cement its down? Any tricks to working from one end to another? For example I have done countertops where you put sticks under most of the laminate to keep it off of the cement until you are ready to work a given area.

Thanks again for all the help!

-Matt