Serj22
Well-Known Member
I recently scrounged up a carpet for my 4 door 1968 Dart on Ebay. I would up finding a place called AutoCarpetDirect and they had one available that could be made to order for basically any kind of A-body, you just tell them the amount of doors, is it a column or floor shift, bench or buckets, etc... and the year, and they make one up.
The website to buy directly from them is www.autoobsession.com
They also had an incredicble variety of colors to choose from, from some classic looking grays/ browns/ black up to neon orange and neon purple, and 3 different style of carpet to choose from. You could buy the loop like my car had originally, but I opted for the cut pile to prevent snags and runs since I use my car every day. I also don't mind not being original.
Buying:
I ordered a Dark Gray cut pile carpet and paid about $126.00 for the carpet and $29.50 to ship it.
Once i ordered the guys emailed me and asked me if i was absolutely sure i wanted cut pile and that my car did not have that originally, I said that I was aware and that cut was what I wanted, they gave it the go-ahead and said they'd make it however I wanted. Great communication.
The carpet was made up in about 14 days and took another week to get to me from the Midwest.
It comes in a 4 1/2 foot tall box that is about 18" wide on the other sides.
The carpet is rolled up in the box and they include two extra swatches of carpet I'm assuming so you have a reference or if you would up short somewhere you could try and tuck it under.
The carpet came in 1 large piece rather than 2 as it was originally, but I preferred this as now there's no overlap seam in the car. It may be something you want to specify with them if you repeat what I did and want the 2 part carpet.
When i unrolled it it looked nothing like a fit carpet, and the instructions state to roll it out and leave it for about a day... so I did. It popped back up eventually.
INSTALLATION:
First I ripped out my temporary autozone special carpet (that was in the car for 2 years...) and cleaned up the floor pans. I did not opt for using spray adhesive to hold the carpet down, and opted to fit everything just as tight as I could.
I hadn't cleaned the old carpet in a while knowing it was getting tossed out...
I used this opportunity to rearrange some wiring, and tape other stuff down, vacuum, and then got to fitting the carpet in the car. Surprisingly once it was down on the floor pan, you could see where the pan was defined into the carpet, and it got pretty easy after that.
I had a lot of patience and scooted it to where it matched the floor pan. To me it doesn't seem far enough forward by about 1", but this is where the pans and the carpet match up perfectly. Also the heel pad is a little far over to the left by about 1.5", but there's no way to scoot it once you find where it fits right, it will always return to this spot, and it looks bad if you try and move it. So once I had it all laid down I trimmed it to fit under the door sills, and left it long behind the kick panels since I didn't need to trim it there. In total at the door sills I let the carpet go all the way to the screws in the sills, so it's pretty long, and then trimmed off about 4" of carpet from both sides, so I was sure it was in the middle where it's supposed to be. I did not trim anything front or back, I just made a slit provision for the gas pedal arm, and poked "X"s in the carpet for the foot pump and the high beam switch.
For me the heel pad being off a bit is not a big deal, because it's not necessarily a show car, and I am going to put some rubber mats over it anyway. It is loads better than the old carpet. Like I said, I tried to reposition it, but that's just where they stitched it on...
For the seat belts, I took the trim off, peeled the carpet up a little, and then probed for the hole with a phillips screw driver. Once you find it, I exerted pressure on the screwdriver and it punched a hole right where it needs to be. Then I cut a small X with the razor, and put the seat belt bolts on. I have not done the front bench yet, but it's basically the same thing, except you lay down on the ground and jam the screwdriver up through the holes to find the spot where the seat/s go.
I also cut out some diamonds in the carpet where the rear seat retainer hooks are, so that they would be clear.
In summary,
Pros:
It fits nice, and the installation couldn't have been easier. The floor pan shape was molded very well, and dropped right on and scooted forward and fell right into place. The padding on the back is sufficient, but only located in the footwell/ floor pan areas, and is about 3/8" thick. The carpet is nice quality overall.
Cons:
The heel pad is a little off from where it is supposed to wind up.
Overall:
I'm happy with it, and it's only $126.00. Maybe other carpet is similarly priced, but this is to give you an idea of what you get if you order this one.
So there you have it - my review of AutoCarpetDirect's A-body carpet.
The website to buy directly from them is www.autoobsession.com
They also had an incredicble variety of colors to choose from, from some classic looking grays/ browns/ black up to neon orange and neon purple, and 3 different style of carpet to choose from. You could buy the loop like my car had originally, but I opted for the cut pile to prevent snags and runs since I use my car every day. I also don't mind not being original.
Buying:
I ordered a Dark Gray cut pile carpet and paid about $126.00 for the carpet and $29.50 to ship it.
Once i ordered the guys emailed me and asked me if i was absolutely sure i wanted cut pile and that my car did not have that originally, I said that I was aware and that cut was what I wanted, they gave it the go-ahead and said they'd make it however I wanted. Great communication.
The carpet was made up in about 14 days and took another week to get to me from the Midwest.
It comes in a 4 1/2 foot tall box that is about 18" wide on the other sides.
The carpet is rolled up in the box and they include two extra swatches of carpet I'm assuming so you have a reference or if you would up short somewhere you could try and tuck it under.
The carpet came in 1 large piece rather than 2 as it was originally, but I preferred this as now there's no overlap seam in the car. It may be something you want to specify with them if you repeat what I did and want the 2 part carpet.
When i unrolled it it looked nothing like a fit carpet, and the instructions state to roll it out and leave it for about a day... so I did. It popped back up eventually.
INSTALLATION:
First I ripped out my temporary autozone special carpet (that was in the car for 2 years...) and cleaned up the floor pans. I did not opt for using spray adhesive to hold the carpet down, and opted to fit everything just as tight as I could.
I hadn't cleaned the old carpet in a while knowing it was getting tossed out...
I used this opportunity to rearrange some wiring, and tape other stuff down, vacuum, and then got to fitting the carpet in the car. Surprisingly once it was down on the floor pan, you could see where the pan was defined into the carpet, and it got pretty easy after that.
I had a lot of patience and scooted it to where it matched the floor pan. To me it doesn't seem far enough forward by about 1", but this is where the pans and the carpet match up perfectly. Also the heel pad is a little far over to the left by about 1.5", but there's no way to scoot it once you find where it fits right, it will always return to this spot, and it looks bad if you try and move it. So once I had it all laid down I trimmed it to fit under the door sills, and left it long behind the kick panels since I didn't need to trim it there. In total at the door sills I let the carpet go all the way to the screws in the sills, so it's pretty long, and then trimmed off about 4" of carpet from both sides, so I was sure it was in the middle where it's supposed to be. I did not trim anything front or back, I just made a slit provision for the gas pedal arm, and poked "X"s in the carpet for the foot pump and the high beam switch.
For me the heel pad being off a bit is not a big deal, because it's not necessarily a show car, and I am going to put some rubber mats over it anyway. It is loads better than the old carpet. Like I said, I tried to reposition it, but that's just where they stitched it on...
For the seat belts, I took the trim off, peeled the carpet up a little, and then probed for the hole with a phillips screw driver. Once you find it, I exerted pressure on the screwdriver and it punched a hole right where it needs to be. Then I cut a small X with the razor, and put the seat belt bolts on. I have not done the front bench yet, but it's basically the same thing, except you lay down on the ground and jam the screwdriver up through the holes to find the spot where the seat/s go.
I also cut out some diamonds in the carpet where the rear seat retainer hooks are, so that they would be clear.
In summary,
Pros:
It fits nice, and the installation couldn't have been easier. The floor pan shape was molded very well, and dropped right on and scooted forward and fell right into place. The padding on the back is sufficient, but only located in the footwell/ floor pan areas, and is about 3/8" thick. The carpet is nice quality overall.
Cons:
The heel pad is a little off from where it is supposed to wind up.
Overall:
I'm happy with it, and it's only $126.00. Maybe other carpet is similarly priced, but this is to give you an idea of what you get if you order this one.
So there you have it - my review of AutoCarpetDirect's A-body carpet.
