Interior questions:

I was wondering if you could do your own carpet job and not need to buy the expensive kits from MSA or Victoria British?

Also where is the best bang for your buck insulation and adhesive?

Also which is better just prime and paint job for the interior or POR 15?

I had cranberry carpet installed in my first 72. Even the trans tunnel. Looked good. Sort of "wall to wall" if you will. I would suggest POR-15 for interior "under carpeting" paint. Insulation depends on your taste. Loud exhaust? Tunes? Just want quiet?

Depends on what you want and how much to spend.

Sound wise I want quiet, I could care less about loud exhaust.

I have done my own carpet for years! I got tired of having to accept cheep carpet kits that would not fit after insulating the floorboards and tunnels, I use 3M Weldwood Contact cement to hold the carpet and the pad in.

I have found that the carpeting with a fade and stain guarantee is the lowest maintenance, but the carpet with a foam backing is the easiest to work with, and the best insulating.

I use Urethand truck bed liner to seal the inside of the floors, it also deadens them to transmitted vibration, then I use HeatShield aluminized jute (shiney side down) to pad the carpet.

I will post an article about this in the Technical articles forum

Great thanks, think you could tell me where I can pick up these things?

I'll put a more detailed article up tonight, but I bought the carpet and adhesive from Home Depot/Lowes/Carpet Store, and the Bedliner form AutoZone, and the Heat shield from JC Whitney.

They are available from other sources. Check Ebay for the generic form of HeatShield. If you have other questions, just ask. I am currently applying most of it to my in-laws truck. In the mean-time, check out my 280ZX carpeting at hls30.com-the carpet came from Home Depot, I even carpeted the headliner-I will upload a picture to my gallery.

Will

P.S. I will put a link on this forum to make the article easy to find.

I have the majority of the article done, but after letting someone read it who has no familiarity with carpeting a car. I found that I need to work on the clarity of a few of my explanations-since I am in the throws of the unclear parts on the truck I mentioned, I will shoot some video to take stills from. It will be the weekend before I have the chance to do this, so it should be posted on Monday.

Will

To the best of my understanding Automotive grade carpet is fire retardant. Is home carpetting? Granted you are not manufacturing an automobile for sell but the floorboards of a car, especially turbo, are subject to higher temps ,and often at that, than that of a house. A professional automotive upholstery shop doesn't use just any carpet either they buy the automotive grade carpetting. Just a question and possibly some food for thought.

Nate

Remember the Vans from the 70's and 80's with the "wall-to-wall" shag carpetting!

That is a good point CoastGuardZ! Many of the carpet offerings at Home Depot and Lowes are fire retadant-just don't expect to find that info from the attendant-you have to look at and decipher the markings on the back, or contact the Manufacturer. As a side note, the finest cars out there have used wool carpeting-with no fire rating at all. In addition, the aluminized jute has the highest fire rating and most efficient thermal barrier of any readily available underlayment!

Compare the quality of the automotive carpet to the home carpet-in most cases, there is no comparison-certianly not at the same price per linear yard.!

Keep hitting me up for the details I leave out!

My carpeted headliner is now in my gallery:

http://www.classicZcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=9071

The article is written, but the pictures were horrid, I don't want to post it with out them-they are truely worth 1000 words...I will take new pictures soon.

Will

I bought a carpet from Auto Interior and Upholstery, try this URL:

http://www.auto-interior.com/datsun1.html#240Z

It was $134 for a five piece set with sewn bound edges, 80/20 loop. The front sections didn't have the snaps like the original carpet, but I was able to remove the snaps from the old carpet and put them on the new set.

The new carpet looks excellent and made a huge improvement in the look of my interior.

I'll get photos posted in my gallery soon.

Kenny P.