Today I went ahead and removed both car seats, and proceeded to remove the passenger compartment carpet.

Rust is very minimal underneath the carpet (good news); although I was surprised to find a few of the rubber seals unplugged.

Removed all carpet and under-material (not sure what its called...)

I am planning on buying a carpet kit and redoing the interior, although I was curious if buying the cut and molded carpet comes with the premade cuts for such areas as the seatbelt buckles, center console clips for the e-brake; and then additional prepared area for the seat buckle mechanism itself. I am just looking to make the carpet installation pretty hassle free, and i want to make sure that buying it from these online companies; it comes as a good fit for car (not needing a lot of additional work)...

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Example of Carpet for sale online: http://qualitycarinterior.com/1976-datsun-280z-carpet-passenger-area.html

If I were a bettin' man, I'd say that installing a carpet similar to the link you posted would be described as anything except "hassle-free".

I paid well over $200 for my replacement "molded carpet kit" and it was pretty basic. The rear deck carpet was pretty nice. It fit well and already had the jute (under) padding attatched. All the edges were bound. It was by far the best piece of the kit although it did not have the finished "slits" for the luggage straps.

The piece that installs vertically behind the seats was simply designed to be jammed under the metal trim bar. On my old OEM carpet one single piece was used for both the rear deck and forward "wall"

As for the floor area, the kit basically came with 4 large rectangles of carpet (2 per side). Not the same layout as the OEM carpet. Both the front sections included a sewn seam on the inboard side so the carpet would conform to the contours of the floor where it meets the tranny tunnel at the extreme forward end.

No finished cutouts for seatbelts, no snaps for the leather emergency brake cover, no "heel pad" along tranny tunnel (to right side of accelerator pedal) as in the OEM carpet. No "jute" padding included for these floor sections.

I had to take my carpet to an upholsterer to get all these mods done. In short, lots of extra work.

Wow, that sucks...Makes me want to just clean up my current crop of carpet and just toss it back in there!

I'm surprised you can't buy pre-cut OEM carpet for the 280.

Well, it is 33 years old.

Well, I went ahead and ordered the black 80/20 loop from Auto Interior (http://www.auto-interior.com/datsun1.html#about) - With shipping it came out to less than $140, which is very reasonable (i just needed the passenger area).

I will have to have the carpet cut for the seatbelt buckles/stick, but I figure it won't be that bad. I might have my upholstery guy do it, since he is very reasonable.

My cargo carpet is fine, although if I add more I will go about buying/cutting it myself, since it isn't nearly as complicated a space as the passenger area.

The only thing I am considering now is putting down Sound Dampening material, but I don't want permanent material down (spray/super-tacky material) so I can access the floorpan if need be. Any suggestions?

*snip*

The only thing I am considering now is putting down Sound Dampening material, but I don't want permanent material down (spray/super-tacky material) so I can access the floorpan if need be. Any suggestions?

I'm just about to do this step myself, and I did literally hours of research, because I just hate doing something wrong, or not to the utmost.

My research finally led me towards Cascade Audio products. Primarily because I liked the physical makeup/layering of their sheet goods, and the variety of thicknesses they offered. Thin foil-like stuff, very pliable, for inside the door panels, and for "taping" seams and edges of larger areas where thicker products are used, thicker for outer door skins, and thicker still for the floor pans, hatch area, tunnel and firewall. I spent almost an hour on the phone with them going over every aspect of the procedure, and which products to use and where. Now B-Quiet, FatMat and RAAM Audio, among others, were also quite helpful and responsive too, but the availability of thin through thick sheets, each specifically targeted towards the hatch, doors- both outer and inner, firewall, floors, trans tunnel, etc. from Cascade clinched it for me. I really like one of their products (VB-3) that has a lead inner-layer, surrounded with neoprene. Other products use mainly butyl rubber. I know that lead makes an excellent acoustic and vibration isolator, and butyl rubber is also a great material for many reasons, as closed-cell neoprene also is. They also sell a sprayable film for adding heat-resistance, but I'm unwilling to paint anything, or apply anything permanently. Finally, the only thing I've been told to avoid- and it makes sense- is any product with asphalt in it, as heat and age will eventually make it start stinking up the insides, and it will also start to slump.

I also don't want to hide my floor pans permanently, so I'm using the thicker panel material, but will be using plain rubber cement instead of the high-tack adhesive it comes with, sealed at the edges with the thinnest, "super foil"-like product.

FYI- I have no connection with this or any other car products company. Good luck.

...snip...

The only thing I am considering now is putting down Sound Dampening material, but I don't want permanent material down (spray/super-tacky material) so I can access the floorpan if need be. Any suggestions?

I don't know that you can get good sound dampening on metal without some form of adhesive to bond the material to it.

If you go to a non-adhered material, the only item you have is very heavy jute or fiberglass insulation batts.

I sold suspended ceilings some years back, and in that industry two items with regards to sound are mentioned.

NRC=Noise Reduction Coefficient and

STC=Sound Transmission Coefficient

NRC refers to the ability of the material to absorb sound and not reflect it back into the room.

STC refers to the sound dampening ability and it's transmission through the material.

In cars, the NRC is usually addressed by your upholstery, and other interior "soft" parts. A cloth interior with cloth accouterments will be significantly quieter than one with vinyl and plastic. The Z typically has the latter.

STC is the noise dampening material that gets sprayed on the inside, underside of the sheet metal to diminish and hopefully elimininate the "tin can" effect of sheet metal. This is why they added the tar mat and other sprayed on substances to the metal, as well as road debris protection in the case of the undercarriage.

If you choose to avoid the "stuck on" kind, you'll have to resort to extra thick or dense material to absorb the sound from the sheet metal.

As a final question, why would you need to have access to the floor pan? If there's rust there, take care of it now and do it well enough that you don't have to go back. Otherwise, I fail to see why you would need to revisit it down the road.

FWIW

E

There isnt much rust there, and I will be cleaning up the floorpans before I move forward; although I just wanted general access to the bare metal for the future...maybe in case rust ever becomes an issue down the road.

After some research though, tacky/spray is the best bet to block sound since it does add that "layering" effect to the thin metal; not making it so transparent to sound. Having just a layer of material over it won't do much.

I'll think it over. Expense is a factor as well.

FWIW I just got a price from a well-known high-end auto carpet manufacturer, and they gave me a cost of around $300 each for a minimum order of 2 sets- in - get this- WILTON WOOL! The same stuff found in Rolls Royces. This for passenger area. This may be one of the few areas where I would go to a better, non-OEM material in a car- especially since mine is a DD. They told me that ordering multiple sets allows them to lay out the cutting pattern to most efficiently utilize the material.

Does this sound interesting to anybody? If you've heard of Wilton wool carpeting, then you know of it's quality and history.