MGB: interior replacement

any do's or don't's regarding replacement of carpet, panels and seat covers? my dash and console are perfect.....

No specific do's or don'ts. You will find that, with patience, you can do most of it yourself.

Oh... one do: be sure to use good ventilation when using glue. Nearly passed out one night in a closed garage.

Frank,
I’m not a fan of full carpet sets. Although they look good, seems to me to be
expensive and time-consuming to install, plus not very practical (maintenance
wise) for a driver. Ruby came with the minimal carpet treatment on the tunnel,
map pocket and rear deck. The sills and rear floor are covered with black rubber
and in the front are the thick deep-dense pile floor mats, easily removable to
clean and maintain. Just my .02 worth.

ted

Might consider laying down some sound/thermal insulation under the carpet. I have been waiting to reinstall my carpets until I could get everything in order. Just ordered some Dynamat today. Next weekends project I hope!

I found putting in carpet pretty straightforward with some patience and good advice from this forum. I also carpeted the boot. Knowing where to glue, where to use velcro, and where to let gravity handle things was important. I used the molded carpet in the cabin and in the boot.

I did the seats a couple of weeks ago including stripping and repainting the frames. I used all new components otherwise including leather covers and rubber diaphrams (no webbing). That was alot harder than the carpet, but doable. I added extra foam on the seat backs plus even more extra foam to form extra lumbar support. It is very comfortable.

On both jobs, with light colors, I found it a good idea to make sure my hands and work area stayed cleaned so I didn't get black marks on the champaigne beige carpet or honey tan seat covers. My interior panels arrived this week (honey tan) so I'm planning on putting them in this weekend if I get time. I'm trying to decide whether to just replace the panels or to recover the black padded roll on the tops of the doors and around the back edge. Thinking about cutting the brand new back side panels for my rear speakers is giving me some heartburn.

VB does, or used to have, an interior booket that gave a pretty good explanation on how-to install carpet, panels, and rebuild seats. I have an electronic copy of it. Send me an email if you would like a copy of it, it's about 1.8 Mb.

I did mine a number of years ago. I thought I would save a few dollars and went with a less expensive kit. You get what you pay for. If I did it again I would splurge for a much better carpet set.

I would also do the molded set. Much easier to install and looks better.

Also, put in sound deadener, like dynamat or other similar product. Some on this board have simply used water heater wrap available at Home Depot etc.

PCGold,

Since I am at that stage now,,, what carpet kit do you think you would buy if you had it to do all over again?

jay

I just recntly bought Moss' sewn carpet kit for my GT. I haven't had a chance to install it yet but it looks to be of good quality and others have said that it looks good installed. I may have bought a moulded set up but it is not available in the colour I wanted, although some have had problems with the fit of the moulded transmission tunnel.

As for under carpet insulation, I have used the two sided foil insulation that is used for infloor heating systems (available at Home Depot) with very good success.

again, lots of good input. The original interior is still in it...it's "biscuit" or some shade of tan, and black. Can't decide whether to go all tan or all black this time. With Carmine Red paint, either will look just fine. I'm leaning toward all black, though.

Mark, if you don't mind, please send that electronic file to me at frankbice@cox.net. Thanks.

BTW, The Vicky Brit reupholstery manual is still in print, and is listed in their color upholstery pages. It is mentioned in a box on those pages.

I called them the other day to suggest that they might want to offer it as a PDF file on their website, and they seemed to think that was a good idea. FWIW.