Plus 2 carpet fitment

[Harvey]

I just installed new sills requiring me to pull up the carpet and underlay to access the nuts and bolts holding the sills to the body. The carpet and underlay need replacing. I have two questions for the forum: How does the carpeting fit around the wires forward of the doors, some of which run through the metal tube into the door interior to activate the electric window motors. My current carpet is simply zip tied over the wires to hide them but doesn't provide a tidy appearance. Should the underlay and carpet be glued directly to the body with a hole cut in the carpet for the wires, no longer concealed, to pass through it and into the door tube? What provides the most aesthetic appearance? I tried to show a picture of my carpet attachment but I don't know how to move photos from my iMac into the post.

My second question pertains to the cutout in the fiberglass body for access to the lower door hinge. I'd like to seal this opening for sound abatement and was wondering what others have done? Although I haven't yet tried it for size I was thinking something like the rubber plug in the body that covers the opening which allows greasing of the prop shaft might work.

Lee

[stugilmour]

Harvey, I just completed a refresh on the carpets. I had done the interior several years ago, but it really wasn’t a great effort.

I used spray applied contact cement to solidly attach the fibre soundproofing to the fibreglass. In my case this was done several years ago, and I found the felts to still be well attached and undamaged, except for a bit of deterioration at the lower edge due to moisture. Consider installing butyl style soundproofing on the floorpan first so it radiuses up the side wall beneath the felt, and trimming the felt back as required so it doesn’t wick moisture.

I cut out grooves in the soundproofing to accommodate the door wires. In my case there are some additional wires for door locks. My wires run in these grooves up to behind the dash. I also needed a similar groove in the passenger side console/footwell underfelt to accommodate the main cable from the battery

To cover/seal the openings in the fibreglass, both for the hinges and the openings in the inner door skins for the latch mechanism and window motors, I used an offbrand version of Dynamat soundproofing. I purchased a couple of boxes of the stuff and covered pretty much the whole floorpan as I found the fibre soundproofing didn’t stand up very well due to moisture accumulation. The butyl soundproofing sticks well to the fibreglass. To seal better over the hole edges (and re-attach the pieces after they had been removed a few times and were less sticky) I covered/sealed the edges with short pieces of thin foil tape, the stuff used for heating duct.

I didn’t require as much spray contact cement to attach the carpet. I think I ended up with about three glued spots to hold it in place while installing the door gaskets. However I have stereo speakers in the kick panel area that effectively retain the large flat piece of carpet. I needed several iterations of offering up the carpet and trimming it to shape to get things to fit reasonably flat prior to adding any adhesive. My carpet was stiff enough to bridge over the grooves in the fibre soundproofing and allow room for the wires, but it definitely took several shots to trim the carpet because it will wrinkle up if it is too large for the door gasket to cover.

This is definitely the fussiest carpet piece to fit. Be patient and get it fitting very well and flat/smooth before reaching for any adhesive. Once properly trimmed it is basically a flat large piece of carpet that I found didn’t require much adhesive at all. I think I needed a small notch on the front corner of the footwell, but other than that the piece is completely flat save for simple 90 degree folds at the bottom and front edges which are of course completely covered with the floor pieces. Really it is kinda harder to describe than it is to do.

One tip on trimming this piece of carpet for initial fit. The aft end of this piece needs a short (about an inch) hook shape to cover the curved corner at the lower rear of the door opening; there is a small area between the C pillar panel and the fitted door gasket that will remain uncovered by carpet. My piece (from Aldridge Trimming in the UK) had the top of the carpet cut straight to the rear rather than with this small hook shape. I had to cover the corner area with a small carpet scrap on the first side I did. On the second door I basically trimmed about an inch off the top edge of the carpet to form the required hook, which fit a lot better, and the piece was large enough to still adequately cover the corner to the floorpan.

Checking the carpet illustration in the Parts Manual I see that this hook shape is actually shown, so this may be a minor issue depending who supplies your carpet kit. Actually the Aldridge piece was perhaps easier to fit with my stereo speakers because it was pretty easy to trim to fit after the speakers were fully attached over top of the carpet, which might have been difficult if the carpet couldn’t be liberally positioned.

My Aldridge kit was actually missing the two plinth pieces for the rear seats, which they apparently had never been asked about and sent along in the mail at no charge, and I assume they are adding to the kit. Then again, I didn’t purchase new carpet for the boot (was still fine after several years use) so maybe that was the issue.

HTH. Where did you source your carpet and underfelt set?

Stu

[seniorchristo]

Stu
I am also fitting wool carpets in my Plus 2 from Aldridge and am encountering similar issues to what you are describing. I am also concerned I will have difficulty securing the carpet along the lower door edges with the door weatherstrip. Did you have any problem with this?
Thanks
Chris

[stugilmour]

Actually Chris, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Just re-read, and see you opted for wool? I got synthetic loop style carpet, so maybe thinner than yours? At any rate my carpet kit was matched to the new door cards.

For the trimming and fitting stage, I got some seamstresses marking chalk from the fabric store. Excellent stuff, comes in different colours in a little triangle shape. Like the haberdasher uses to mark your slacks. Anyway, can mark either side of the carpet without a permanent mess.

Also got my giant shears sharpened before starting. Used a razor knife as well.

I used a heat gun to attempt to seal the carpet edges; just a light pass or it will rapidly melt back.

I covered the carpet edge with ~1” wide pieces of the foil tape to firmly hold the carpet in place, and folded over to the fibreglass rocker flange at the door opening. My McGreggor supplied door gaskets fit over the thin foil tape, which was easy to trim back after the gasket was in place and left no mess.

If fitting new gasket, be careful to not trim the stuff too short. I would suggest fitting it untrimmed for several days so any stretch in the material is relaxed out. I ended up with a giant gap that appeared over a period of time.

I should have been a bit clearer above about the floorpan. I didn’t want just the continuous butyl & foil stuff, which runs under the seats, looking up at boot heals and water in the front tunnels. I covered the bulk of the butyl in the front floor mat area with a second layer of self adhesive stiff metal backed synthetic fibre heat and sound shield material. I left the just a single layer of existing fibre soundproofing in the rear seat area, as only Springer Spaniels go back there in our world. Got most of this stuff off the rack at our local hot rod parts store.

I also installed these thread-in studs, called “Hanger Bolts” (who knew?), wherever I needed to attach things thru the new carpet, like the dashboard side panels, a map pocket I added, the console, rear seat cushions, etc. I used 1” length, they are also available in 1 1/2”.

I cut slots in the felts and solidly fitted PVC trim (roughly 3/8” thick x 1 1/2” wide from the door trim section of Home Depot) directly to the fibreglass with JB Weld. After the carpet is smoothly installed over top (the PVC backers are essentially flush with the felts), aligning and drilling into these ~2” long backers is easy and there is no hole thru the fibreglass shell. Screw in the self tapping end of the studs thru the carpet. The #8-32 end of the stud pokes thru the new carpet and nicely retains the carpet position without adhesive.

Makes putting things back together way easier. I used nickel plated acorn nuts and small rubber washers for final attachment. Might paint them black.


16 Pack #8-32 Hanger Bolt Kit with Nuts Washers Hanger Bolts for Wood Furniture



HTH

[Harvey]

Stu,

Thank you for your very thorough answer to my questions. I have not yet ordered carpet and underlay. Although my car could use carpets throughout I am under a time crunch at the moment trying to get the car back on the road while also readying our house for sale. I thought I would use an excellent trimmer nearby just to do the two pieces along the outer footwell and along the bottom of the door sill to save time. Your response gives me something to guide his efforts. Hope to see you in Austin in September.

Lee

White '71 Plus 2S

[stugilmour]

All the best Lee and glad to help.

Unfortunately LOG conflicts this year with, wait for it, The English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association National in St Louis, which is a family vote I always loose.

I am very tempted by the Save the Date announcement for the West Coast Lotus Meet October 17th to 20th. What the heck, the Plus 2 has all season tires and if the weather holds a run thru Idaho and Nevada with a return up the Pacific Coast would be epic. Basically get up from the Canadian Thanksgiving dinner table and head south; might be a tough sell on the home front so we will see.

This was my October return trip from 2011 LOG31 in Las Vegas, which always makes my navigator nervous.

[Harvey]

Stu,

Yikes! No country for a Plus 2. Weather permitting perhaps we'll meet up at the WCLM. Thanks again!

Lee