A brief word about carpets...

When I got this car the floor carpets were in a terrible state- holed and soaking wet! The wetness came from a blocked heater intake scuttle drain which poured out very satisfyingly once rodded through!  I removed all of this wet sloppy mess- the two floor carpets couldn't be saved although the side trim (vertical) sections of carpet could mostly be cleaned. The soundproofing material beneath (I think it was a type of foam-backed PVC...maybe  Hardura?) was also saturated and so was also removed. This dried out nicely given time but the driver's footwell section was broken into several pieces. I used it as a template to cut a section of normal automotive underfelt to replace it and then refitted all of the soundproofing matting.

Drivers footwell- new underfelting cut and installed , original soundproofing material replaced in front of back seat.

I have ordered a new carpet set from Ebay (Car hoods). I got a full set, the colour match seems great and I am hoping that I will not need to change many of the vertical sections. However time will tell....? The carpets are held down by three piece Veltex carpet fasteners. These consist of an anchor stud screwed into the floor, a clip ring section fixed below the carpet which locates on the stud, and a spiked ring section that will disappear into the pile but penetrate through the carpet fabric to attach the clip section.

Veltex fastener - taken from Opas.co.uk although I bought mine from Woolies or Car hoods (Ebay). Undercarpet clip ring top left, above carpet spiked retaining ring (bottom left) and floor stud bottom right.

The first stage is to replace the underfelt and secure it using the stud section of the fastener.  I wanted to install the carpet fixings in the same positions as the originals, so I installed the studs in the holes in the floor as used by Lotus. Studs were attached using a  1" No 6 self tapping screw- stainless marine grade. The head of this screw recesses neatly into the stud and is long enough to penetrate through the soundproofing material and GFP flooring of the car.  I placed an M4 repair washer underneath the stud to spread the pressure across the soundproofing.

Carpet retaining stud fitted to hold soundproofing material (Hardura) in place ready for carpet installation. No 6 screw head inside and M4 galvanised repair washer beneath.

Below the floor of the car the self tapping screw was held by a U section flat nut

End of self tapping screw viewed from beneath the car- note U section flat nut. This should allow some pressure to be exerted on the screw (as in pulling up the carpet) without ripping the screw out of the floor.

The whole of the fastening beneath the car was covered in a blob of Hammerite underseal and finally the sharp threads were covered with a 3mm Bolt Shop (Ebay) vinyl thread cover/protector.

Nut and screw below floor

Underseal added (contains waxoyl)

Thread protectors fitted.

I think the thread protectors are to stop me being sued by any mechanics who might work under the car- I doubt they do much to preserve the thread.

Fitting New Carpet.
The new carpet set arrived from Carhoods via eBay Its a nice set and although the colour is slightly lighter than the originals, its not enough to offend me- although the purist might not like to see new and old mixed. It includes the handbook pocket on the driver's side of the transmission tunnel which I wasn't expecting. The set is slightly different from original in that the front and rear foot well carpets are shorter and don't actually meet under the seat. There is a small square of carpet to cover the gap. This is not edged- which I think is a shame as its impossible to avoid joins with two raw edges with this system. Of course this will be under the seat and so will only show when the seat is tipped forward ... and perhaps revealed to the entering passenger. That may not make a great impression so I think I will have to be creative with carpet tape and see if I can disguise the join. Quality seems fair but the carpets are not as solid or robust as the originals.

Anyway- I'm hoping not to change (yet!) the glued-down sections of carpet along the transmission tunnel and inner sill edges. These do need changing, but they aren't too bad and as the colour match is acceptable (to me anyway), I will go ahead and fit only the foot well carpets. I have more than enough other stuff to get on with at the moment.

I am fitting new carpets over existing mounting studs so I don't have the luxury of working from the top down- I have to start at the stud and work up. There are loads of different ways of locating a new clip ring over an existing floor stud. Many of these involve just making a hole with a narrow sharp spike to locate the hole position. I don't like doing that- well it leaves a hole in the new carpet, so this is my way. If following it watch out for your finger and thumb tips!!!

Here's the below carpet ring set, spike ring and clip ring. 

assemble it with the spiked ring below the clip (ie upside down!)

Clip the assembly with the spikes upwards over the stud and then carefully position the carpet (engage any existing studs if available). Make sure the carpet edges come where you want and then...

Push the carpet down over the spikes- until they pop through to the top of the carpet. There is one here; they are hard to see but believe me you will feel them! Watch out for your fingers- don't want blood spots on the new carpet!

Position a new spike ring to coincide with the spikes coming through from underneath. If you match the teeth then they will also penetrate the clip ring beneath

Holding the upper ring in place, fold the carpet back and locate the three spikes penetrating the carpet

Slip an new clip ring over the spike tags and hammer them flat with a punch. This also pulls the ring into the carpet pile

Clip ring fitted

Remove the guide clip and spike ring from the stud and clip the carpet down.

Leave the new stud fastened when you do any others to ensure that they all fit well.

Carpet work was stalled for a month or so- whilst I was stymied with the fitting of my new pedal box (see later post). Removing the pedals obviously opened up access to the firewall bulkhead and so this was an ideal time to swap those carpets at least.
The driver's foot well end carpet is not in bad condition but pretty mucky. However this carpet also overlaps the side pieces and the the internal transmission tunnel section on the driver's side which also had a few problems: The handbook pouch was split and the edge whipping was worn through in a couple of places. This being so I decided to change the tunnel side section (drivers side) carpet as well and this piece needs to be fixed in place before the footwell end carpet. Both sections of carpet need to be prepared first.

However I set about preparing the foot well end and its carpet first. Later cars had a metal pad to prevent the throttle pedal from wearing out the carpet. My car didn't have one and as there was no hole in the wheel arch I am assuming that one was never fitted.

End of foot well- dirty and grubby carpet

 Foot well cleared out

Carpet removed, note steering column on the right- I need to cut out a hole for the new carpet to go round this. 

 Here the new carpet has been placed on top of the new piece from Car Hoods- fit isn't bad. The hole required to surround the steering column is visible- so I cut this out from the new carpet.

Old carpet on top of new for use as a template. steering column hole top left.

This was the first time I got the chance to work with the Car Hoods product. I have to say that you get what you pay for... this was  a fairly cheap set and the carpet is thin and tear-able; the density of the fibre tufts also appears lower than on the original carpet. If I can get it installed and stuck down then I think it will be fine, but I thought it sensible to take a few precautions to limit tearing.

 Firstly, I applied carpet tape to the rear to help bind any cuts,

Tape to rear of carpet- reinforcing all cutouts

Secondly I used a general purpose glue to massage into the cut edges to help bind the threads and prevent fraying. I did this to all cuts and holes but I'm not going to mention it again. Hopefully this will help to make the carpet set more durable.

Glue worked into the edge of all raw cut edges.

Once this part was prepared I set about preparing the tunnel side panel- you need to release the centre console to get underneath it. Firstly, lever up the front tray compartment under the handbrake. You can then slide it to the rear (ie under the handbrake lever) until it clears the radio at the front, then lift it up at the front (radio end) before raising it and rotating it around the gear lever to clear the console.

Raise and rotate the gear lever gaiter and tray.

This exposes the two fixing screws below the tray. You don't need to release the third screw that holds the handbrake gaiter in- this will raise with the console.

Two console screws below the tray

The console can then be raised a couple of cms which lets you pull the carpet out from under it- and of course to slip the new one in. Take care not to damage or disconnect the window lift motor switch connections. Other fastenings that go through this carpet panel also have to be removed: there is this stud in the driver's foot well (holds on the knee pad trim).

There is also the seat belt stalk fastener. This is a 17mm bolt head and fortunately a captive nut so it just unscrews.

Make a note of the order of the fittings- there is a spring washer under the bolt head and a spacer beneath the seat belt stalk that penetrates the carpet.

 Having removed the stalk the wiring for the seat belt warning switch is seen penetrating the carpet.

 This wiring is joined to the loom via bullet connectors beneath the carpet. This would be a perfect place to disconnect- except that in my case both were corroded.

 Although they were still in electrical contact, they didn't come apart easily. In the end they broke, so I simply cut them off and replaced them during the rebuild- remembering some dielectric grease as this is obviously a spot for corrosion.

 The bottom of the tunnel side carpet tucks under the floor moulded shoulder section. Folding this back revealed two stacks of washers; spacers that are necessary to raise the seat- these were carefully labelled so they get put back in the right place and stored.

Folding the floor shoulder section back

stack of washers to support seat rails

 Finally, I could remove the carpet section from the tunnel sidewall.

Carpet stripped from under the console

Sidewall and firewall both clear

The new carpet section was considerably larger than the old, the bottom section seemed to match but this left the top far too high

I aligned the two sections in order to trim the new one to size. Since the bottom edge was already cut, and is by far the more complex, I aligned the base and trimmed the top (and any sections that appeared to be extra at the bottom). Note- the old carpet had a clear cutout at the front - right lower in this view, and the I also cut this out of the new carpet (see below). I had assumed that this was cut out for a reason but in fact it serves no purpose and I should have left it!

Old and new carpets aligned. Note the new carpet has a lot more material to the top. The pocket stiffener has been removed and visible above the carpets.

Cut out new carpet- probably cut too small. Note functionless cutout at bottom right.

This generated the new carpet above; but I later realised that this was a mistake: the new set isn't a Lotus original; the other sections do not have the same overlaps so using any single piece as template has to be done with care. In particular this tunnel side carpet really needs to cover more of the foot well floor in order to meet up with the new floor pieces. It should probably have been placed lower but obviously position is limited by the handbook pocket which must be above the floor. Perhaps fit would be easier if the pocket were attached higher on the new carpet. It would probably have been more sensible to align the top and fit the carpet before trimming the bottom in position and just ignore the Car Hoods bottom profile. I did get away with the approach above; but its not great and I wouldn't do it that way again.

One other point is that the old set had a plasticised stiffener stuck to the front of the owners manual pouch- this isn't included in the new set so I removed it to stick into the new carpet after fitting. It needed minor trimming as the new pouch isn't quite the same size. Also, given that the new carpet is thinner than the old (and even the old one had split here) I think I will need to make some form of reinforcement pocket for the inside to take the owners manual.

In order to fit the tunnel side piece I first of all aligned the new carpet with the floor and the top of the centre console- pushing it well into the foot well. I could then hold it in place but peel it back at the front and spray the front side of the foot well and the rear of the front of the carpet; allowing the solvent to flash before pressing it back into position to hold it in place whilst I fitted the rest of the carpet.

Front of carpet tacked in place with glue.

 I could then spray the rest of the carpet underside and the tunnel side before sticking it into place as before. I had to make a few cuts in position and tucked excess carpet beside and under the rear seat and console. I then refitted the seat belt stalk, front knee pad stud and pushed the wires through the carpet making new connections underneath. Finally, I gave the last sections  of the tunnel side (carpet back and tunnel side wall) a spray and stuck the carpet down as above. I could then move on to the foot well bulkhead  section.

Tunnel side piece stuck into place- seat belt stalk refitted and connected.

The shoulder sections at the sides of both floor sections cover the seat mounting points. They are glued to the car floor but also fixed to the rear foot-well carpet using Veltex fasteners- but with a modified fitting. The upper section is fitted to the rear foot-well carpet in the same way, but for these fasteners, the button onto which it must clip is inserted in the shoulder section carpet rather than the car body. I did this using washers and pop-rivets.

Veltex fastener-lower sections and pop rivet. The original fasteners fitted to the car were the black type shown above (LHS). These had no flange and need a washer (shown below) underneath them to stop them just pulling through the carpet. The more modern type (silver, RHS) have an integral flange making this second washer unnecessary. The pop rivet is inserted from the rear through a second but smaller load-spreading washer under the carpet, and then expanded into the button of the Veltex on the top of the carpet.

Veltex button pop-riveted into the carpet.

I test fitted the rest of the carpets to make sure that all overlapped- the fit isn't bad but I had clearly cut the tunnel side carpet a little too small. There is also the strange square gap in the middle under the seat where the rear foot well carpet doesn't overlap the front.

Gap between front and rear footwell carpets

Infill piece supplied to cover this- but note raw edges.

There is also the odd junction of raw edges in the centre of the seat position which I think I had noted earlier. The square section supplied was only just large enough and should cover the junctions adequately. I need to investigate the use of carpet tape to try and hide the raw edges but they should be hidden beneath the seats anyway.

Tunnel side and front bulkhead carpets fitted; remainder tested for fit but at this stage still loose.

Later, when I returned to fitting the carpets  more permanently, I did discover a problem. The fit test shown above was carried out with the car "A" post trim panel unfitted. This is the section of trim that clips to the door frame and extends around the inside of the car to cover the inside of the foot-well by the fuse box. This section of side trim is shaped; it has an obvious square indentation- and the driver's foot-well carpet is shaped to fit into this indentation. However, the driver's carpet must be moved forwards from the position shown above in order to match the A post trim profile, and this obviously makes the gap between front and rear footwell carpets bigger. In fact its clear that the square fill-in patch supplied to fit between these rear and front foot-well carpets is just not big enough!

Infill square- maybe big enough- but only just! It seems to me that there is going to be a gap somewhere and I cant avoid raw side edges.

The raw edges are still a problem and to my mind the best solution would be to obtain two new "T" pieces for the rear foot-well which have longer "stem" parts; the stem of the current mats is 29cm and this really needs to be much longer at 49cm in order to slip under the front foot well mat and cover everything.  If these were to be edged all around they will eliminate the need for a square infill piece completely as well as hiding all the raw edges. I will investigate the provision of pieces like this.

Spoke to Ian at Carhoods. He seems understanding about the problem. He asked me to cut a paper template for the missing section. I cut one that is a bit larger than the bare minimum, giving a curved overlap with the side shoulders so I can put Veltex fasteners in there. The section is handed and needs to be made using the template both ways up to make LH&RH versions and it needs to be edged along the long sides. I will have to wait and see what happens now!

Template drawn on brown paper.

Carpet sections as received

... and then placed in position- Generally I'm pleased with these as the curve does fit over the shoulders nicely. I need to get the various sections stuck down and put in a few more pop fasteners to hold the sections together.

I fitted the carpets with new fasteners to join all sections together using the pop rivet method to fix the base studs into the lower carpet as above. I was then able to stick the shoulder sections down (including the washer stacks used as spacers under the seats).

... before refitting the seats themselves. For method see my other post here.