Carpet adhesive sadist

[RobinB5]

I'd love to know the name of the fecking sadist who chose the carpet adhesive. It's like some kind of atomic bonding agent ffs. With any luck I won't end up chiseling down through the body work.

[Barrykearley]

Best chipped off and snorted 👍

[Giniw]

On mine a previous owner ripped it under the passenger seat, so the carpet structure is free but the pile is still glued ... Fortunately it's invisible, it's only under the seat.

Incidentally, I see you don't have soundproof material either @RobinB5.
Are they all like this? Unless my memory fails me the parts manual shows some sort of intermediate layer, and I don't have any either.

[Steve V8]

Welcome to the joys of carpet fitting @RobinB5 , make sure when fitting the new carpet to have it correctly positioned before gluing it down, contact adhesive is instant and permanent, if you try to pull it back up the tufts will pull through the backing as you have already experienced with the old. 

@Giniw only the front section of the footwells has sound proofing mats, there is none  directly beneath the seats S4 onwards.

[Giniw]

Thanks @Steve V8, indeed I didn't have a look at the front.

[RobinB5]

7 hours ago, Steve V8 said:

Welcome to the joys of carpet fitting @RobinB5 , make sure when fitting the new carpet to have it correctly positioned before gluing it down, contact adhesive is instant and permanent, if you try to pull it back up the tufts will pull through the backing as you have already experienced with the old. 

@Giniw only the front section of the footwells has sound proofing mats, there is none  directly beneath the seats S4 onwards.

Thanks Steve. With the instructions you sent with the carpet set, and the guide on LEW, I have good advice to hand. Though this is my first time doing anything carpety and I've found that it's usually the 2nd time you do something that it's done right!! Will take plenty of photos and post about my progress, might help others do the same in the future.

[RobinB5]

Took a good few hours, but one side's carpets are now removed. Subsequently removed the sill as well. All the sound proofing was left pretty much intact, including the different hairy type material around the wheel arch. The rear boot release lever surround didn't come loose as much as I'd have hoped after removing its screw. Had to use plyers to wrench the carpet from around it. White spirits was liberally applied and left to soak to help liberate the carpet from its satanically bonded adhesive.

Also found an historically deposited tool in the front of the sill (not by me). Yep, you've guessed it, a 10mm spanner

After nicking my thumb with the Stanley knife, had to take a break whilst in the Lotus position as blood was dripping into my eye. Blood tears and sweat 

[Barrykearley]

Can I have my spanner back please?

[RobinB5]

No, it's now on ebay for 34p.

[Barrykearley]

You can deduct the loose coins you would have found from that 😡

[ragingfool35]

LOL my buddy's son was visiting the club shop when i started this task.  i hadn't met him until i asked him to help me remove the carpet.  It took both of us 4 hrs.  I feel like he saved my life in battle.  it was such a bitch of a job, i would jump in front of a bullet for him for his help that day!

[RobinB5]

You just met him and then asked him to help remove Esprit carpet!! Hope you paid him lots Chris  

[ragingfool35]

well i bought him lunch which certainly didn't cover my debt.  He wouldn't take any money.  Yeah he was around 22 yr old and sitting in the shop office waiting on his dad to finish some task on his Esprit.  Alex was visiting his parents from college.  His dad told me he had just gotten out of Marines.  I figured if anyone was up to the task of removing the carpet, it would be a young Marine!  He didn't even complain or swear during the process.  Me on the other hand...a constant stream of grunts and curses!  His quiet dedication to the job put me to shame and changed my attitude during the effort.  Sometimes misery really does love company

[RobinB5]

Finished. Will post some more pictures and comment on the experience later. But for now here's before and after:

 

Very happy and I didn't break anything

 

[Barrykearley]

That looks stunning - well done 👍

[ramjet]

Would a heat gun have been a solution for softening the glue? I am not sure how much caution needs to be exercised working on fibreglass though?

[Chillidoggy]

1 hour ago, ramjet said:

Would a heat gun have been a solution for softening the glue? I am not sure how much caution needs to be exercised working on fibreglass though?

Yes.

[RobinB5]

Good to know, I'll use one next time!

[ramjet]

I only just thought about it. Sorry mate.

[Chillidoggy]

1 hour ago, RobinB5 said:

Good to know, I'll use one next time!

Hopefully there won’t be a next time!

However, peeling back the carpet, playing a hot air gun on the interface and using a scraper, makes the original carpet a lot easier to remove.

[RobinB5]

So here are some pictures of the process. I post them here for others who, like me, are equally unskilled as a carpet layer as they are a car mechanic. As @Steve V8 said after I was pestering him with some quite nooby questions, 'it's not science'. Having completed it I totally agree with him! Just a bit of common sense is all that's required.

After the ball ache of the carpet removal, the first pieces to set are the tunnel sides (as per Steve's instructions, which are better than the LEW carpet fitting guide imo).

After propping up the side carpet, I cut a hole for the seatbelt thingy, put a bolt in there temporarily, lowered the carpet, glued both carpet and tunnel sides, waited 2 mins (any longer then it was very unforgiving if you tried to adjust), then pressed them together from the bolt area along, ensuring no air gaps and a nice smooth connection. Practice for all the other subsequent sections.  

[RobinB5]

For the rear bulkhead, started by securing the carpet unglued by removing the 2 screws in the rear window cover, insert the carpet behind it, then screw the cover back again. This held the whole carpet up quite nicely. Cut 2 slices for each speaker area (making sure the slices did not go beyond the 2 speaker holes. The tricky bit was the central pocket. I'm sure there's a better way but ended up putting the 2 tunnel side trim pieces back on so that I could rest the central pocket on top of them, abutting the bulk head. Then taped the extents of both tabs of the pocket:

Then cut 2 slices between the tapes. Lifted the slices up an pushed the pocket tabs under them, then screwed them down. Well, I was happy with it

The area around the rear cover release lever was quite tricky. I couldn't get the entire lever cover loose, only the bottom part of it (and didn't fancy undoing the bolt from the back). Suffice to say heed Steve's instructions that state not to trim too much too soon to make that hole (I ended up with about a 5mm gap between carpet and lever cover on the bottom of it. Used a screwdriver to push the rest of the carpet under the cover then screwed it back on.

Wheel arches... uurrgghhh. Some of the horse hair type sound insulation came loose when removing the old carpet. I glued that back down and left to dry fully. The carpet goes right up to the top of the arches, they're quite 'tall' In trial unglued fitting I realised that you have to push the carpet right up there between the various gubbins and the arch itself. No chance of doing them when glued. So, pushed it up all the way unglued, then just glued the bottom half. Used the adhesive can to separate the carpet from the arch during the 2 minutes activation time:

 

[Barrykearley]

You still got my spanner and pencil?

[RobinB5]

Forgot to mention about the side tunnel carpet on the driver's side. Where the throttle cable tube thingy goes along the tunnel, there was a single hole cut into the carpet:

 

Short of detaching the throttle cable (which I'd probably screw up), I decided to bodge it can make a slice in the new carpet from that point upwards. Then slide up the new carpet over that point:

Once it was glued back down you can hardly see the join.

And yep, you've got to remove the 2 nuts holding the footrest assembly then make 2 holes in the new carpet to get the 2 bolts through. Even without the chairs in, the Lotus position was like some kind of extreme chiropractic torture. 

[RobinB5]

The left hand side sill was riveted in (unlike the RHS that was screwed, so had to drill them out. The sill has a 1/4 cylinder bit riveted to it that goes up by the door hinge end. One of those rivets was getting familiar with one of the pipes that run through the sill:

Damage was superficial (famous last words). Ground down the offending rivet and taped it over.

Useful note: don't glue down the carpet on the sill at all near the edges of the sill so that the screw/rivet holes can be accessed easily on refitting. Similarly for the sill carpet near the door hinge end to ensure the piece over the above mentioned cylindrical piece of the sill can be glued under the sill carpet itself (well, that makes sense to me  )

The thing I was most dreading as an opportunity to screw things up was the trimming by the door seal area. Ended up trimming the carpet back to line up with the top of the bodywork at the bottom of the door. Then trimmed back a little, but not too much, so that the door seal trim could grip over the carpet when put back, without leaving a gap.

Pushed the seal down a little more to ensure a straight line afterwards (looks a bit bumpy in the above picture). All in all, despite a non-perfect carpet cut line, I was happy with the end result.