Carpet Installation, part 2

Taking advantage of the sunshine and hot weather, I spent a little more time working on the carpet install Saturday and Sunday. I started by digging out the remaining old seam sealer that was left in the back seat area, Cleaned it up, and finished putting down a new coat of seam sealer that will hopefully last for many years to come. Following that, I finished up laying down the new insulation/sound deadener.

All said and done, I probably have less than $75 into the entire deal with enough leftover material to just about do a second vehicle.

Next up I started the carpet install. Starting with the back seat and working my way forward, the fit was pretty good. But, a couple points of note:

1) The pans are quite deep which mean you will have bunching in the corners as the carpet comes out of the wells and transitions into the rocker area. No avoiding it, just minimizing it.

2) Because the carpet is for a 4-door, and this is a wagon, the carpet is too short in the back corners next to the second-row seat hinge. It's an easy enough fix with the excess that will be trimmed away.

I let the carpet warm up on the blazing hot asphalt before fitting it to the pan. This seemed to help some with getting it to lay right. But, like every other set of carpet I have installed, noting is quite 100%, so a fair amount of stretching and fitting is required prior to trimming. Do not expect to just drop this in place.

The front is a bit more work to fit. I did get it most of the way in and cut the hole for the shifter. Fortunately this doesn't have to be to machining tolerances since I will be using a center console. Just the same, I kept it pretty darn close.

Next time out I will have to finish up fitting/trimming it and cut the hole for the high-beams switch. Tomorrow night after the kids are off to bed I will probably stack up some books in the corners to help the carpet relax into the correct form. A nice, easy project.