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MG MGB Technical - Carpet Installation on a 72B

Hello Everyone,

I have purchased an OE style carpet kit from VBL. I have removed the seats and the old carpet. A great deal of the old carpet was ripped or missing. When I removed the carpet from the sills and the fender wells behind the seats, the carpet just disintegrated. I have read several of the old BBS archives about the OE style and I expect that I will not have too much trouble. I do have 2 questions:

1. What is the best way to clean the metal after the old carpet was removed? There is still glue and bits of carpet fibers on the metal.

2. The person that owned the car before me looks as if he drilled holes straight into the floor pans to bolt the seats down. Out of the 4 bolts in each seat, it looks as if only 1 original hole in each seat was used.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Michael Cheek
MWC Michael W. Cheek

OE carpet kit is a sh*tty solution (sorry !): I bought true carpet (more thicker, with same color and fabric), I cut it like original, and, after my wife bent the edges, I fit with the clips (without glue)...

I used Acetone to clean glue and fibers...

One original hole in each seat was used ? Curious !
Which of these 4 holes ? NE, NW, SE, SW of your seats ?

Ernesto

Thanks for the response,

First, I have already purchased the kit and I have had it for several months, so I will have to go with what I have. Second, if you are looking down on the seats from above, only the NE bolts are still original. The rest of the bolts were just a hodge-podge of bolts and even 1 giant screw.

Thanks

Michael
MWC Michael W. Cheek

Michael -- Some thoughts. (I replaced the carpet in my 66B two years ago. It really was a fun project.)

-- Clean the floors as well as you can. If there's any sign of rusting, deal with it now, while you can. Scrape and wire brush them clean. Assuming it's pretty light rusting, treat it with an automotive rust treatment, then you might want to consider spraying down a couple layers of truck-bed liner. (Works great, helps all a layer of moisture protection.)

-- Replace your seat packing rails (originally wood) with aluminum strips or PVC. The wood tends to collect moisture, rot, and contribute to rusting of the floor boards. (They are important, though, for keeping the seat rails straight and level, so the seats adjust properly.)

-- Originally there were captive nuts in the floor boards. They tend to pull out. I have the bolts-through-the-floorboard method on my seats, too. No worries, works fine, and you don't have to worry about those captive nuts working lose. The back ones, obviously, are easy access. The front ones, however, go through into the cross member space. (At least, as originally placed.) The outside front bolts, are easy to get to through a hole in the bottom of the crossmember. (Plugged after the nuts are tightened, of course.)

-- Use all new stainless steel bolts, washers and nuts to attach your seats, with an application of never-seize on the bolts. As I said, this works for me. Others may argue for replacing the captive nuts ...

-- While you're at it, put down a layer of heatshield insulation under your new carpet. Makes the cockpit much quieter and cooler. (After all, you're sitting on the exhaust pipe!) You might want to consider a sound deadening kit also, as was original. You can make your own a lot cheaper than the kit sold by the vendors (now approaching $90!) by getting some asphalt-based adhesive mastic.
Kim de B

Hello Kim,

Thanks for the advice. I was wondering if the truck-bed liner spray was available at an automotive store. I am not familiar with heatshield insulation. Is this something that I would also pick up at an automotive store, or would I locate that item at a hardware store. In removing the old carpet, I noticed a shiny layer of material that resembles thin insulation above the shift lever, it cover the hump where the transmission is located. The sound deadening kit sounds like a great idea. I went out and checked out the price of the kits. The one I saw was $134.00. If I used the truck-bed liner spray and the heatshield insulation, is my carpet going to still fit correctly? In the places that I have to glue, is the glue going to adhere to those surfaces?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Michael
MWC Michael W. Cheek

Michael
That thin piece of heat shield that you found above the shift lever is very important! Save it or find some heat shield to replace it with as a huge amout of heat comes out of the transmission tunnel at this location. You will slow roast your leg and shifting hand without it.

bob g
1978 Pageant Blue MGB
1976 Inca Yellow TR6
1973 Green Mallard MGB
1966 OEW MGB-GT
Robert Gloyd

I stripped the floors with chemical stripper. Then used POR-15 against all the rust. Then applied asphalt sound deadener (McMaster) and then thermal insulation against the tranny and fire walls. I used rubber sills, not the carpet ones, as they are plain junk. I used the best spray adhesive available without a HAZMAT permit. Topped it all off with rubber floor mats and aluminum thresholds. It came out spectacular. One seat bolt broke on me, so I drilled it through and added a new bold below the floor. I took someones advice on the seat bolts- cut studs and place them down with the carpet and rails first. Then the seats sit down over the studs. This way your are not fumbling looking for bolt holes to thread through. Good luck.
Brian Johnson

Michael --

Yep, you should be able to find the truck-bed liner at any good auto parts store, in the spray can paint section.

I used the "Space Age" heatshield insulation that Moss and VB sell, although I'm told the same stuff is available in the hot water section of some Home Depot stores. (Not in our store, though.) This stuff has a couple layers of foil stuff on one surface, with a heavy felt substance on the back. The foil side gets installed toward the heat source. So foil side DOWN on the tranny tunnel and floor boards, and against the fire wall.

J.C. Whitney sells the same stuff. It's fairly expensive, but worth it, in my opinion. Home Depot stuff, I'm told, is exactly the same stuff, but sold to insulate hot water heaters, but cheaper. If you buy the Moss 'Space Age' stuff, you'll need two rolls, with enough left over to put some behind your kick panels and rear bulkhead carpet.

As Brian said, you can make your own sound deadening kit, using the asphalt-based mastic that McMaster Carr sells. Email me and I can give you all the details. (A whole lot cheaper than the kit that Moss sells.)

Anyway, no problems getting your carpet to fit over the insulation. (At least, I didn't have any problems.) Does your carpet kit have the molded tranny tunnel piece? That will help. Don't overglue your carpet. Just use enough adhesive to hold it where it needs holding. (Vertical surfaces.) I didn't even bother gluing down the footwell pieces. Easy to take up and dry out when inevitably you get some leaks.
Kim de B

Kim: How does the "space age" stuff hold up when wet? Do you take all of it out to dry? Getting ready to do my GT so advice appreciated. And yes I've done all I can think of to stop the leaks but with our monsoons done here some water inevitably gets in.
Terry

also...original carpet had snaps in quite a few places and you can put new snaps in by drilling hole and pop riveting a snap in. (Be very careful to know what's on the other side...don't ask the details of why I say that...seems like hot battery cable got in the way). That way you can pull the carpet easily when it get's wet...rainstorm, no tonneau, etc. etc.. Use very little if any glue except for the wheel arches behind the seats, vertical wall behind the seats, etc. where you must and where it will dry out easily should it get wet. Once my seats are out I can pull all the carpet in 10 minutes except the few parts glued down. I also put the space age material behind the vinyl covered interior boards, except on the doors.
J.T. Bamford

"2. The person that owned the car before me looks as if he drilled holes straight into the floor pans to bolt the seats down. Out of the 4 bolts in each seat, it looks as if only 1 original hole in each seat was used."

I wonder if the bolts go thru the captive nut area or just thru the panel. Since the captive nut area is much thicker, if he bolted just thru the panels, wouldn't this be much weaker (especially if the panel has been weakened by rust) since the panel itself is fairly thin?
Napoleon

I know it's a bit off topic, but "seat packing rail" and "wood" finally got through to me. The floor rails on my '71 rest on the two metal spacers (which I always assumed was designed to keep the floor rails off the carpet). Am I missing something here? Should there be some sort of additional support for the rail? There's no wood in sight. How does this work?

Doug
Doug Fischer

Yes, Doug...there are two wooden strips that follow the runners under each seat. They are "about" the thickness of an old wooden yardstick and only about an inch or so wide. You could easily make your own replacements...

That's a great trivia question for MGB enthusiasts..

"How many pieces of wood was originally used in the making of an MGB?" Think about it...

rick
rick ingram

Rick, are you counting the door cappings as wood, too?
MCW, heed JT Bamford's warning about the wiring harness under the floor if you're going to add rivets and snaps for the carpet...he's not the only one who 'discovered'y cable down there!
RichB

RickB!

Yep...you got it!

Wood is still used in many modern cars...even my 1996 Nissan 300ZX has a small plywood cover in the passenger footwell that protects some electricals!

rick
rick ingram

I would like to thank everybody for all of the input on the carpet replacement. I just have a few more questions/comments. I have cleaned the floors to the best of my ability. There is a small amount of surface rust in a few places. I will try to find the POR-15 rust inhibitor. Here are my questions.

1. Should I remove the old heat shield around the tranny tunnel? It is glued in place and it was put in with the shiny side up. It only goes from the console to just above the shift lever.

2. If I use the truck-liner spray, will it act as a sound deadner also? I am afraid if I put down foil, then spray truckbed-liner, then a sound deadening kit, my carpet may not fit correctly.

3. I have several snaps broken off on the floor pans. What type of tool is required to put the snaps back? Will I have to order these snaps from Moss or VBL?

4. How hard is it to put the snaps on the carpet kit? If I can't put new snaps on the floor pans, can I glue the carpet into place?

5. Is there any trick to getting holes punched into the correct place for the seats and the seatbelts?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Michael
Michael W. Cheek

This thread was discussed between 16/05/2004 and 21/05/2004

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