David Roake was asking on the PH forum for any info on carpet replacement and any tips on what needs to come out and how. Unfortunately not to many people came forward and the few that did could either only make suggestions on what may need to come out and how to do it, or they recommended a trimmer/fitter. David after a few quotes decided to do it himself and  ordered a ready made carpet set from Coverdales ( in our links page ). As there is very little information on this I asked if David would be so kind to Document his experiences, of which he has kindly done for us.

 Tasks:

• Remove hood
• Remove seats
• Remove seat belts
• Remove or move central 'whale tail' enough to get at carpet underneath
• Remove speakers from rear above parcel shelf
• Drill out old pop rivets holding Velcro securing sides of hood
• Remove all old carpet
• Save sound deadening material from underneath carpets in footwell
• Save fibreglass panels from carpet covering access panels behind doors
• Save fibreglass panel from passenger footwell
• Save plastic heater vents from footwells
• Ensure surfaces for new carpet are as clean, sound and flat as possible
• Secure saved sound deadening material to underneath of new carpets for footwells
• Secure saved fibreglass panels to new carpet pieces covering access panels behind doors
• Secure carpet and backing to saved fibreglass panel from passenger footwell
• Fit new carpets
• Cut openings for save plastic heater vents in footwells and refit
• Cut openings for speakers in rear of car
• Refit Velcro securing sides of hood over new carpet with pop rivets
• Make holes for seat belt bolts and refit
• Refit central 'whale tail'
• Refit hood
• Refit seats
• Hoover the carpet and clean off over spray to carpet, trim and bodywork

Removing the hood

Pull to remove the access panel over fuel tank. Fix an old sheet or similar to the inside of the boot so when you drop the nuts holding the hood you'll be able to retrieve them.
Remove the five Allen bolts holding the hood. Nuts for the central three are accessed from the boot, the side two via the access panels under the carpet behind the doors.
While in the offside access panel, disconnect the red connector for the hood interior light.
Remove the bolts holding the bottom of the hood supporting struts to the rear panel. The picture shows location of nearside bolt in the boot. Unscrew the bolts holding the sides of the hood and the hood will be free of the body (except in my case the red connector was larger than the access hole for the wires so the hood wasn't totally disconnected).

Removing the seats

Simply undo the 4 nuts holding each seat from underneath the car. This can be done without a jack if necessary. Ensure you save the washers that have been cut to fit for reassembly.

Removing the seatbelts

The seatbelts are held by three bolts, one holding the end of the belt attached below the door sill one a shoulder hight behind the seat and one holding the seatbelt reel. The nut for the latter is accessed from the wheel arch. This can be undone without jacking the car up.

Removing the central 'whale tail'

Unscrew the rear brackets from the body behind the seats and underneath the whale tail.

Pull the bolster section of the central assembly to the rear and out of the car.

Raise the rear of the car on axle stands (or use a car lift if you have access to one) and loosen the handbrake adjuster such that the handbrake lever in the car is moved to as near a vertical position as possible. The adjuster is a nylon nut and locking nut located above to the offside and front of the differential. A pain to get at with any tool in my possession. The adjuster needs to be slacked off and if possible dropped from the retaining bracket (for some reason mine would not come out)

With the handbrake lever in the vertical position it is then possible to raise the rear of the whale tail sufficiently to replace the carpet underneath. The door pulls and heater panel will also need to be disconnected if you want to remove the panel.

Remove speakers from rear above parcel shelf

This will probably vary from car to car, but in my case I had to remove the mesh grill, undo 4 self tapping screws from each speaker and disconnect the wiring.

Drill out old pop rivets holding Velcro securing sides of hood

This is the end result below. I decided to reuse the old Velcro as in good condition so only drilled out the rivets inside.

Removing the old carpet

Doesn't really matter where you start but carefully pull on the old carpet to remove. Where particularly stuck, e.g. footwells due to heat, slide a wood chisel between the carpet and the foam underneath to minimise damage to the foam. If any foam is badly damaged in the removal process, consider replacing before fitting new carpet to avoid a lump look.

Ensure the following items are recovered from the old carpets:

• Sound deadening material from underneath carpets in footwell
• Fibreglass panels from carpet covering access panels behind doors
• Fibreglass panel from passenger footwell
• Plastic heater vents from footwells
  

Preparing the New Carpets

Ensure surfaces for new carpet are as clean, sound and flat as possible. Replace any badly damaged foam.

Secure the saved sound deadening material to the underneath the new footwell carpet

Secure the saved fibreglass panels to new carpet pieces covering access panels behind doors

Secure new carpet and backing to saved fibreglass panel from passenger footwell

Fitting the New Carpets

The order of refitting is again a matter of personal preference, but of course be sure to fit the pieces that go  underneath another first. You will need to cut most pieces to fit exactly with a Stanley knife or similar. I started with the transmission tunnel:
Then the footwells and sides: And then the rear of the car. Please do take care to fit the pieces in the correct order here as there are many layers in the kit I used. When fixing the access panels behind the doors, I attached some new self adhesive Velcro to each B post (i.e. behind the door to the floor) to allow access for the door motors etc.

Refitting the Car

Once all of the carpet has been glued in place it is just a question of refitting all of the items previously removed: Fit plastic heater vents in footwells by cutting out the carpet covering the openings and pushing home the units. Refit the rear speakers by cutting out the carpet covering the openings, screwing the speaker units in place and refitting the mesh.

Refit the Velcro securing sides of hood over the new carpet with pop rivets.

Make holes for seat belt bolts and refit. Ensure the belts run smoothly.

Refit whale tail  by fixing the rear brackets to the body behind the seats. Raise car and readjust handbrake.

Refit hood, side bolts first, then rear Allen bolts and then hood stays.

Refit seats.

Clean all the over spray (and you will have some!) using white spirit.

Sit back and look at your work: