Hello all, Three general questions for everyone. Where did you buy your carpeting? Were you satisfied with the vendor, fit and quality? Anything that should be added or avoided? Phil Lingle
Almost all vendors sell the ACC carpeting. I would go with the one that has the best price. I have bought from both www.rockauto.com, and http://www.stockinteriors.com . Stock interiors is more knowledgeable as to what they are selling, however, I have never had a problem with Rock Auto, so they get good marks from me also.
When I put new carpeting in a '64 Olds I owned back in the 1990s, I bought it from J. C. Whitney. No problems at all. When I put new carpeting in my '73 Custom Cruiser back in 2010, I bought it from Vark Motors: http://www.varkmotors.com/ I looked around online, this place had a good price, I called and spoke with them, the guy was very knowledgeable and friendly and eager to do business with me, and it was a very good experience. The carpet fit just fine and looks fine. Here's a couple of photos of the Vark motors carpet installed in the car. The newly reupholstered front seat had just been installed as well. Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that, as far as I know, no one makes carpeting for anything but the front and second seat areas of station wagons. It's usually just carpeting meant for four-door cars that happens to also fit the corresponding station wagon. For the carpeting around the third seat area, I had the vendor send me a few extra yards, uncut, and had the shop that did the seat reupholstery cut and fit that carpet for me partially using the old carpet, which was intact but worn, as a pattern.
When you're ordering carpet, be sure you check into the options. I've seen that you can spend a few bucks more and order thicker weight carpet and/or better padding.
I purchased ACC for my Merc. Back seat fit like a glove. Front seat is sloppy around the hump with too much material. Fortunately I am doing buckets and a center console, so I think I will be able to put a "V" split in it to true it up. This is similar to what I have experienced in the past in other vehicles with the ACC carpets. The recesses of the pans are typically pretty good, but the area around the hump has varied with this being the loosest fit. Otherwise, quality seems to be acceptable.
You have to be careful of how much insulation you put under the carpeting because it will change the fitment on the hump and around any other molded radiuses or cuts and make it loose and fit bad. You end up trimming edges when you shouldn't have to. Trying to fix it with more padding or insulation is a nightmare because the geometry is all off from what the carpeting was made to fit to. When they mold the carpet they should have an option for thicker floor insulation, I think they're basically bare floors they use. It's always a problem and to make them with the insulation thickness compensated they would probably have to make another mold and they aren't going to do that.
When I ordered the carpet for my 1962 Chevrolet wagon, the rear seat carpet didn't have the trailing parts for alongside of the rear seat. I had to get additional material and using carpet tape, add to the carpet in this area. I don't understand why they don't just figure this out, and add the extra to the box and supply the tape to make the carpet fit station wagons. Does Trim Parts manufacture all of their own carpets, or do they manufacture some, and purchase the ones that they don't make from ACC?
My biggest complaint with all the replacement carpets is that they don't ever get the heal pad in the correct location, nor do they offer heal pads that originally had a design in them. An example is my 1963 Chrysler New Yorker, has a specific design to the heal pad that Chrysler had started using in the 1950's and continued into the late 1960's, however, they don't offer anything other than the standard generic heal pad. I am inclined to having a local upholstery shop make me a carpet and install the original heal pad on the new carpet that they make for the car.
I don't think that is what is happening here. The rear seat fits nicely (aside from having to add carpet as Junk did since the carpet for wagons is just 4-door carpet, not wagon carpet. The insulation I am using throughout is standard insulation on the carpet, and "barn" insulation over the rest of the floor. It is essentially bubble wrap with with foil on both surfaces. It is thin and follows contours well, so the stack up from the added insulation will be next to negligible since I am not putting the asphalt insulation back. The extra carpet, working from the molded edges in, leaves me with about 3" of slack in the center with everything else hitting in the right place (including the molded-in heel pad), so I am confident this is a manufacturing issue, not an installation issue. But, it is correctable. I'd be happy if they did a wagon-specific carpet, but this will look good when its done. Just a little extra work.
