Finished Trunk Carpeting

I finally finished carpeting the trunk, installing a spare tire, hinging the hood and adding "bonnet straps" and secondary latch.

Wow Brian that looks awesome.

Brian - very nice job putting that together!

Beautiful!

angela

Nice job!

what a great way to hold the spare down. i fabricated and welded a mount for two wheel bolts. i didn't even think of something as simple as that. good work!

and it looks fantastic too. did you do your own edging?

Paul-It may have Brian or someone who had used the product in this link, with very nice results I might add:
http://www.instabind.com/

Brian that looks perfect! Share the deets man!!!!

Well done, do share some tips & tricks you learned.

Thanks for the kudos. Yes, I did the binding; made paper templates, cut the carpeting from the same indoor/outdoor carpet that I used on the interior, edged it using INSTABIND. See my "Last 50 Forum Posts", dated 3-23-2009, "New carpeting" for details of installing carpet and edging.

In the trunk, I used a piece of 1/4" Masonite to make the hinged cover over the battery. Made the carpet piece that covers it about 4" longer than the Masonite, and glued the 4" extension to the trunk floor (this allows the carpet to be the "hinge"). Used a piece of 1" aluminum angle to support the forward edge of the Masonite. The piece of carpet covering the gas tank extends forward over the 4" extension mentioned above. It is only glued to the top surface of the gas tank. The sides and the upper end of the gas tank carpet all are left unglued and just rest against the mating carpeted sides of the trunk. All edges were finished with INSTABIND.

The brackets that hold the tire tie-down belts are each made from a pair of 5/16 x 1" long hex head bolts and a 2-1/2" length of 5/16" steel rod. The rod was layed across the tops of the 2 bolts and welded. The weld and the hex head protrusions were ground smooth, and the finished brackets were finished with a PVC spray coating.

Thanks Brian! It just went on the "to do" list.

That's absolutely beautiful work. It looks better than most interiors! Better get a really nice prop-rod, 'cuz I have a feeling it's going to get a lot of use while you're showing that trunk off!

Cory....the prop rod may not qualify as "really nice", but it is functional. It's a length of 5/16" rod with a "Z" bend at the lower end which goes thru a hole in the forward portion of the side wall to act as the pivot point. The "free" end has a 5/16" washer welded to it about 3/4" from the end. This gets inserted into a hole in the hood liner when the hood is raised. The hole is dressed with a S/S washer epoxied in place. With the hood down, the free end rests between the side wall and the gas filler neck. The bend in the prop rod (see picture with spare tire) is needed to clear the tire hold down strap. The rod was also sprayed with PVC coating.

Brian, well executed! Any final thoughts/lessons-learned on the use of the "InstaBind"?
(I previously added their web-site to my favorites for future reference)

Scott... the only additional thing regarding the Instabind is that I didn't buy their extended nozzle for the glue gun. Usud a $10-12 gun from Service Star hardware store and glue sticks "for wood", not for hobby use. They take longer to set up (about 45 seconds) giving you more than enough time to press the roll up against the edge of the carpeting. Read my post from early may mentioned above. The binding comes in 40 ft rolls. I used almost the entire 40 feet of binding on the interior; needed a second roll to do the trunk.

I should have reviewed the original thread. Lazy! But thank you for the additional input. Really a nicely executed job.
What was the approximate man-hour total for the work (so far)?

Scott...making and adjusting the carpet paterns was the real time consumer. I completely "carpeted" everything with heavy paper.

I then cut,edged & installed one piece, then the next adjoining piece, etc. adjusting as needed.

I would guess that the interior carpeting took me about 20-25 hours, and that the trunk carpeting took about 4-5 hours.

The edging takes about 2 minutes per foot; more around tight corners.

Thanks, Scott.

Brian, I see that you live in New Jersey.
Since we're practically neighbors, and since I know next to nothing about carpet ...
Whaddya say Teresa and I hand you a blank slate? ;)

Cory, my Speedster isn't finished or ready for registration. Between working on this and several other projects, both here and upstate NY, I wouldn't have the time until late fall.

Right now, the unfinished Speedster occupies one side of the garage; the Healey clone occupies the other. Our everyday vehicles fill up the driveway.

Keep in mind that this was my first attempt at carpeting anything, and I think I was lucky it turned out OK.

Because of a cronic bad back, I did all of the carpeting with the doors removed, and the car raised about 3 feet on a lift. If I did another, it would have to be done the same way.

If you are still interested, perhaps we can discuss it in late October.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out the best way to install the windshield. Again, something new to me. I've read the old posts; wish me luck.

I was really kidding, Brian -- you did a very nice job!