Hi All,
I'm entering the madness, and I can't stop. The interior of my front hood is naked and needs a carpet lining. I've been trying to find something through all the regular suppliers, but I'm coming up empty.
Anyone have a lead to where I can just purchase the hood lining/carpet? I have the standard tan carpeting on my 2015 VS.
TIA
RayRay
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Greg at Vintage Motorcars...Carpet Kit (Trunk) - Vintage Motorcars of California Inc. (vintagemotorcarsinc.com)
Reach out to Greg at Vintage Motorcars or Carey at Beck/Special Edition, they might be able to help. They're building a lot of cars and if supply is low they may have to keep what they have for their builds. Otherwise @Alan Merklin has used carpet from one of the big box stores I think.
If you want matching carpet your going to have to go with the aforementioned suppliers. Or pay an upholstery shop to custom cut and sew you a set of carpets.
OTOH, if you’re just looking to carpet the frunk, big box stores sell a charcoal grey indoor/outdoor carpet that we used to use to line equipment cases. Really easy to work with and easily installed with 3M Spray77.
Thanks all. Yes, I've reached out to Greg at VMC to see if they can supply me with just the hood portion of the carpet. I also reached out to them to do some aesthetic work on my VS to clean it up a bit, and they said they're too busy producing that they're not doing any other work right now.
My frunk carpeting is still in tact, so I don't need the whole carpeting kit. Just the part under the hood.
I can probably just ask Alan since he is building my speedster now, but if I do my own trunk carpet inserts to match my interior, do I just glue/velcro the carpet directly to the fiberglass, or do you wrap the carpet around a solid panel out of wood or waterproof cardboard before attaching?
"Frunk" carpet sets are glued directly onto the fiberglass and the tank.
Spray77. Tape off the painted surfaces so you can get right up to the corners on the lid. Spray the fiberglass. Wait a minute, spray the back of the carpet (because the glue will set up faster on the carpet than on the fiberglass.)
As soon as it's "tacky," i.e. It's still sticky but the glue stays on the surface vs sticking to your finger when you touch it, mate the two surfaces.
Have a helper, you only get one shot at it. If you have to take it off and redo it, the bond will be much reduced. Have your helper hold the lid so you can press on the carpet. Like you're ironing it. 3-5 minutes will do it.
I'm still have trouble getting comfortable with gluing the carpet directly to the painted fiberglass, but trust the experience from this group given how long all of you have been at it. It would just be nice if there was an approach that could use a slightly firmer board behind the carpet and then screw it in similar to how the door panels are screwed on.
Right now, I'm just excited to get my speedster from Alan this month and can sort out the additional things like the frunk liner as a future project. Just thought I would ask since this thread was going.
Thanks everyone
TBH, if it were me, I wouldn’t put carpet on the lid. I would use truck bed liner, Plasticote, or that paintable FlexSeal stuff.
@MarylandGuy posted:I can probably just ask Alan since he is building my speedster now, but if I do my own trunk carpet inserts to match my interior, do I just glue/velcro the carpet directly to the fiberglass, or do you wrap the carpet around a solid panel out of wood or waterproof cardboard before attaching?
Thanks - I'm still waiting for Greg to get back to me on the part, but if you find anyone that has a hood carpet lining in tan, please let me know.
@dlearl476 posted:TBH, if it were me, I wouldn’t put carpet on the lid. I would use truck bed liner, Plasticote, or that paintable FlexSeal stuff.
Is there a reason why? I don't really store anything in my frunk to require that level of protection. It is simply for aesthetic purposes.
I think I used that 3-M #77 adhesive, too. Applied as noted above it sticks like crazy. Don't get any onya - Ya gotta blast to get it off (I think Acetone cuts it pretty easily).
I didn't bother lining the underside of my hood, but then I have a CMC. I just used some Home Depot indoor/outdoor carpet material cut and fitted over the gas tank and spare tire area. Even that had a lot of cutting and fitting to get it right - It would probably have been a LOT easier to carpet the underside of the hood lid.
If you go the 3-M adhesive route, buy a wallpaper seam roller (Home Depot/Lowes paint department) and when you carefully attach the sticky carpet to the hood (try to be careful in placement - it won't want to be moved around much, if at all, once the carpet and hood are mated), use the roller over the carpet to squish it to the hood underside and make it really stick.
Why aren’t you just having Alan install it?
@Gordon Nichols posted:I think I used that 3-M #77 adhesive, too. Applied as noted above it sticks like crazy. Don't get any onya - Ya gotta blast to get it off (I think Acetone cuts it pretty easily).
I didn't bother lining the underside of my hood, but then I have a CMC. I just used some Home Depot indoor/outdoor carpet material cut and fitted over the gas tank and spare tire area. Even that had a lot of cutting and fitting to get it right - It would probably have been a LOT easier to carpet the underside of the hood lid.
If you go the 3-M adhesive route, buy a wallpaper seam roller (Home Depot/Lowes paint department) and when you carefully attach the sticky carpet to the hood (try to be careful in placement - it won't want to be moved around much, if at all, once the carpet and hood are mated), use the roller over the carpet to squish it to the hood underside and make it really stick.
Thanks Gordon. When I wrote my description I was at a loss for words to describe the pressing process. A seam roller makes perfect sense. I have a hard rubber ink roller from art class I use.
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This is the carpet the old VS installed with their 'tan' interior. I think Greg is using the same stuff, probably from the same upholstery shop.
It does spiff things up a bit, but light carpeting like this will stain over time if you keep a spare tire in the frunk. I don't lose any sleep over that, but, still, you should know.
Stains are also likely if your frunk is stuffed with oily rags, a load of moonshine whiskey, or stowaway raccoons.
It must have been folks who aren't bothered by this sort of thing who invented the word 'patina'.
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@Sacto Mitch posted:.
This is the carpet the old VS installed with their 'tan' interior. I think Greg is using the same stuff, probably from the same upholstery shop.
It does spiff things up a bit, but light carpeting like this will stain over time if you keep a spare tire in the frunk. I don't lose any sleep over that, but, still, you should know.
Stains are also likely if your frunk is stuffed with oily rags, a load of moonshine whiskey, or stowaway raccoons.
It must have been folks who aren't bothered by this sort of thing who invented the word 'patina'.
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Looks lovely - that's exactly what I'm looking for!
I want the carpet b/c there are currently 2 holes cut out under the lid, and it's not very pretty.
2 cut outs are probably where the holes were drilled for the nuts for the hood handle? You can buy plastic plugs that can be used to fill those holes. You may have to enlarge holes to fit plug. (Summit Racing $25)
bumperplugs.com
Also, most ACE Hardware stores have hole plugs in their hardware sections.
Thanks - not looking to plug it up. But I'm glad those holes are there right now because I'm changing the gaskets on the hood handle for a fresher look.
ACE is the Place... pull a few draws until you find the right size.
