ibertone86
Daily Driver
Anybody have an original dark brown or black carpet for a 1980 X? Good condition or better...
Anybody have an original dark brown or black carpet for a 1980 X? Good condition or better...
I posted this a year or two ago. If your carpet is like most, 90% of the unsightliness is due to wear on the drivers side. Consider doing a permanent search on eBay (you set it up so that when your keywords appear in a listing, eBay emails the listing to you) for the color carpet you need, but limit the search to the UK. Taking advantage of their "driver's side" being the other side, you might be able to graft the good side of two "bad" carpets together into one pretty good one for cheap.
I'm not sure what the cost of a used carpet is, and I can only imagine the shipping charge to get one from the UK (from a right-hand drive car). But I bought a new X-specific molded carpet (in choice of colors) for around $120. So I don't know that doing a "cut and paste" with two used carpets is worth it?
This company supplies the replacement carpets to many of the well known specialty vendors: http://newark-auto.com/
MWB has new OEM carpets and mats available in both Black & Brown for what I think is a reasonable price, considering they are made to fit.Anybody have an original dark brown or black carpet for a 1980 X? Good condition or better...
I've met with him several times at the trade shows and have purchased a few of his products for various vehicles (including my X). If you call him, be prepared to chat (he likes to talk) and expect the usual New Jersey dialog. For many models he offers a choice both types: molded or cut/sewn. I believe the only option for the X carpet however is a molded style (same as original). It is made a little over sized at the outer perimeter to allow for variances. So you will need to trim it to fit. You will also need to cut the openings for various mounting holes, etc. I won't mislead you, it is not the 'top of the line' material. Nothing compared to genuine German carpeting for example. But in my opinion it's as good as the original Fiat stuff (which I've never found it to be very durable). In some cases he can offer a choice of 2 or 3 types of material (loop, 60/40, pile), but honestly I don't recall if that is true for the X (it might depend on the choice of color?). I bought a grey one for my X to give a bit of a two-tone look with the black dash/console/door cards. The seats will be two-tone grey/black. Then black floor mats over the grey carpet. Did the same with a couple other cars and like the look.Has anyone called lately to find if they are the OEM-molded style or a sewn-to-fit style?
I can't speak for Matt, but I was given the impression the carpets he sells are from the same source??? I won't say more, as I don't have hard facts either way. I do know that the carpets sold by some other well known vendors (for many makes) are from Newark. For example, the largest American supplier of Datsun Z car restoration parts carries his stuff.MWB has new OEM carpets and mats available in both Black & Brown for what I think is a reasonable price, considering they are made to fit.
I've met with him several times at the trade shows and have purchased a few of his products for various vehicles (including my X). If you call him, be prepared to chat (he likes to talk) and expect the usual New Jersey dialog. For many models he offers a choice both types: molded or cut/sewn. I believe the only option for the X carpet however is a molded style (same as original). It is made a little over sized at the outer perimeter to allow for variances. So you will need to trim it to fit. You will also need to cut the openings for various mounting holes, etc. I won't mislead you, it is not the 'top of the line' material. Nothing compared to genuine German carpeting for example. But in my opinion it's as good as the original Fiat stuff (which I've never found it to be very durable). In some cases he can offer a choice of 2 or 3 types of material (loop, 60/40, pile), but honestly I don't recall if that is true for the X (it might depend on the choice of color?). I bought a grey one for my X to give a bit of a two-tone look with the black dash/console/door cards. The seats will be two-tone grey/black. Then black floor mats over the grey carpet. Did the same with a couple other cars and like the look.
I agree with Mark, a good high quality segmented carpet is the best looking result.
Is a segmented carpet installed with adhesive?
I’ve never cared for one-piece molded carpets, mainly because they usually have a plastic backing that traps moisture under the carpet and rusts the floors from the inside out. I’ve always preferred individually bound-edge carpet as found in the more high end cars. Here’s a shot of my ‘74 I did:
View attachment 17615
The main purpose of the binding, besides looks, is to keep the carpet from raveling. But if you choose a cheap non-woven carpet, you could forgo the binding.
It looks amazing. Can you post an overview of what you did to do that?
Larry