Replacement Carpet Set X1/9PartNL

Does your X1/9 have the welded foot rest?

  • Yes, Fiat

    Votes: 10 30.3%
  • No, Fiat

    Votes: 13 39.4%
  • Yes, Bertone

    Votes: 11 33.3%
  • No, Bertone

    Votes: 1 3.0%

  • Total voters
    33
Those that don't have a dead pedal - how does it feel driving? I'm so used to resting my foot there on the highway drives, I'm not sure I want to cut that out....
In looking at the stock brace, why not drill out the spot welds, employ some rivnuts, finish the brace cosmetically and install over the carpet with some button heads? It's already designed properly for the task/location and once painted and fitted with anti-slip it should look like it was born there.
 
All my 3 '74s did not have it, my '75 does not have it, nor does my '77. Seems like it's all over the board.
 
So, I bought Henk's carpet set years ago. Finally installing. The quality is superb.

There is a significant fitment problem for 1987 X1/9's - this may apply to earlier models in the US, so I need input to advise Henk as to which MY will NOT work with his pattern.

My 87 has a welded foot rest:

View attachment 45740

His carpet will NOT fit around this - my finger is pointing to the location of the welded pad, and where his stitched foot pad sits in relation to it.

View attachment 45741

The fit around the column and gas pedal is perfect

View attachment 45742


In emailing Henk, he says he has not seen that footrest on any X1/9, and his 87 doesn't have it. So, by default, all his carpet is designed for models without the welded pad.

Can others please indicate whether their model has this pad?

My quandary is whether to cut off the foot rest to make the carpet work, or attempt to cut & fit the carpet around it - I honestly have very little faith in my ability to accomplish that (cutting the carpet) successfully. Pretty sure I will end up with a useless piece of carpet.
My '86 has it. As far as I recall my '83 and "84 also had it.
 
Thanks for all the responses! It does seem to vary.

Henk's last response was pretty much, cut off the plate or go punt :D

In looking at the stock brace, why not drill out the spot welds, employ some rivnuts, finish the brace cosmetically and install over the carpet with some button heads? It's already designed properly for the task/location and once painted and fitted with anti-slip it should look like it was born there.

I'm going to go with this approach. The carpet is too good to mess with. The only potential issue is the upper area where the plate attaches to the wheel arch - I'll need to confirm clearance for hardware protruding relative to the tire in the well - it should be OK, but I have to be certain beforehand.
 
Thanks for all the responses! It does seem to vary.

Henk's last response was pretty much, cut off the plate or go punt :D



I'm going to go with this approach. The carpet is too good to mess with. The only potential issue is the upper area where the plate attaches to the wheel arch - I'll need to confirm clearance for hardware protruding relative to the tire in the well - it should be OK, but I have to be certain beforehand.
Did you ever get a quote from a local upholstery place for a custom job?
 
Did you ever get a quote from a local upholstery place for a custom job?

No. I don't want to spend 1K+ on carpet. Besides the fact there is no local interior / upholstery shops in my area - the one guy I knew from years back moved an hour upstate - I don't like to give my car to ANYONE to work on. :D
 
No. I don't want to spend 1K+ on carpet. Besides the fact there is no local interior / upholstery shops in my area - the one guy I knew from years back moved an hour upstate - I don't like to give my car to ANYONE to work on. :D
Wow. That’s pricey. I’m about to go shopping. Maybe I’ll have to wait until Tijuana opens up again....lol
 
Henks carpets with the mat set is around 550 plus shipping - good quality carpets aren't going to come any cheaper, that I'm aware of
Dammit - I thought I could just go here:

2FCA9159-2F9A-4AA2-B314-8BADE8623368.jpeg
 
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Hello Hussein, hello X 1/9 friends,

The last week I had several mail contacts with Hussein about our X 1/9 carpet and it is the first time I ever heard of the metal footrest.
I am in the X 1/9 world since about 35 years and as you can see......always learning. We produce carpets for the X 1/9 since about 25 years and our latest carpet is the Mk3 version, so the best we can do. It fits all models 1300 and 1500 but if your X 1/9 has this "footrest" a problem has to be solved. We sold hundreds of our carpets and clients are very happy with the quality and fitting. I also installed many carpets in Europe for clients so there is the expertise how to work and solve any problem. I used also my own experience in the communication with our manufacturer who does his very best and a great job. The carpets fit great and we did our very best to improve fitting and quality to the highest standard. About 35 years ago I also installed the original Fiat X 1/9 one piece carpets when they were still available and can tell you: that was a great struggle and fight to install, almost impossible for non experienced X 1/9 drivers. So we decided 8 years ago for the 2 piece carpet version to make installing possible and much more easy for all X 1/9 drivers. These pictures below are made by a lady, Petra from Germany who installed our carpet in some hours and as you can see....well done. Installing needs about 4 hours and some patience, dedication and craftmanship. As I communicated with Hussein: adapting the new production carpet in the future also for the "footrest" version means that at the end these will not fit perfect for "non footrest" X 1/9 as there will / can be too much material which also has to be adapted / cut. I feel very sorry for this problem but imagine that the problem can be solved with dedication and some craftmanship. Make some cuts near the footrest and "wrap" the carpet careful between and over the metal. Our carpets fit also all Bertone 1985-1989 which have (as you probably now) a different floor, some deeper so material is enough to fit. I am happy with all your thoughts and dedication as we all love our cars and only want the best possible solution. Take care you X 1/9 friends !






Pictures below show a carpet installed last December by another client:




from the Netherlands,
Henk Martens
www.x19partsholland.nl
 
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My '86 (June '85 production date on FMVSS label) has the welded-in footrest / dead pedal.

IMG_0080.JPG


I purchased one of Henk's last remaining black original Bertone single-piece molded carpets way back in 2008 or so, along with door cards and burgundy cloth seat upholstery. It fit perfectly, including around the footrest area. As Henk posts above, it was a bit of a bear to install due to its stiff nature, and I had to be very careful about measuring fitting and cutting the carpet to get it around the accel pedal.

The presence/absence of the footrest may be one of the things that we in the USA are not used to, slight differences made to car designs by manufacturers to suit a particular market. I have to think most of these differences are driven by laws and regulations--take the ride height of the X1/9, we in the USA are convinced that USA spec exxies were shipped to us with a "nose high" stance. The reality is that for some crazy (read: federal regulation) reason, USA cars needed a LOWER rear bumper so FIAT and Bertone fitted lower-height struts to the rear of the car to achieve the required lower ride height. Just look at Euro cars, they are level and ride higher in the back; and just look at the specs for rear struts, USA struts are shorter and Euro struts are longer.

But some of those differences are due to the desires of the particular market. Air conditioning is a great example, hardly seen on European cars in the '70s and '80s, and when Euro manufacturers wanted to fit A/C to their cars to make them more appealing to USA buyers, they came up with all sorts of Rube Goldberg contraptions, like the early exxie A/C-only water pump that did triple duty---water pump, plus transfer pipe, plus A/C compressor pulley axle.

Many of us have "heard" that one of the improvements Bertone made to the X/9 after they took over full production duties was to revise something about the footwells, maybe just for the USA market or maybe for all cars...who knows? But I don't recall anyone ever posting an illustrated side-by-side comparison, or even posting a comparison of quick and dirty measurements taken with a Harbor Freight tape measure. Not quite up to the level of the "Russian steel" legend, but certainly somewhere on a top-10 list.
 
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