Before we get started, am happy to say we made it our first cruise-in of the year on Friday night. Prob 150-200 cars there, everything from the crowd favorite, a 1929 Packard in Black w/rumble seat and a small 3rd door meant to haul golf clubs. I had the only FSJ, which drew quite a few selfies.
On the way home, was a little low on gas, hand showed just above E; I daily drive it - generally quick trips to work & grocery store, but have never run it low enough to run out - til then. As a cruised by the last gas station on flat ground on the way to the house, it coughed & recovered so i kept going(found an intake leak last weekend, & have seen a few misfires lately)... for another 400-500 yards & started up a slight hill & cough/dead... Had enough momentum to turn into a parking lot & rolled thru to a stop. Engine restarted fine, & it's now have downhill to the gas station. Pulled out & accelerated to get enough momentum to make it w/fingers crossed; At about 100 yards left, the engine died & i coasted into the
station & up to the pump. Whew.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program:
Wheel wells were the hardest part of the carpet install - requires gluing with Contact Cement. & quite a bit of trimming to fit. Having never installed carpet before, i intentionally went slow to avoid mistakes. Used a few bricks wrapped in kraft paper to weigh it down in places & a few clamps to ensure a good bond.
Scrap from making the cargo underlayment came in handy
Roughing in the stainless ribs in the cargo area; these came from Jake's FSJ Junkyard in Burnsville, NC. Came up a few screws short as a few were usable due to nearly being rusted through. If you have a few spares, let me know.
While the glue was drying, it was time to work on one of the floormats. i'd ordered these last Summer, when i thought i'd be ready for carpet installation last Fall - opened & checked the color & closed them back up. Last weekend, i found that one of the new floormats had a drizzle of hot glue on it - great. Contacted the distributor to attempt an exchange, and was told it'd been too long - had 30 days for return/exchange, but manufacturer recommended removing it w/acetone. Used acetone on a paper towel & a toothpick to remove it. Happy to say, it cleaned it up.
Cleaned up really nice.
Mats installed
Cargo area
I didn't get a chance to install the stainless ribs yesterday, as i had to clean up rust on the backsides with rust dissolver, primer & paint. Paint is drying.
The quarter panel upholstery requires some sewing - will have to find a shop to help with that. Will post up a picture for others, as i expected these panels would be sewed similar to the cargo mat.
Overall i'm ecstatic with the results. Having never installed carpet before, the installation was challenging given the change for error & satisfying as each stage was done. Best advice, take your time & work from the middle to the edges; trim sparingly - you can always take more off, but you can't add back. Used paintable Weldwood Contact Cement for the wheel wells; i'd recommend it over 3M Super Trim Adhesive sprayable for a few reasons: 1) the sprayable didn't stick very well, 2) spraying requires masking & the risk of getting glue where you don't want it.
