Currently doing carpet on a 68. Spent a whole days cleaning all the old stuff out. Have some surface rust on passenger side (POR 15 is on the way). Then I was told to use a couple of cans of the spray on bedliner to coat the whole bottom to prevent any future rust (which sounds like an excellent idea given what I now have). It will be a couple of days until I actually get to the carpet part so any tips greatly appreciated.

I'd like to hear some good tips on this as well. I'm putting the carpet in my 67 this weekend. Right now my interior is bare. Should I put the kick panels and deluxe rear door panels in before or after the carpet?

Do the panels after the carpet for sure. That way you can get everything nice and tucked in. You can always cut carpet later if you need to. Heres what I know from others. Clean everything out real good. Don't worry about getting all old adhesive and fuzz **** out, but try to get most. I took a wire brush to everything. Definately look into the spray on bedliner thing I'm doing. The local Camaro shop I deal with swears by it. Two cans will do it ( about $10). Definately cheap protection. I have some surface rust as two of the pan caps came loose a long time ago. I have to hit it with some POR 15. Make sure any rust is neutralized. The experts told me to get some 3M sealer for the caps and then put a small sheet metal screw through each side so they for sure won't come out again. They tell me that overspray from the bedliner is not a big problem as the stuff is real thick, but I'm going to put paper on anything close by just in case. Then do 2 thin coats to cover everything. Don't cut any of the carpet ends until it is completely glued in streching from the middle and working out. They say everyone cuts it to short because it looks to long until glue down. Be sure and put seat belt bolts and seat bolts in before laying carpet. that way you can find them easy and make a little X cut right where it needs to be after the carpet is in. If you don't put them in before I hear it is next to impossible to find the holes again. For the door sill plates they said to cut actual notchs were the screws go so you don't have to screw through the carpet. I read somewhere that if you use a blow dryer or if its hot outside getting the carpet warm helps it mold in better rather than all folded up right out of the box. Spray glue in the liner, then start in the rear at the diff. tunnel and work out with the spray glue towards the sides. When you get all the way to the sides then trim to fit. Then do front piece. start by lining up high beam switch hole. If you don't have that, they said to make sure the the front carpet piece goes about an inch past the front seat bolt holes. I don't know any of this from experience, but I have been asking a million questions. Let me know how it goes.

[This message has been edited by TheGreen68 (edited 04-19-2001).]

also depending on what kind of carpet you are installing, the pre-molded stuff is usually very close and only requires minimal trimmings under the door sill plates , the remainder usually tucks nicely.

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green68 - are you saying to screw in the floor pan drain plugs?

What the guy at a local Camaro Resto shop told me was to get the 3M sealer (or use the POR Epoxy as I have to fill a couple small holes anyway) and then put one small sheet metal screw on each side to make sure they won't ever come out again. If they come loose its water straight in. I had both on the passenger side come out which is where I have my floor pan rust from. I would think that if you get good stainlees steel screws that won't rust it sounds like a good idea. It can't be any worse then what already happened.

Just talked to another guy today that indicated that a good bead of silicone sealer is all you need on the floor plugs. Guess it depends on who you talk to. Since my car is not a daily driver and won't see much if any rain I think I will use the sealer and then use the epoxy putty over the top edge for good measure (since I have it anyway). Only got the POR done this weekend due to only having Sunday and prep time involved. How did your instal go???

I agree with the silicone sealer, that's what I used!!!! KZ

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John D. Smith
69' SS/396 CLONE!
http://www.geocities.com/kz1000ltd/

Hey guys I have a 91 Ragtop RS and for some reason the cars smells like mildew. I decided to pull back the carpet under the pedal area and I found that the pading under the carpet was saturated with water! I yanked all of the wet stuff out that I could get to. However the smell is still there. Tomorrow I am planing on pulling out the seats and center console and lifting up the entire carpet to see just how bad the problem is. Do you guys have any ideas what may be causing the problem. I just got the car 4 months ago. Some one told me that the person who owned it before me might have left the top down in the rain and that is the problem. However why would the smell hide for 3-1/2 months before showing its dirty head. Also if my friend is wrong and I follow his advice and just replace all of the pading, I would have just waisted my time because the leak(If that is the Problem) would just cause the same problem to happen agian in a few months.

Thanks for the help,
A fellow Camaro Lover

What i plan for keeping the plugs in place would be to used some aircraft wing sealer ( lucky enough to work in a aircraft warehouse) and then after it has set for 24 hours i plan on painting the entire floor with POR-15. would think that the coat of POR-15 would keep it in place by itself if you didnt want to use sealer or screws.
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Jeff 68 RS Ash Gold

Regarding the POR 15, I just used it. I did the POR before the plugs as I needed to seal up some surface rust in the plug areas as well. Then I did the silicone adhesive/sealer under the plugs and then did POR Epoxy Putty over the plugs (those babies are not coming out again!!!). The prep work for the POR was rather time consuming, but once you get to it it goes on real easy. When I finally got to the carpet, I spray glued in the rear portion (which was easy as its wide open), but didn't even try to glue in the front. It fit pretty well and I figured it would next to impossible trying to work around the pedals, get dimmer switch to line up and get tucked in way up top on the trans. tunnel )it get real narrow up there) and I figured I could always do it later if I didn't like it. Has anyone done this yet??? Any tricks or correct sequence to follow with the front portion???