Installing the Carpet

I put in the rest of the carpet today. My son helped a lot, which was great because some of the front pieces are fairly large. I started by installing the sound proofing kit. It's a black rubber-like material that is glued to the floor before the carpet is installed. It wasn't difficult to lay, but it was kind of messy. The black stuff got all over my brush, and all over my hands.

After that was complete, my son and I made our daily trip to Lowes to get more brushes and contact cement. We stopped by the locksmith to see if we could get the new keys cut, but they were closed this week. We also stopped by O'Reilly Auto Parts to see if we could get a rubber mat or something to cover the battery. They did have a marine battery box. My son said it was too big, but I bought it anyway to try it out. He was right, it was too big. So we'll be getting a rubber mat in the morning and using the strap from the box to hold it onto the battery.

With the errands done, I felt like the sound-proofing was dry enough for me to install the carpet. The first couple of pieces are the strips that go just inside the door sills. They are also the most difficult because there is a small rubber lip that has to slip onto the metal strip inside the door. After much maneuvering, I was able to get the strip attached. From there it was just a matter of glue, then carefully laying the carpet so it was smooth. I'm glad my son was there to help because it is hard to work with the larger pieces alone. We did have to pull up and move two pieces because I didn't have them placed exactly right, and there was a gap between pieces under the footwell. Otherwise, the carpet laying went great.

I still need to install the vent covers. I glued the first door sill piece down without marking the screw holes. I was smarter with the second one, but as we learned with the rear seat I'm not very good at finding holes with carpet over them. That will be a job for tomorrow.