|
 |
 |
|
Installing Interior in SUPERSTANG Carpet: I did not expect the
interior to be nearly this much work. Just rip out the old stuff, install
new carpet, and bolt everything back in right? Yea, I wish! Taking it all apart:
My Mustang is in really good shape with just over 100,000 original miles.
It was owned since new by a good friend of mine who took very good care of it.
She did not modify it at all so when I got it nothing was changed from stock.
Since I know where every new wire goes and what each modification was for I
figured it would be a snap. Well, I was wrong. The roll bar made
working difficult. I could have removed it but the whole purpose was to
give the carpet a "finished"
I do not like loud cars.
Convertibles are hard to keep quiet by nature of the top. Even with this I
wanted to do everything I could to keep the interior as quiet as possible.
I also have felt engine he With the sound/heat
insulation installed I placed an order for an
ACC carpet kit. I was prepared for the carpet to be lighter duty than
stock carpet - not all bad. The new carpet was significantly lighter than
the stock carpet and at first I was very worried about how it would work.
As it turns out it looks great and I am very glad it is "lighter". One
thing I did do was pull all the insulation that comes attached to the back of
the ACC carpet off. The reason was I had already installed way more
insulation than regularly would be installed and found that the insulation on t Installing the carpet was
easier than removing the old carpet. I was able to pull the carpet under
the middle roll bar tube and able to finally get all the tucking and pulling
needed to make it look right. It was a lot more work with the roll bar
than a stock car would have been but easier than I expected after removing the
old carpet. Wiring: I had previously installed a switch panel inside the console and also needed a place to mount the controls for the new seat heaters and seat coolers. I don't like obvious switches showing so I spent a lot of time re-wiring the interior to allow all of the switches to be very inconspicuous. I mounted the exhaust bypass switch along with the seat heater/cooler controls in the recessed tray under the armrest console lid. Where they sit now you can barely see them and they are easy to reach. I connected each of the wire harnesses to connectors so that the console lid can be removed to service wiring in the future. After installing all the wiring I found it was difficult to get the lid on the console without spending time to tuck each harness while lowering the console top in place. Once it is down each switch works great and is easy to operate.
|
look
around the roll bar tube. That required leaving the roll bar in. All
the wiring I had tucked through the console was now in the way to remove the old
carpet. All the wiring I had installed was not only in the way but entered
and exited carpet in many places. I ended up cutting the carpet into many
pieces and removing it piece by piece. In all it took 2 days 8 hours each
to remove the old interior.
at
from the floorboards and wanted to solve this problem. I was looking at
the possibility of installing 
insulation.
Unfortunately I have been known to leave my top down in a parking lot and have
been hit by the occasional rain storm - I will need to be more careful.
he
carpet was very heavy. After all was said and done I bet the new carpet
with insulation mat is lighter than the stock carpet. I also know it will
be better insulated, produce less engine noise inside the car, and keep excess
heat out.
Return to main page |
 |
 |