Carpets & underlay

[ndevans]

Hi all.
I'm fitting new carpets and underlay. What's the consensus on fitting the seats, seat belt anchors etc-bolt them down first, then fit the underlay and carpets over & around, or carpets/underlay first, seats etc on top?

Cheers N

[ColinChandler]

hello,
I've always thought it was best to mount seats and seat belts securely to the floor and then fit the carpet around and over all the brackets. That way there's no twist or give in the fixing bolt if the carpet compresses when a load goes on the harness or seat base.

To keep things tidy though, I have seen shouldered bushes/spacers used under the harness bracket or the seat base which protrude through an enlarged hole in the carpet. That way the load is still taken by a firm fixing but the carpet's edges will be covered by and kept tidy by either the seat belt bracket or seat base.
we'll see if any other opinions come up.
Cheers, Colin.

[les]

You won’t be able to remove the carpets to vacuum/clean if you bolt the seats on top of them.

[ndevans]

You won’t be able to remove the carpets to vacuum/clean if you bolt the seats on top of them.

Good point.... Cos regular hoovering is definitely my strong point....!
Seriously, good point. Easier to remove the carpets.

[Chappers]

I fitted the underlay and carpet first and then seats and seatbelts.
With all the seats out, I stripped all the old carpet and underlay out and painted the floor.
This gave a good surface for any adhesive for the underfelt.

When fitting the carpets, the holes for the seat mountings and seatbelt fixings were made in the carpet as I went. A piece of chalk is useful for marking.

The most awkward holes were the seatbelt anchor holes on the transmission tunnel. With the underfelt in place, (the kit I bought had pieces of felt that fit either side of the handbrake cables), and the carpet there are several layers to push the mounting bolts through. My wife gave me a hand by pushing the bolts through and holding them from the inside of the car whilst I was underneath putting the washers and nuts on.
The seat anchor bolts were much easier.
Make a small hole in the carpet first and gradually open out with a Stanley knife blade.

I did a lot of tidying up when stripping out the old carpet, such as removing the gearbox floor cover and replacing all the fixing screws, repainting the handbrake lever, gear stick and gater cover (that was a pig to fit by the way as trying to find the screw holes was really fiddly and time consuming.

All in all, strip out, painting, fitting new underfelt and carpets, new seatbelts and ordering new parts and waiting for them to arrive -took us just over a week. This was in the very hot summer weather, so we had frequent breaks.

[ManyMinors]

Particularly if you regularly use your Morris and/or keep it outside, I would suggest fitting the floor carpets OVER the seat and seatbelt mountings (as the factory did) because when the carpets become dirty or damp, they can be removed easily. It also makes the car easier to service - gain access to the pedals, master cylinder, steering rack and gearbox lubrication etc if you can quickly remove the carpets.

[jaekl]

As I recall the parts books don't show the original carpet pattern that I have. It consists of narrow strip that goes across the floor and the seats are mounted through it. The perimeter and center pieces were glued in place (except for the rear tunnel) with the under felt place in between. The four removable foot pieces than laid on top held in place with snaps. The most of the carpet and underfelt is removable for cleaning. Seat belt anchors would be mounted through the carpet with direct contact to the metal making the sill and tunnel pieces more difficult to remove but the sill pieces are typically glued in place.

[ManyMinors]

How you describe it above is exactly the way most carpets were fitted during most of Minor 1000 production.

63 front carpet fixings.JPG (361.32 KiB) Viewed 1649 times

[Chief]

I'm also preparing my car for new carpets etc. and thanks to ColinChandler I don't have to post a new thread to ask what those 'shoulder spacers' were actually called that are used on my seatbelts

[ColinChandler]

Pleased to be of help.

[jaekl]

Yes ManyMinor that's want I have. Thanks for confirming that the
configuration is common.