Has anyone replaced their carpet with a 'sewn-to-contour' carpet rather than one that is actually molded like the stock carpet? I've had a number of places provide quotes and they seem to be significantly cheaper than what I've seen them selling for on the forum. I'd like to know how noticeable the difference would be, once the seats and trim are back in.

 

it depends on how well they fill in the spots that have the factory foam to make the floor level. It can be done but it's alot of work. Most of the time they ask that you try to save the factory foam pieces. I think there are a couple threads in the interior exterior subforum that have been done. I know that gmonsen has done it as well as sonix

 

If you don't want to pay for an OEM carpet in good condition, maybe you should consider covering your existing carpet with new mats and/or just completely covering your existing carpet rather than replacing it, (as long as it's showing only wear and nothing more serious). The OEM foam in the footwell floor area is about 1.5" thick and very dense and rigid. The foam is fitted to the floor braces + crossmembers. It is bonded to the carpet weave and not easily removed. For these reasons an ordinary carpet will not work well as a complete replacement for the oem one. I don't know if your interior is partially disassembled or not. There are a lot of cutouts and overlapping velcro strips in the console and seat areas for cables, handbrake, shifter, console mount areas, seat mount bolts + seatbelt anchors. A new carpet would fray where you have to cut holes for all these areas, if not sewn at cut borders.
Removing an existing OEM carpet is a big job and somewhat tiring because of the bonded areas on the tunnel, carpet weight and rigidity and cramped work area. A helper is a good idea.
From my experience, $300 - $500 for a nice looking OEM carpet is money well spent but a lot of work. Unless you are covering an existing OEM carpet with fitted mats, $75 to $150 for automotive carpet isn't worthwhile.

 

got mines done at a local a shop, had all the old carpet removed and the whole bottom dynamated for $400,$160 for carpet & $240 for dynamat

 

Thanks for the informative responses. I think I'll just live with it until winter and take my time and tear through it when time allows. I'd like to do it properly but wanted to see what others' opinions were. The seats would need to be done too....so it will be quite the project.

 

You picked up a fd?

 

got mine from group buy. It looks good but have not installed yet. You can use a padding to replace where the foam.

 

ya man...picked up a Katrina-battered FD that got some wind damage but no water damage..... for a song....built a nice motor for it and slowly getting it up to a reasonable level of road-worthiness...lol Nice clean car but a lot of little things that have consumed most of my summer...

 

Sounds like a nice project you have your hands on.