Replacing Interior Carpet
 

I got a request to post this up over on v8rx7forum.com and once I did the write-up, I thought I'd might as well share the love over here as well. Anyone looking to replace their carpet during an interior overhaul, I highly recommend auto-interior.com: http://www.auto-interior.com/Mazda10.htm#RX7

Like I said in my previous post, I was skeptical because the price was so cheap, but their 801 Black Carpet with the mass-backed option was much higher quality than OEM... especially higher than the guys parting their cars out and selling their 15 year old carpet. It does take a little extra install time because it comes as one giant piece and you have to trim it to fit and create holes for seat rails, e-brake, trunk lever, etc, but it's well worth it. You just have to take your time and be careful not to get too aggressive and cut too much off at once.

As you can see from the first pic, this is molded carpet, specifically for your model year and type. The only thing they don't do is cut it to template. I ordered the mass backed option with mine and definitely like the heavy feel to it. Not really sure how well it deadens the noise since I drive with the top off anyway and that's where a lot of my noise comes from, but it makes sense that it would. It seems as though it would hold its shape better as well. You do have to give it some time to air out and regain its shape after you pull it out of the box. I had mine laid out in my garage for about 6 hours while I scrubbed my floor pans with simple green and tried to fix the electrical wiring mess the previous owner left me. They recommend a little longer, perhaps even a couple days IIRC from the instructions. They include padding in the box as well and put in so much that I threw away a lot of leftover. All in all, one of the easiest purchases I've ever had to make. It was a no-brainer for me while I was restoring the car.

Feel free to shoot any more questions.

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Hey, do you absolutely have to take out the dash to get the carpet out? I have everything apart but the dash for another project, but don't really want to mess with it. I would put a new carpet in if i don't have to take the actual dash out.

You don't neccessarily have to take the dash out...but i would...but then i took out the hvac too cause I didn't want to cut the carpet. Figured i'd only do this once so i took everything out.

Did you find it difficult to take the dash out? I haven't found too much info on this.

I'm sure the FD dash is far easier than an FC dash. HAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTEEEEEEEE removing FC dashes.

The dash removal wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part is getting the defrost vents out without them cracking because they tend to get really fragile, especially if the car has baked in the sun over the years. I'd recommending grabbing the FSM to find the location of all the bolts you need to remove as that takes a little guesswork out of it. I'd say the actual dash removal itself, once I got the seats out, only took me about an hour to strip out the interior pieces, drop the steering column, and pull out the dash. I had the top off the car, so I had a little more room to work with.

As one poster said, you don't HAVE to take the dash out... but the old adage springs to mind: if you're going to do something, you'd might as well do it right. Not taking the dash out might save you a little frustration up front and in the back, but it'll only cause extra frustration in the middle when you're either trying to pull/cut the old carpet out and put/tuck the new carpet in. ESPECIALLY if you're ordering this particular carpet, since it's a little larger than it needs to be and needs to be trimmed to fit, it'll be quite difficult to tell where you need to trim when it's all bunched up in the foot wells... Just my recommendation...

I think I have the FSM on digits around here somewhere... I'll see if I can find the page with dash removal.

That would be very helpful if you could post it up.

This may be a stupid question, but I've never dealt with airbags before. When removing the steering wheel and passenger side airbag section, is there anything special you have to do with regard to airbags?

Just disconnect the battery. Pulling the dash isn't too bad. Much easier with 2 people just due to the size. Don't know why you broke defroster vents....didn't have to touch those. Its like 2 bolts on each side and then a couple bolts in the middle. Then just unplug the wires and pull out. Taking out the hvac is fairly easy too but just tedious since radiator fluid goes everywhere

yeah, I forgot you don't actually need to remove both vents. I was taking everything off because I restored my entire interior, scrubbing and re-blacking all parts while I had everything out.

I pulled out my dash by myself, but I was able to stand up and pull it straight out and up from the middle... with a roof, I would have needed a buddy.

You don't have to worry about the airbags as long as the battery is disconnected... although I always press and hold the brake for a few seconds just for good measure after I disconnect :)

Haha, ok, the airbags were my main concern, looks like i dont even have to mess with them.

heh i just now realized you own the targa FD, i used to own the only completed targa FC :)

haha, that's me. I don't consider it complete though because I'm too much of a perfectionist. I think the fabricators did a shitty job on the finer details and on the mechanism to reattach the top. Right now I just have four cap-head bolts that go through the sides of the top and into the frame via some horribly tapped holes. I've been starting to fab up some mounts to attach four convertible latches and strikers off an S2000 or miata to attach the top instead.

I don't mean to hijack my own thread, but how did the top on your FC latch?

It used shorted Honda Del Sol locking system. I'll see if i can PM you some pics if I can find them, my car wasn't very pretty craftsmanship, and the car was very very structurally unstable.Coupe FC's aren't meant to have the roof lopped off lol. Switching to the FD was a night and day difference in chassis stiffness. I'm definitely looking into this carpet, the tan HAS to go.

I would love to see a pic of your FD's top

wow, that looks great!

Bumping this. Will get my carpet from here!

and since it is now an active thread again'
FC dashes have 10 bolts to get the darn thing out.Its a Snap!..plus no airbags to blow up in yer face!
I remove one and replaced it in an hour,Hour and a half.
so Haha,back..(to a 2 year old thread reply....lol!)

I did this twice already for my car. First one didn't like the color. Second one is (black). Doesn't fit like OEM, but pretty close...

Word of advice. Cut the carpet right down the middle (tranny). Will make installing it a lot easier. Also if you are planning to use floor mats for the car, I recommend removing that heel guard, watch out there is some kind of spray adhesive on under it.

Nice project and great price on the carpet. Gotta pull my seats out soon anyway so might do this.

this is very nice sir

you sure do have a lot of rust on the steering column, etc.. you keep your car outside?

Damn, nice price. And I bought one of the ones from TFENT a few years ago. Guess I should have waited. lol.

Did you glue the carpet back in? Or just let the panels do their thing?

You will need spray adhesive to glue the jute padding together. If you don't cut it in threw the middle like me you don't need glue at all. Even then the panels hold everything nicely.

Maybe a noob question, but what is jute padding? lol

Thanks