Bugeye Carpet Installation

[Kurtis]

Anyone have any detailed picture/instructions regarding installation of carpet panels in a Bugeye? In particular, I'm confused about the installation order/overlap for the wheel arch rear shelf areas. Thanks in advance!

 

[68_sprite]

Are you using a kit or cutting the patterns yourself?

 

[john_j]

Remember that Frogs didn't have carpets originally (rubber mats) so if there is a correcxt way to do it, it is a modern invention!
IMO the large piece that covers the main area of the rear shelf needs to go in last, with the heelboard (vertical bit from the floor to the shelf) section going underneath it for an inch or three and the pieces for the rear wheel arches also go under the main piece. This way you don't see any narrow strips exposed; the only exposed edges are of the main piece, and that should have bound edges so it looks tidy.
In the front footwells put the pieces over the top hat sections and tunnel in first then the large pieces for the footwells and under the seats; these cover the narrow bits that turn onto the floor from the first pieces you put in.
The carpet for the rear part of the tunnel goes on before the one that goes over the gearbox.
If you are cutting them yourself, you may well not understand any of that!

 

[68_sprite]

I just installed a Moss carpet kit in my Sprite. The order I worked in was this:
1. main piece on the rear fenders.
2. trim where fender meets rear of cockpit.
3. large vertical area behind seats.
In the footwells,
4. Raised front trim by the transmission tunnel
5. Raised trim in front of the seats.
6. main footwell area. (these pieces have trimmed edges)
7. rear portion of tunnel between seats
8. panels under the seats
9. Gear shift area (this piece has trimmed edges)
10. rear shelf (this piece has trimmed edges)
Hope this is of some help. I may not have given the correct part terms, apologies in advance.
Two other items I found. When I trimmed the carpet kit, it seems to want to ravel a bit, so I used a heat gun on low temp to "melt" the edges and seal it. Gave it a little bit more of a finish to the edge.
With the leather shift boot cover, it was difficult to slide the tunnel cover on. Some liquid soap made it slid on a lot easier.

 

[Kurtis]

Thanks for the input. I have a pre-cut kit. It's obviously constructed a little different from yours. The main rear area is all one piece (the verical area behind the seats and the horizontal shelf area).

I think I have it figured out. Part of my problem is that the rear fender pieces don't fit very well. I'll have to trim them up a little.

There is a small gap between the fender pieces and the rear shelf area, and additional strips of carpet were included to fill those. I went ahead and installed the stips first, then the rear shelf piece. It looks good so far, but I rand out of adhesive, so I didn't get it finished.

 

[68_sprite]

I had to trim that area as well. The gap between the fenders and rear shelf is the second piece I installed. To get a cleaner look, I am going to run some vinyl piping in the seam to cover where the carpet meets. The whole job took a little bit longer than I thought.