Adk46

Rob is a great 928 supporter and supplier. He mentioned to me that if my carpet was intact, running it through a washing machine might make a huge improvement. Not my wife's machine, of course.

Lloyd

My 1978 beige carpet is in good condition. However, I would like to pull it out, clean it, and dye it black. Has anyone attempted a full immersion dye job?....otherwise I'll be knocking on Budd's door.

Tom in Austin

I put in Mercedes velour, which is beautiful but harder to work with since it has a stiffer backing. The Sliverknit is more like a fabric by comparison and wraps around curves and edges much more easily.

dr bob

Gomez --

There are some threads on using the washing machine to clean the old carpet. I sorta started that theme here and here's the outline --

Most in-place carpet cleaning leaves a residue of old dirt and some detergent in the pile. If you have ever used an extraction-style carpet cleaning process you are aware of the balance between "rinsed well enough" and "left everything waterlogged".

Effective out-of-the-car cleaning takes the same amount of removal and replacement effort. Removal needs to avoid any stretching or distortion of the backing -- tough to do with some of glued-on pieces.

No cleaning will reverse the effects of sun fading or previous water damage.

With all that said, I have a dedicated "garage stuff" machine so K's delicates don't have to go through the same machine that shop and utility towels enjoy. It's a classic top-loader. Carpet pieces get washed on gentle cycle, few at a time so the agitator doesn't bend them or twist them.

Unless there's significant dirt, mold or staining in the fibers, Woolite is a good choice. On some more "experienced" car projects I've used regular Tide after some normal laundry spot treatment.

The most important thing is to manually place the pieces pile side out and flat on the walls of the basket before you spin-dry them. I run them through several full rinse cycles to make sure that minimum detergent residue remains. This takes pretty diligent monitoring of the machine cycle steps. You really don't want to spin the pieces with folds in them, and the dirt and rinse water need to exit the fibers rather than be pulled down into the backing.

The pieces are then laid out flat for drying. I use a very soft-bristle upholstery brush to comb the pile as the pieces dry, so the cut ends are not stuck together. Brush only -with- the pile direction. For the Sliverknit, the shop vac will pull the fine fiber to correct "attention" for final drying.

All this is much more important when you have a car for which originality is important, and for which original materials are no longer available. For the 928 we still have most carpet colors available in original materials, so there's much less of an originality issue.

As far as end results, the "new original carpet" option is hands-down the best you'll get. The remove-and-replace labor, as mentioned above, is the same. Getting all the pieces cleaned and brushed correctly is tedious and time consuming, where new pieces are already perfect. No amount of cleaning will solve the color fading that is inevitable in cars that are used much. New pieces have no creases or failed backing. The carpet pieces in my car, in cashmere, have been out for full cleaning once in the twenty years I've been the caretaker. They look fabulous, with carefully-brushed pile and all. Just not quite as good as new carpet, unfortunately. Unless I put a piece of new on top of what's in there, you probably couldn't tell. I did that once, and my eyes are forever tainted.

Rob Budd does an absolutely stellar job matching the original cut sections, and his binding and seams are much more careful than the originals. The rear console cover section is a great example of where these things are critical as it's in prominent view.

Rob also offers replacement foam padding pieces. Most originals have rotted and are crumbling due to age. If they ever got damp, they have acquired their own particular fragrance on top of the smell they seem to get on their own as they disintegrate. Even if you don't go new on the rugs, new foam and padding will help restore the original feel and smell.

Harvey928

Silverknit

Michael Benno

I'd be interested to see some pictures of the sewn together pieces to cover the trunk release boxes. I am likely going to replace the carpet this winter with the Mercedes Fine-tuft. It's just as high quality as the Silver-knit but has a lower and tighter pile that is less prone to fuzzing up.

The only drawback is that it has a thicker backing which makes it harder to work with and, according to Budd, requires a steamer to make some of the complex bends or folding over edges.

Weissach

Sliverknit is the most luxurious and upscale carpet you can buy, on lighter shades. It makes the interior. If just black, any carpet will do just fine even domestic pile.

polecat702

I've got Linen, Silverknit. Can't keep it clean, shows everything. Had the piece out today that fits in the rear cargo area. Washed it by hand, with a soft brush, and dawn dish soap. It's better than it was but it's still stained.

I'll be going back to black, like my 87 was, when I send the car to Rob Budd for the new interior. The only thing I like about the Linen color is it's cooler in the Vegas heat, than black.

dr bob

Joe --

I have cashmere, slightly more forgiving than linen. It's also color-close to some much more commonly available bulk car carpet, so my in-service mat in the boot is made from The Cheap Stuff. the factory pieces are carefully bagged and stored for that time when the difference between a $750k and $1MM collector 928 hinges on that piece being new and original at the same time.

My purposely-limited experience with black interiors suggests that black rugs are a chore to keep clean and black. Certainly more forgiving of stuff that gets on them than linen, but hardly trouble-free by any stretch. You have experience with black in the previous car so you are aware of the benefits and shortcomings, not trying to tell you anything really. Maybe I'm a little jaded -- I need to clean the black interior in the Pilot DD after a few limo duties. I sometimes think that people are really a lot closer to C. Schultz's PigPen character than they realize. The fog they live in is really a personal dust devil.

[/rant mode]

polecat702

Bob, the car is almost 30 years old, and the carpets aren't that bad. Just keeping them clean is a chore. BTW, the floor mats for the front are black, and they are Lloyd's mats. They wear like iron.

I think by the time one of these cars hits the $1MM mark we'll be long gone. Our heirs will be getting that windfall.

dr bob

Hope I'll be lucky enough to have a considerate heir. Perhaps they'll toss a check for the $250k difference into the cremation box with me. Ashes to ashes and all.

In the meanwhile, I'm sorta hoping that the market will get closer to at least original sale prices. My yard$tick says I'm probably a third of the way there now.

chart928s4

I am going to replace carpets on my S4 also. How do people deal with the formed foam padding, for example on the hatch and rear floor carpets? Does it come with new foam, with a flat backing, or just the carpet? Is the edge bound?

dr bob

Talk to Rob Budd at Classic9 leather. IIRC he has replacement foam for the boot, including the foam that goes under that acrylic spare-wheel cover. I think that's the "formed foam padding" you mention. I'm not sure if that was "formed" when it was made, or has formed itself to the stuff underneath as it ages. For sure the early cars with the pressboard panels seemed to be preformed. I'm not so sure about our later cars. Easy enough to get the correct pieces from him with your carpet kit.

Jerry Feather may also be a good resource for some of this. He offers some replacement spare wheel cover panels, and would know the foam padding needs.

P_911_Nutt

try classic9leathershop.com instead. Using "classicnineleathershop.com" now leads to a non-secure, scam website.