I got new black carpet for the 330GTC I’ve been working on. My upholsterer has been so busy, I have resorted to doing some of the work at my shop to expedite the process. Fitting the carpets is best done with the car, but my upholsterer didn’t have the room to take the car, so I decided to do the cutting at my shop in the car.

If you notice, there are some chalk arrows to keep the carpets oriented in the same direction. Carpet has a direction the cut pile lies, and if it’s not kept in the same direction when installed, the fibers will reflect light differently, altering the color. It’s little tricks like these that I was taught by an upholsterer many many years ago. Luckily, I still remembered them!

To cut the carpets, I had to used the old carpets as rough templates to fit it to the car. Cutting them slightly oversize allowed me to make allowances so the seams would fit tightly against one another. Ready made carpet sets are available commercially, but this is where the differences are made. Because these are hand made cars, there can be slight differences the cause ready made carpets to fit with slight gaps. I had the center piece behind the center console made with the binding already because without that one piece, the console couldn’t be installed, but the rest of the pieces still needed to be done.

I made two pieces for the front mats, with an extra piece as an over-mat so if this car is ever shown, there will be a nice clean under mat he can always show!

Once I had all the carpet pieces cut to size, I had to go back and trim the edges of all the carpets with a slight bevel in the fibers. This will allow for the binding to be sewn with a neater and flatter profile without bumps or imperfections. These are a little attentions to details that will make for a better final outcome!