Carpets - Owners alternatives to the ubiquitous mortlake.

I have made my own carpet sets to replace the old worn (and absent!) ones when i first bought my TC.
It's not that difficult using the old set as a template, but you have to take your time to make them fit nicely on the A posts and the transmission tunnel.
I had no access to a sewing machine so the borders were left plain, but due to the fact that the new carpet was quite thick, the edges do not show at all.
Certainly if you can create a border binding it will look more professional.
As an advice, if you can choose different thicknesses of the same colour, cover the sills and the tunnel in relatively thin stuff, while use thick pile for the footwells. It would be even better if you can bind some sort of insulation layer under the footwell pieces, to make them more thick and stiff.
 
Will do. We have a friend with an industrial sewing machine so the binding should be doable. As far as I understand it the A post bit is still flat carpet and folded. I've read others shipped with a flat piece and folding instructions, so you were lucky in your set to have this ready done.

Of course car carpet is the ideal size to use a remnant at 50-80% off. This is important because quality wool carpet can easily be in the region of £40-60 a square yard and it will become quickly more economic simply to buy pre-made. I also like the idea it would be easy to make up several sets of removable footwell carpets or mats using the same materials - a 12'x6' piece would probably do 3-4 complete sets. I'd also like a slightly longer pile like in the 216 Vanden Plas we had in the 1980s.

I was thinking of spray-gluing something like one of those protective blankets used to deliver furniture to the back to make it feel more like the original and to prevent any abrasion of the backing on the footwell. I'm also hoping to use adhesive velco pads and not glue to secure the small pieces. You can prevent fraying of the smaller pieces by carefully "painting" the edges with glue.

I'm wondering about the light-fastness/UV resistance of domestic carpet though... However I suspect modern dyes are at least as good and most probably a lot better than the 60s/70s originals. I've also read you can get a spray protection like this http://www.303products.com/303r-aerospa ... -16oz.html no idea if it works but it would certainly be a worthwhile investment if it helps and doesn't change the feel too much.

I guess the main issue is probably how flexible the backing is to the carpet actually is - although I think P6s apart from that A-post aren't too much of a challenge.
 
Peter,
If the industrial machine is the correct type and has all it's accessories, then
there should be a fitting that folds over the binding and feeds it for stitching.
If not, then it's just a bit more effort.
 
Alternatively, take them to a carpet merchant. They have the machines and will usually bind edges for a very reasonable price. I had some mats done for the house out of carpet offcuts and they only charged me about a couple of bucks per metre (a quid a yard, in the Queen's English).
 
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