What To Do With Carpet For Hatch?

UPDATE BELOW

In my previous cars I have always cut a piece of wood (1/4" to 1/2" plywood or 1/8" hardboard) the shape of the trunk/hatch floor and carpeted it. It gave me a snug fitting floor (instead of the flimsy carpets that slide around everywhere), a strong floor and it looked great.

Obviously with a Fox the hatch carpet goes up the back of the back seats and covers the metal plates behind the rear seats. Making a custom floor for the trunk and carpeting it is a bit more difficult as it leaves nothing to cover up these metal plates.

What have you all done for carpet in the hatch area? Pics?

I'm looking for ideas.

ratio411 said:

Delete the rear seats?
I dunno, it was just a thought.

Click to expand...

I want to keep the rear seats. Going for a fairly stock look inside but I hate how flimsy the OEM carpet is.

Building a new trunk floor
Previously mentioned, I hate the flimsy OEM carpet that slides around in the back of trunks. It gets dirty, smelly, and generally looks like poo. The below steps give, what I believe to be, a far superior looking trunk floor surface in just about any car.

Start with a piece of plywood, minimum 4' x 3'. I used 1/2" thick. Lay the plywood on a couple sawhorses (or something flat) and then lay the OEM carpet over the top of it making sure the carpet is relatively centered on the wood. Trace around the perimeter of the carpet to give you an outline for where to cut the wood. The carpet that was in my trunk was a bit bigger than the actual space so it stuck up on the sides a bit. Obviously this means that when I cut the wood to the same size the wood would be too big. That's OK. Remember, measure twice and cut once. In this scenario it's measure once, trim a bunch of times, then success!



It took me probably 5-6 times of trimming before I could even get the piece of wood to sit in the trunk relatively flat. Again, I trimmed in small increments. Nothing worse then trimming too much and ending up with a big gap.



You can see in the next pictures that the majortiy of my trimming needed to be against the front of the trunk (where the tail lights are)




Once I got it all trimmed I was able to set the piece of wood flat in the trunk.

The OEM carpet is one big piece that has a section which travels up against the back of the seat and clips onto the metal "brackets" that the rear seats snap into. I didn't like this. Since I don't plan on putting my rear seats up and down really at all, I was OK with a more permanent solution. I cut a trapezoidal piece of wood that would cover these metal brackets. We'll get to how I made the transition between the wood, carpet and brackets later. I believe this piece measured 43-3/4" at the top and 40-1/8" at the bottom. This allowed for a snug fit without the carpet so I knew it was going to be nearly perfect after it was carpeted.



Next is carpeting...

I bought some black carpet from Autozone for $9.99 for a 3'x6' roll. I bought 2 rolls. They call it "replacement carpet" and it's right by the floor maps/Betty Boop steering wheel covers. I also bought 2 cans of Permatex Fabric/Carpet Adhesive spray from Autozone for $10.99 each.

Set up a good workspace, well ventilated and where you don't mind if excess adhesive falls on the ground as you spray it.

Spray the back of the carpet and the wood piece with the adhesive and let it dry for about 5 minutes. For the second coat, go in the opposite direction of the first (first coat is left and right then second coat is up and down). This will ensure there aren't any places without adhesive. After the second coat let dry another 3-5 minutes.

Both surfaces should now be tacky. You've only got one good shot to get this lined up. Pulling the two pieces apart if things are misaligned is a pain in the ass. I usually lay the carpet on a table, then lay the piece I'm carpeting on top of it. After you do this, spray a bit more adhesive around the perimeter of the back of the piece. This will give the carpet something to stick to as you fold it over.

Carefully fold the edges of the carpet over the back of the piece. You'll have to trim at the corners since the carpet will overlap.




Here's the finished floor back in the trunk.





I had about a 1.25 - 1.50" "top" to overcome where the piece of wood met the top of the metal seat backs.



My plan was to carpet the piece of wood and leave enough carpet at the top that I could fold it over both the top of the wood and the metal seat back essentially attaching the wood to the metal seat back via the carpet. I left about an extra 4-5" of carpet off the top of the piece of wood. Again, more is better. You can always trim the carpet if it's too much.



Carefully, and I mean carefully, spray the top portion of the metal seat back which faces the back of the rear seats. You don't want to spray the interior panels with the adhesive. This is where the carpet will fold over and adhere to.



Install the carpeted piece of wood into the trunk as it's going to sit. Obviously the extra flap of carpet will be at the top. The next part is a bit trick. Squeeze the metal seat back and the piece of wood together. While holding them together fold the carpet over and stick it to the metal seat back. Squeezing these pieces together will ensure a nice tight fit at the top where the carpet transitions over from the wood to the metal seat back.

Finished product