carpet & leather

75coug · Post by **75coug** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 4:48 am

I picked up my car at DAS and drove it home this afternoon. I figure that I'll take a stab at getting the top down without incident, since the weather is nice.

A few questions:

1. As expected, the car needs a new top. What is the best way to find someone who actually knows how to install it?

2. The seats are not looking so hot. Is a reupholstery the way to go, or should I just clean it up the best that I can and hope for the best?

3. Carpet. Is new carpet for these cars available, or should I have a carpet/upholstery guy figure something out?

Post by **negusm** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 6:44 pm

http://www.ascmclarencoupe.com/yahooarc ... st5243.htm

There were some pictures he posted with this.

However, they are no longer available it seems. But just so you know, the transformation wa INCREDIBLE. They looked NEW, except they still had the wear creases which you can't remove unless you replace the material....but they were not noticeable at all.

-Mike

85blackvert · Post by **85blackvert** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:12 pm

Robert,

The post that Mike referred to was by me. I redid about 90% of the interior of my 85 vert this summer. I'm pretty much a novice at car restoration work, but w/ a little homework and patience, I think the car came out quite well. I did carpeting, painted the dash & trim, and re-finished and dyed the seats.

I got the leather dye from leatherique and the carpeting from metro mustang.

Here are the links...

http://www.leatherique.com

http://www.metromustang.com/

I would say my seats were in as bad a shape as you can get w/o having cuts in the leather and now they look good, at a significant cost savings versus buying new leather.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Cass

Post by **negusm** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:18 pm

The carpetting should be standard Ford carpetting.

Call up 50Resto and get some ACC samples to match it.

IF its not TOO bad, alot of people take it out and steam clean it (or put it in one of those huge washers at the laundromat) and claim it comes out like new.

-Mike

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:02 pm

DON'T PUT IT IN THE WASHER!
It breaks the binding, and also loosens the carpet fiber from the backing and she'll never lay flat on the floor, but rather WaVeY ~ The converts used the carpet from a Mustang Convertible, as I am told the floors are cut differently. I assume I was told the truth, but I cannot verify. If so, you need to order 1985/86 Mustang Convertible Cut carpet in that color (colors were the same)...

There was a guy on the Grand Prix board back in 1995 that took out his carpet & put it into a big washer at a laundramat and washed it and the thing SHRUNK and would not fit. In addition the prior user had put in bleach and the residue was still in there, and his black carpet came out spotted with gray streaks.

85blackvert · Post by **85blackvert** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:50 pm

The carpet at metromustang was from ACC. I made the guy at metro measure the distance from the front of the carpet to the "hump" immediately under the driver's seat of an '85 he had in his lot to make sure it was the correct mold. It was, and it fit perfectly. My advice is for ~$100 buy new carpet - its well worth it and installation is pretty easy. A little trimming is needed, but nothing too major...I didn't even need to remove the center console to install the carpet (it slides underneath the console if you remove the screws). I only needed to remove the seats and trim pieces.

Cass

svo413 · Post by **svo413** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:17 pm

I believe ACC makes all the carpet. It's cheaper buying it from a regular mustang vendor than from them. I think I've seen it for as low as $69 but that might have been a while ago. Some of their colors (grey) fade and there is also a shedding issue but you have to live with it. They were supposed to be the OEM but I question it with the quality issues. You can also buy matching floor mats too. I get them from ACC to avoid the prefab logos.

On the leather, I went to the Recaro web site and found a local dealer listed. I called them up and they quoted a price of $900 per seat to install new Recaro leather. I have not shopped around for better prices yet but hope to soon. Does Hank sell the leather installed? Or is it just kits and for the stock recovered seats? I would avoid shiping a seat as I saw several write ups where Recaros were arriving damaged from the factory.

75coug · Post by **75coug** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 4:38 pm

Thanks for the tips, guys. I will be sure to let you know how things turn out.