Anyone replaced carpet in a late 90s early 2000s?

[charlesml3]

Gang,

I've looked through a lot of these threads for info on replacing carpet in a late 90s Nautique and haven't really found what I'm after. Most of the threads say it isn't terribly difficult but I'm still looking for some specific information.

- How do I get the old carpet separated from the hull?

- Do I need to clean the old glue off the fiberglass? Acetone? Sanding?

- What glue do I need?

Thanks in advance!

-Charles

[pe4me]

Obvious stuff…loosen all panels/trim rings etc that hold boat down. Good putty knife and lots of muscle. There are chemicals but I can't remember what worked best.(3M?) Clean with any chem that won't leave a residue, vacuum and scrape all nastiness removing major humps…it is unsightly and gets covered especially with a heavy pile install, but major clumps may "feel" through. Clean, clean clean for best adhesion. There was a 3M spray adhesive but I went with a glue from Home deport for outdoor carpet and used a jagged putty knife/spactula with about 1/8 inches teeth to set an even mass of glue.
- remove and loosen as much as you need and them some on the boat, cover anything that maybe be in contact with sweaty dudes or chems or glue etc
- remove carpet and clean (lots of crap, stiff scrub brush, black scotch pad? and lots of elbow grease)
- cut template if you can't use old carpet as guide, THEN new carpet, mock up carpet to see fitment/stretch/joint issues BEFORE you have glue smeared to hull
- after mock up, clean/vacuum again for best adhesion…especially around areas that maybe wrapped/tucked.
ANY oil/gas or tranny oil WILL break down and glue and carpet backing in short order…don't ask me how I know.
Take your time and clean are the keys for a factory like finish.
Was not my favorite project but man did I save the cash for DIY!

[Connor]

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showt...ight=faux+teak

Some good info here with a few pics... Contact Grant for more info. He posted another thread on the finished product too...

[charlesml3]

Gang,

Lots of reads, not too many responses. I went back through every post I could find here and on a few other boards. Here's what I've compiled so far:

- Getting the old carpet out is mostly elbow grease and a utility knife. Try to get it out in as many big pieces as possible.
- The gunwales are probably separate sections that can be removed independent of the floor carpet.
- Getting ALL of the old carpet out is a much, much bigger job. You'll have to remove the gas tank. The carpet inside the front storage areas is particularly difficult because it went in before the top deck.
- Scrape as much of the old glue off the fiberglass as possible. Acetone and a wire brush on an angle grinder help here.
- Use the old carpet as a template to cut new sections. Cut them a few inches bigger and trim once they're in the boat.
- Watch the nap or "grain" of the carpet. Carpet lays in one direction. Make sure you're consistent through the entire boat.
- Use Henry's 263 Weather Pro adhesive. Directions are on the container.
- If the gunwales are separate pieces, do those first.
- Lay the carpet in and get it in the right place. Roll 1/2 of it back, glue, and lay it down. Repeat on the other side.
- Trim any excess and glue down any edges.

That's about it. If anyone has more info, please add to the thread...

Thanks!

[charlesml3]

Gang,

I'm done with replacing the carpet in my late-90s Air/Sport Nautique. Some notes:

-I used just over a gallon of Weldwood Contact Cement. Available at Lowes.
-I used 1.5 gallons of Acetone to clean the fiberglass.
-Working alone, it took be 3 full days to strip the old carpet out, clean the fiberglass and glue down the new carpet.
-The carpet I found was 8 feet wide. I needed 6 yards to complete the project.
-Most likely you'll need to replace some screws. CC used a lot of 10-24 machine screws with nylock nuts. If the screw was a bit long they just cut it off with a dremel. You can get the nylock nut off of one of these, but they usually won't go back on. I just replace any screw that had been cut.

Process notes:

- You're going to have to decide where to make your "cut." It would be a massively, wildly huge project to replace every single bit of carpet in one of these boats. There's carpet under the fuel tank. There's carpet wrapping inside the trunk. There's carpet inside the bow compartments. I didn't replace any of that because it either isn't visible or wasn't in bad shape.

- I cut mine right at the fuel tank in the back and just past the kick-panel on the driver's side in the front.. Same for the gunwales.

- You have to get the old glue off of the fiberglass. Do NOT go right to the Acetone! It may work, but you'll use a lot of Acetone. Instead, use a 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" putty knife to scrape as much glue off as you can. Suck it up with a shop vac as you go.

- Once you have scraped off most of the old glue, use the Acetone. Old rags and lots of rubbing. Get the fiberglass as clean as you can.

- Next, examine the floor. Look for anything that will cause you grief later. I'd always had a lump in my floor that I thought was a screw-head that was left up. Turns out, it was just a glob of fiberglass resin that had fallen, dried, and nobody noticed before the carpet went it. I knocked it down with a sanding drum on a Dremel.

There are three areas I'm going to discuss here. The floor, gunwales, and the "triangles." The triangles are two sections of carpet. One is on the outside of your left knee if you're driving. The other is on the right side when you lift the flip-up seat. Don't forget these! They are visible and you'll want to replace these sections.

- Do the gunwales first. Getting this to look good is all about being PATIENT and paying attention to detail. I used the old piece as a template and cut a new one. I started with the port gunwale by laying the new piece in and getting a rough-trim. Next, I put a single staple in bottom-left corner. Right at the floor near the ballast tank. Next, I stapled the bottom-right corner down at the floor. This leaves a wad of carpet bunched up along the floor because from back to front, the floor has a rise in it. I used a sharp blade to cut it right in the corner where the gunwale meets the floor. More trimming to get it to fit just right.

- Glue in the gunwale. I used more staples here. I put a staple about 6" off the floor, right in the middle of the gunwale. Then a few more left and right about a foot apart to form a line across the gunwale. Then I could let the top roll down to this staple line while I glued. The staples kept anything from moving. Spread a thin layer of glue on the fiberglass and the backside of the carpet. Let it tack up for 15 minutes.

- Next I set the top half of the port gunwale. The trick here is to get the glued section to roll back up without puckering or bunching. Starting in the middle at the staple line I pushed it into place for a couple of inches and then moved left and right. Then back to the middle for a couple more inches and again left and right. Repeat until you're at the top! Remove the staples. Roll the bottom up to the glue-line and glue this the same way. Again, when you're setting it in place, work from the glue-line down, middle out to edges so nothing puckers. Repeat for the starboard gunwale.

- Cut and glue in the "triangles" discussed earlier. They're pretty simple and you shouldn't need staples here.

- Next, glue in the rubber trim that runs in the corner of the gunwale and floor.

- Floor carpet is next. Hopefully you got the old carpet out in one piece so you could use it as a template for the new section. Detail is SO important here. Take your time. Make SURE the carpet is completely flat around the motor mount. Once I got mine perfectly flat, I set a row of staples 1/2" from the motor cradle to hold it in place. Work your way around and trim the edges so they'll slide into the rubber trim you glued down earlier.

- I used a method here very similar to the gunwales. I created a line of staples across the floor, port to starboard just in front of the hole for the slalom pole. This way, I could roll the front back and glue it without anything shifting on me. Once that was glued in, I removed the staples from around the motor cradle and folded that section forward so I could glue it. Once these sections are glued down tuck the edges into the rubber trim. Remove the staples.

- The motor mount plate, ski locker lid and driver's side kick panel are pretty simple.

- The last piece really stumped me for a bit. In the bow there's a tongue shaped piece of carpet on the floor with no visible means of attachment. I finally just slit it down the middle and pulled the carpet off of it. Turns out, it's a separate plastic (PVC?) panel held in with 5 stainless steel screws. Once you can see the screws, just take them out and the panel will come up easily. Scrape, Acetone as usual.

- I had to really think about how to get this back down. It's screws and I didn't want them showing on top of the carpet. My first idea was to glue in the center leaving the edges unglued far enough back to fold the carpet back, drive the screws down and then glue the edges. I rejected this idea because I predicted a frayed edge that wouldn't last. Instead, I glued the carpet down, but left about 1/2" of unglued area around each screw hole. I wrapped it around the edge and stapled it all the way around. Next I made a slit over each screw hole about 3/8" long. Set it in the boat and drove each screw until it was about 1/2" above the carpet. I then held that slit open with a pair of forceps and drove the screw down. Once I let the forceps go, the slit closed covering the screw head.

- The wrap around the flip-up seat is a PITA. There's no other way to say it. That piece has curves in a lot of directions and it took me several tries to get the carpet to lay flat on it.

Overall this isn't a terrible project but it's labor-intensive. I can't say I wouldn't do it again but it is a lot of work. You're on your hands and knees a lot.

-Charles

[SilentSeven]

Where did you source your carpet from? What weight in oz?

[charlesml3]

Where did you source your carpet from? What weight in oz?

The carpet came from my local upholstery shop. I had them source it and I don't know the weight. I know it's identical to what came out of the boat. I asked them to get it as close as possible and they were able to do an exact match.

[charlesml3]

Photos of carpet and upholstery work:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/charle...7644378763684/

[bhectus]

Looks great Charles! Nice work for sure.

[pe4me]

Wow, that looks great.
Now...would you EVER do it again? It was a time deal for me. Never again. Save or side job, I dont think I could muster up the energy.
But the sense of accomplishment was well worth it and every compliment made the hurt go away...a little at a time.

[jchamlin]

Yea Charles, really good job and excellent write up. So those rubber strips in the gunwales are just glued in?

[charlesml3]

> Now...would you EVER do it again?

Well, that's a good question. I can't say I wouldn't. Yes, it's a LOT of work but it sure does give one a huge sense of accomplishment when it's done. Plus, I honestly did a better job of it than the factory did. I was never happy with the carpet on the starboard gunwale. It was "bunched" at the bottom because it was never trimmed properly. When I replaced it I paid particular attention to this on both gunwales to make sure it was perfectly flat.

> So those rubber strips in the gunwales are just glued in?

Yep. Use acetone to clean the old glue off the bottom of the rubber strips. The fiberglass on the deck should already be clean at that point so just contact-cement as usual. Coat both sides, let it tack up for 15 minutes and carefully lay it back down.