Replacement Carpet - Color & Material Terminology?

[tc911e]

As I’ve mentioned in another post or two (http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...0-Alone-Enough) I’ve started reassembly and replacement parts ordering for my 1969 911E that just returned from paint. Shopping for replacement carpet has me a bit confused and I could use some help translating the terminology used by the different suppliers.

The car is painted the original Light Ivory color and has a light tan/beige interior. I’m trying to keep it generally close to original, though I’m not going for full concours or trying to keep all the details matching. According to the Kardex and translation I got from David Pateman the interior code is 9854 which is a “beige leatherette interior with leather seats with beige velour carpet”, and that seems to match what’s in the car (the front seats are leather while the rear seats and all the door and side panels are vinyl) and it’s almost certainly original. This is what the old carpet from one of the mostly protected areas looks like:



Unfortunately, the various suppliers I’ve found (Lakewell, Heritage Trim, MrFiat, Newark-Auto, World Upholstery, Autobahn Interiors, Autos International) use different terminology for both colors (Natural, Tan, Oatmeal, Saddle, hardly any of them have “Beige”) and material options (Loop, Cut Loop, Haalgarn, Square Weave, Knit, Domestic Plush, Domestic Nylon Loop or Cut Pile). It doesn’t help that there’s as much as $1,000 difference between the Domestic and German materials from the same vendor.

What’s there seems to match the Square Weave sample that I got from Pelican/Stoddard, but their sample card didn’t have Velour. If the Loop or Domestic Loop style carpet has a similar texture to what I have I’d probably go with that and save some money. There’s enough stuff the original owner did to the car, and that I did during the restoration, that it will never be a perfect match to original.

So, short of asking for material samples from the various supplier’s is there a decent way to translate the various color and material listings to something that’s close to the original?

Tim

'69 911E
'20 Honda Rigdeline
'22 Subaru BRX

[TeeItUp]

There's a white/beige 1970 T in the For Sale section with one interior photo. The carpet looks like Haargarn/Velour. This may give you some ideas.

[Scott A]

I cannot really tell what that photo is.
To me it doesn’t look like carpet. But if anything, it looks like velour.
In the original velour , you can really see the grid pattern, which I see in your photo.

In your comments, you mention so many colors and types that I think your car didn't have.

It would have been beige velour.
Don’t try domestic, that will just be disappointing.

Lakewell has two beiges, old beige and one other, light tan.
They will send you samples. You can kinda see the grid in their samples.

My 71 car is original beige interior. And I put in old beige velour, I liked it better.

I don’t think 69 had square weave.
I think the closest you’ll get to original is lakewell, velour, light tan.
Next closest will be lakewell, old beige.
Below, images, if they help.



Below the photo shows a slightly darker beige(lakewell light tan). Which is correct.
(I just don’t think it looks that good)
Don’t be confused with the floor mats.


Then the photos below, this is my cars lakewell old beige. Which is a lighter color, (car shown in various stages).





Above, this was photo with my orig vinyl seats, which I still have in a box.


And below again.
This was a 66 912 with tan seats, with beige square weave, not original colors, I just finished last week.
Also lakewell.
But I don’t think your car had square weave. But, in some ways it is better carpet.
If I had a 65,66,67, and maybe a 68, I might try the square weave, which is a closed loop, but at 69, I would feel I needed velour.

[tc911e]

Thanks Scott A.

The picture I attached to the original post was a somewhat close shot of the carpet piece that goes across the transmission hump between the rear seats (it was the best protected area of the old carpet). It should be Velour according to the Kardex (and probably is), but I didn't have an good pictures or samples of what the Velour texture looked like and it does look similar to the sample I do have of square weave. That was part of my confusion.

I'm leaning toward the Lakewell set, but their website didn't really say what material their carpet was and I did send them a note yesterday asking about materials and colors. The Old Beige on the web page looked a bit too gray, but from your pictures it looks a lot closer to what I need. Thanks.

(Also, did you have your seats recovered as well? If so, who did you use for the seat covers? I asked Lakewell about that also since the website only lists Black as an option.)

[Scott A]

The colors on the computer or phone are often off.
There is definitely no grey in the beiges or tan.

I sewed my own seats in Italian leather for airplanes.
I bought a whole hide.

I wish the lakewell velour was a perfect match in texture to the 70s stuff, but it’s not perfect.
But it was the best I could find. Everything I found in USA was far too fluffy and had no grid.
The old stuff is very cool looking, and has the thread-bare, almost used and worn look to it.

Below, is the nicest arrangement I found, darker carpet with the light edging.
I probably would have liked this better than what I did.
If my car was brown, in would have done this for sure.
But my car is slightly green, and I didn’t want three colors, so I chose carpet that was the same as my seats.


Below, light and light combo, this photo is not my car, tho my car is similar. I don’t like this photo as much as the other, but it was the combo I chose.

[Nickelplated5s]

Go with the German wool. I can tell you with experience it's worth it. Both in my P car and for flannel sheets in the winter.