Rear seat carpet tricks

[NorthernThrux]

FIle under: There are no stupid questions

I'm trying to get the rear seat carpets installed and the cardboard folds awkwardly right by the outboard pivot point and the seats won't go all the way back to the bulkhead. This happens with 2 different carpets I have. I glue them flush to the top upholstery ridge on the back and the cardboard extends more or less over the hinges when they are flat. But when I fold them up all hell breaks loose.

Any tricks or something I am missing?

Ravi

[steve shea]

I just carpeted my 73S and had no problem with these panels. I glued just the upper2/3 or so and finished with the original upholstery nails. The area near the rear to the cardboard is loose in other words. Last I did the sheetmetal screws to fasten the trailing edge down by the rear bulkhead. If all is correct, the cardboard folds up and allows the seat back to stand open and you can secure the leather strap. It was really straight forward. Did you use the upholstery nails in the correct location? The carpet must be fastened down to a point, then the rest being loose, can only be folded one way.

[NorthernThrux]

Ahh, so I had no carpet there originally so I had nothing to go on. I just glue about 2/3 down, but no upholstery nails and no sheet metal screws. I just shoved the rest of the carpet under the parcel shelf cover at the rear bulhead, which didn’t quite seem right. Any details on the sheet metal screw location or upholstery tack locations?

thanks,
Ravi

[steve shea]

There are four stampings along the rear bulkhead; you should see holes where the factory screws were used. there are three screws per panel. Two each at the trailing edge and one for the snap. The rears use a plastic and a beauty washer, the snap is its own washer. My car had five or six upholstery nails across the top edge and one or two on the outer edge at the most narrow point but above the card board. The snap screw is a pan head wood type. You really should look at an original. I'm not home so no photos.

Edit. If you don't see the holes you may have covered them with the seat cushion rear piece. Slots have to be cut to expose the stamped bosses. That way you can screw down the last piece and not go through two layers of carpet. I had the luxury of removing the factory installed carpet. I used each original panel as a template so had a good head start. Fortunately the carpet set was cut on the generous side allowing for fine tuning.

[NorthernThrux]

Than ks Steve,

As you can imagine, it's not a place anyone takes photos, so yes, if anyone does have detailed photos, that would be appreciated.

Ravi

[Bramblegrower]

Ravi, here are pictures of the original seat backs from my ‘67 Karmann bodied 912 coupe. The yellow tape marks are nails and the green are the screws that attach the fixed portion of the carpet to the rear deck area. The nails are very small brads about 1/2 inch in length. You can also see the remains of the leather strap for reference. Also I have attached blurry pictures of the screws and washers used along the back. Hope this is useful.

[NorthernThrux]

Extremely helpful John. Looks like standard carpet tacks and I have the rest of the hardware. And I found the screw mounting points on the rear bulkhead, so I should be able to wrap this up now. Thanks everyone.

Ravi

[dirk07]

Any info on the clear plastic/rubber washer under the metal washer?
When were these introduced for the rear seat carpets and had those been also used for the lower mounts of the parcel shelf?

[steve shea]

I don't know when they were introduced. They were used on the lower two parcel shelf screws. Maybe someone sells them. I made my own out of a suitable soft plastic. You can hardly see them once mounted.

[NorthernThrux]

I found something at Home Dept in the "hard to find" parts bins that worked fine.

Ravi