Cleaning my carpet (56k)

[JMiles_T]

Since my car was unusable for the past week, I decided to take the opportunity to clean the carpet. The previous owner was a smoker, and the smell has not completely gone yet. My spilling used motor oil on the floor months ago hasn't helped much either.

This gets the seat belts unbolted.

I vacuumed it, hosed it down, scrubbed it with Simple Green and Tide, then rinsed it. A ton of dirty water came off during the rinse.

The next day, I scrubbed it down with this carpet cleaner, rinsed then hung it up to dry. The carpet smelled a lot better after using this.

This thing gets a lot heavier when it's wet; I had quite a time putting it up.

Hopefully, that'll be the end of it.

 

[ponytail john]

Good photos, you're lucky that it's black. Hope it turns out the way you like it.

 

[BlntdEyez]

So the shifter knob just unscrews? cause mine is loose.

 

[GMAN]

So the shifter knob just unscrews? cause mine is loose.

The shifter does not unscrew. There is a U shaped clip in the front of the shifter. If you look in the front of the shifter, you will see a slit in the leather of the shifter. Your clip is either not there, or it is too loose. If it is the latter, simply pull it out with a flat screwdriver, and squeeze it more so it will keep the shifter from moving.

 

[BlntdEyez]

The shifter does not unscrew. There is a U shaped clip in the front of the shifter. If you look in the front of the shifter, you will see a slit in the leather of the shifter. Your clip is either not there, or it is too loose. If it is the latter, simply pull it out with a flat screwdriver, and squeeze it more so it will keep the shifter from moving.

Its not too loose its got just a little bit of play in it. So i suspect its still there. Thanks Gman.

 

[BlntdEyez]

Yeah see mine moves side to side not much but a little bit. I tried the clip but it didn't work. So does anyone else have any suggestions

 

[LSCGODDESS98]

Even Better While That Carpet Is Out ..buy A New Carpet.chances Are You Might Get A Faul Musty Dry Wet Smell If You Put That Carpet Back In--after Putting The Hose And Chemicals To It...nothing Smells Better Then A New Capet In A Car...if You Gonna Go All Out.

Beleive Me Im Gonna Change My Carpet One Of These Days..and Maybe The Seat Leather Too..

HEY why not add some sound deadener while carpet out...and anti vibration pads..i hear they work good,thats if you have a sterio system that hits tons of bass. it kinda keeps the bass more in if you will. or if you just want a more quiter ride..that goes too

 

[Scorpio1118_2000]

Thats the best idea Ive heard on this thread next to the new carpet, where do you get the carpet anyways?

 

[Jibit]

how did you get that thing out? I kept on getting caught on something up by the firewall!

 

[JMiles_T]

Update

Even Better While That Carpet Is Out ..buy A New Carpet.chances Are You Might Get A Faul Musty Dry Wet Smell If You Put That Carpet Back In--after Putting The Hose And Chemicals To It...nothing Smells Better Then A New Capet In A Car...if You Gonna Go All Out.

You called it there.

The carpet didn't dry fast enough outside and started to smell like mildew. I had to scrub it down a with Zep a third time to get it smelling fresh again. Unfortunately a lot of the insulation/padding attached underneath it was beyond saving and had to be torn off.

After I got done scrubbing and rinsing the carpet again, I squeezed out as much excess water as I could, took it to the nearest laundromat, and stuffed it in one of the large dryers there, leaving it on high heat for 47 minutes. It just barely fit without knocking the door open during each tumble.

As for the insulation/padding, I found an acceptable replacement in the carpet section of Home Depot. I put the stock carpet on top of it and got to work with the scissors, cutting as close a match as I could.

It took some effort, but I managed to get them to adequately match the car floor contours again.

HEY why not add some sound deadener while carpet out...and anti vibration pads..i hear they work good,thats if you have a sterio system that hits tons of bass. it kinda keeps the bass more in if you will. or if you just want a more quiter ride..that goes too

I gave it serious consideration. In fact, I almost bought this while I was at Home Depot:

It's for roofers, but it supposedly does a fine job with sound dampening, at a fraction of the cost of something like Dynamat.

In the end, I didn't. It was more money and more work, and after spending money on and installing a driveshaft and U-Joints, I'd just about had it with spending more resources on the car for a while. Besides, the car is quiet enough for me. In fact, a year ago I was nearly creamed at an intersection by a police cruiser on its way to an emergency. I couldn't hear the siren and my stereo wasn't up that loud, (I think).

It's all good now though. It was a bit of a workout but it was worth it to have no more oil smell in the car on hot days.

For those wondering about the shifter, the U-shaped clip looks like this:

how did you get that thing out? I kept on getting caught on something up by the firewall!

I cut the carpet.

The portion that goes under the dash ahead of the center console (to my knowledge) can't be removed without removing the dash. I was not about to go through all that fun. Once the carpet is back in the car it's next to impossible to notice.

I got the idea from Billcu from the LOD2 board.

Here's his picture showing where he did the cuts:

 

[billcu]

I thought I recognised that photo.

Glad it helped you out!

 

[KC96LSC]

Thats the best idea Ive heard on this thread next to the new carpet, where do you get the carpet anyways?

This is the place I bought mine:

http://www.stockinteriors.com/items...1&MainCatId=1&Desc=Lincoln_Mark_Series_Carpet

They have a pretty good selection of colors. To get the same quality as our cars carpet, you need the more expensive one (go figure) I bought mine without the extra backing and I ordered extra carpet for the console, my total was around $220.00 if I recall properly. It was worth it!!!! Smells great and looks even better.