Carpet Issues

[Markus]

   I have been reading with great interest the various dilemas we face while restoring these truely beautiful cars. Mine has been a "striped to the wireharness" job, and I now find myself installing the parchment carpet. So far everything has been reasonably straight forward however; installing the carpet on the vertical bulkhead behind the seats has been extremely frustrating!  It seems as though the corners on the bulkhead concave, and slope towards the rear. This results in unsightly "buckling", or if the concaves are properly filled and smoothed then the "grain direction" of the carpet changes from horizontal, to 30 degrees down on the sides.  This carpet set has a foam backing and is to cover a dynamat surface. An attempt to remove and reposition the bulkhead carpet destroyed the foam and pulled the loops through the carpet as the contact cement sets up very quickly. Any advise on technique, templetes, different glue etc.from someone having recently replaced their carpet sets would be greatly appreciated.

Mark's Signal Red 71 280sl

[graphic66]

You need to get a small hand held carpet/flooring roller. the tool is availible at most home stores and is a small plastic roller you smmoth the carpet with. On the bulkhead don't roll it into the grooves just let it float over them. As for the concave areas apply across the top and let the bottom part float. Mine has been in 3 years with no problems. I also used the gel contact cement.