this is my carpet story.
much like many other carpet stories, they are not so interesting, unless you are a carpet maker, or in rare cases, a carpet story maker.
1. i had glued down rubber mats that were from the factory. they were beginning to rip and rust underneath. they were ripped up and put somewhere in case one day i might want to go back to them. 'in case'.
2. i looked around for carpet. i had some left over blue carpet and beige carpet, so was leaning to the idea that i could make them myself.
3. Greg (low'n'blown) had westminsters up for sale. only $500. pft i can make my own for a fifth that price.
4. $1300 (firm) for a set of westminsters? and at $110/metre?
now wheres greg's number...
5. i decided after stripping and painting my interior, i wanted most of it accessible. ie. not glue anything down onto my new work and so i could check for rust. ill use greg's westminster carpets and my left overs.
6. whilst cutting the left over carpet for underlay (which can be removed for checking/drying) i realised how hard it was to make my own carpet. you would think outlining with newspaper, having scissors and a marker in hand is easy. doesnt make it easier at all. its horrible, with all that trial and error, folds in the carpet, contours in the floor (esp the front floor, argh!)
7. i glued down the wheel arches, the front firewall and box section.
some words:
i) i traced all my carpet, in case someone out there needed patterns for mini carpets. these tracings are from professionally done westminsters carpets from england. pm me if you want me to transfer them onto large sheets of newspaper so you can just lay on top and cut out.
the front floor pan is a pain, im not sure if i can trace it out accurately.
ii) Anton, my carpetting (and painting) section on your site doesnt work for me.
iii) moulded carpets are one large thing that are suppose to fit over everything. too risky for me, but Doc seems ok with it.
iv) westminsters are actually a type of technique (i think). they are not cut pile, or looped. they are sheets zigzagged and glued to a backing. no fraying, very dense. westminster (a company) are no longer making carpet, Tretford an irish company makes the same style.
http://www.tretford.ie/
this is a trade off you need to consider.
soft, nice, lambswool carpet = gets shitty, dirty, hard to clean, dusty
hard, acrylonitrile ugl = longer lasting, stains less, doensnt compress
v) carpet can be made of mainly two things: natural stuff, like wool = exxy
or unnatural stuff like acrylonitrile (polymer/plastic) = cheap
the stuff you find in classrooms, work, high traffic is artificial fibre carpet.
the stuff you find (sometimes in homes), soft is natural wool fibre carpet.
tretford is made of goat hair. not as soft as wool, but hard wearing.
vi) ive seen cooper s carpets. they are black loop pile carpets which look bad after compressing and loosening.
if you want the best get westminsters (style).
i know theyre really really really pricey, even i denied them at first, saying that i wouldnt pay $500 for ugly hard goat hair (irish goat hair in fact)
but now ive seen that they are far superior.
ask low'n'blown, sg, and steve (from steve n mikey)
ive found no better, even in modern cars
amen.
now for my plug
www.angelfire.com/mech/ducho
ps. lownblown has a thread just put up.asking for interest in carpet sets being made
) and use that, if i am good enuff i can actually heat it up and it'll set in place. but u know.
