Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan Harter
...How much carpet is needed for a 107....
If an interior carpet kit is $339 from Diamond Mall and $700 from GAHH,
I wonder what the trade off is to doing it yourself....
I believe bulk velour was about $90 / yard, so 3 yards is the break even point
for DIY...not counting the time to sew/bind the edges..
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I ordered the kit from Topsonline, off EBay, this AM. I had been emailing back and forth with another supplier, but at the end, he wouldn't send a sample to Canada, and wanted me to tell him what the leather color was so he could pick the carpet color! Vic at Vic's Auto (Topsonline) was very courteous, answered all my questions, and even offered to include binding gratis with the order. First-class IMO.
After lots of time spent trying to source a decent local purchase, I had settled on Dorset El Dorado grey (medium opal #8019), priced at $39.90/yd off 40" wide roll, or $65.90 off 80" wide roll (CDN prices).
I did a very quick estimate of the yardage required for the '86 560SL, by tape measure (eg., front left and right, about 3' X 2' each), then drew out each rectangular piece from which the actual piece would be cut. Usually for a job like this, I'd then draw each rectangle to scale, then cut the pieces out of paper and see how to best fit them onto a roll of the stock, also to scale. Being a bit lazy, this time I just drew each piece onto the L X W of an 80" wide roll. I estimated I'd need about 3 (running) yards from the 80" wide roll, which would be about $200.00.
I then got into the binding part of the job. No one in town had any grey binding that would do, nor was there any thin enough vinyl available to cut strips, meaning I'd have to wait until someone ordered in a roll ($60.00) of binding the right colour grey so I could buy what I needed, or order a yard of roll stock.
To make a long story short, after closer examination of the bound pieces in the car, and the colour I wanted (see the Gahh website) this was the deal breaker for me. My wife and I did the mats in my streetrod, as she can use her HD leather sewing machine for binding, but I remember that it wasn't easy to get the corners just right. Plus, the carpet I mentioned above was nice, but what it would look like after I got it may not be the same as I'd hoped, trying to judge from a 1 1/2" square sample.
So, I figured it was worth the extra $180.00 for a kit. I still have to cut my own piece for the back of the fold-down jumpseat from the parcel shelf piece in the kit, and we'll need to do our own binding of this 1 piece (or hire it out), but that's it, everything else should be the same job, home-cut or kit....and no pestering her to bind the other pieces.
As far as suppliers of the kits, I'm pretty sure they all use the same roll stock within a given price range. The higher priced sets may use better quality carpet, or superior workmanship, but my SL isn't in the concours category anyway, so I can't see overspending on any one component.