Custom Carpet Install

Thanks to a very generous offer by the great folks at Tijuana Kustoms Inc. I am going to install one of their custom molded carpet kits in the Manx. They posted on the Manx Club site looking for some buggy owners to try their products in exchange for doing an honest evaluation and photo install. My buggy was chosen as one of three finalists and in a fit of generousity Tom from Tijuana Kustoms decided to give all 3 of us kits to try out.

I promised an honest evaluation, and that is what I will give. But I have to say now that its done, I can't find any faults. This is a product that lives up to everything it claims to be and is worth its price.

So lets begin shall we. I set out to show this could be done by a single person and the install was done that way. However I did get some help reconnecting the clutch cable (Thanks Joe!) when a friend from the South Jersey VW Club showed up to help. By then the carpet was already in and I was just connecting things back up. I took my time and was in no hurry (lots of breaks) and it still only took me around 3-4 hours to get this done.

	Well, here she is, a bit dusty now that we are in winter storage mode and the 914 sitting behind her keeps shedding bondo dust on her as it gets it's winter overhaul.
	And this is where we started inside. Nice seats but that carpet...eww. Its seen better days, and even in its better days, it wasnt much to look at
	If you look right behind the shifter you will see the unsightly joint line where the carpet overlaps in this less than quality 2 piece kit.
	And here behind the seats you get a good look at how poor the fit is at the edges
	More poor fit, doesnt even cover the edges of the floorpan.
	In the photo above as well as here you can see the starting point to the tear down. The body to pan bolts were all removed as well as all the roll cage mounting bolts. Obviously your install will vary.
	Here we see the poor fit at the back again and the unfortunate result...the previous owner has resorted to sheet metal screws to hold down the carpet. If you have to do this with your carpet, you bought the wrong kit. Call Tijuana Kustoms and get yourself a good kit.
	More body to pan bolt removal and yes all those little holes in the floor pan are from sheet metal screws which held down the old carpet. Don't do this to your buggy.
	Rear roll bar mounts removed
	Front mounts removed
	Prepare for shifter removal, this black cover plate just lifts up and out of the way (your shifter may vary but the concept is usually similar)
	Remove the 2 bolts under the cover and just lift the whole assembly out.
	Here we are with shifter and seats removed. My seats were bolted through the floor at 4 points each, yours may differ.
	And the old carpets now out of the way....eww. The pans are solid but getting a bit rusty. For now I've wire brushed them and gave them a quick coat of rustolem. Next winter (after the 914 project is complete) I want to do a full teardown which will probably include new pans now that I have seen how many holes are in these pans from screwing down the old carpets.
	And here you can see the pedal assembly removed. Just the 2 bolts. Dont forget the clutch cable is inside there ;)
	Here you see the old battery hold down stud is still in place on these pans, time to get rid of it. You can see the nice air grinder off to the left ready to cut that away.
	More swiss cheese caused by screwing down the old carpet. You can still see some screws along the perimiter here too.
	And here is the old carpet removed. Yuk.
	And here is the new Tijuana Kustoms carpet kit. Pretty and purple. There are over 100 colors to choose from.
	Side by side just make me think of the old trash bag commercial. The old carpet is "wimpy wimpy wimpy"
	Nice heavy padding on the underside.
	Here is how I lifted the body. You dont have to pull the body off, just raise it enough to work the carpet under around the edges. This job can be done by just one person.
	Here you can see how much I lifted the body. Not much at all, you just need a little bit.
	I have threaded all the bolts back into their appropriate holes, this will help in locating the proper places to trim once the carpet goes in.
	And here is the carpet laid in place. It really just almost falls into place, its very well molded.
	Here is a look at the back, no more gaps here.
	Since I dont have a parking brake Im afraid I can't show that part of the install, but here I've made a small cutout for my Jamar line lock which acts as my parking brake. FYI, DO NOT do this (the line lock instead of parking brake) its a lousy idea, my buggy came this way and I will be converting back to a real parking brake arrangement.
	Close up. I think I will look for a small rubber grommet to cover the cut edge.
	Here you can see the overlap of the carpets. They are oversized so you can trim to just the right size for your buggy. And as one of the other winners has discovered the excess is great for making this work with the body lift on his buggy.
	Here I have located the bolts for the shifter left under the carpet. I was going to show you me cutting this area out but I needed 2 hands and my photograper (aka wifeypoo) was called away.
	Here is the area cut out for the shifter. Make your cuts small. Just like woodworking, you can always trim a little more, but you cant add any back.
	And the shifter reinstalled. Be sure to check the pivot end and grease it up if needed.
	Here is the cutout for the pedal area. I kind of botched this and made it all one cut. You can cut out the master cylinder hole on its own and make it much smaller. Its not visible once its all back together but I didnt pay close enough attention when I read the instructions. You can also see the accel cable sticking out here. Just a small slit in the carpet at the end of the tube is all you need.
	Here is Joe Tierno from SJVWC hooking up the clutch cable while I gave slack or added tension from the rear so we didnt loose it. Thanks for the help Joe! Joe has a very cool Ocelot buggy.
	Pedal assembly reinstalled.
	All buttoned up and back together. Sorry for the lousy photo.
	This one is a little better. Need to vaccum that pretty carpet now that its all done. When tackling the body bolts, while the body is still lifted push the bolt up from the bottom and when it hits the carpet you can just slit a small X at the top of the bolt and it should push though.
	And one last shot. Just need to put the seats back in, but Im doing a reworking of the mounts so thats for another time. Once everything is bolted down you can trim the excess around the edges.
	And here it is all buttoned up and seats in place. To give you some idea of the substantial nature of the carpet, my seats were always a tight fit but with the carpet in place I actually had to rework the mounts because the carpet was so much thicker and more solid that the seats just didnt want to wedge in like before. I really love the look, it make the buggy look very finished.

Final impressions. This kit is great. I looks soo good I actually feel bad about the appearance of other things in my buggy now. Its a great upgrade and very well made. I really can't find fault with it, I just wish they had a kit for 914s too ;)

Thanks again to Tijuana Kustoms. I plan to check out some more of their great products during the full rebuild of the buggy.