The Manhattan Project

[AndrewSlater]

Hi Gary,

not sure Mike would appreciate the badge turning up

As for the carpet it was just placed in to see the colours in situ.
I can confirm that nobody's curtains were harmed in the taking of that photo.

Here is a photo of the original carpet before I took it out.


I'm not sure what the original colour is called - possibly beige.

If I had black seats it would be black carpets all the way.

Not sure these seats would contrast well against black.


Notice how much smaller the seats are compared to a 997!

I've since dug out the carpet washer to see what I can do to revitalise the original carpets.
That might be an option ( apart from the holes cut in the front carpet pockets as shown in the first page of the restoration thread ).

[AndrewSlater]

I have now spent many hours cleaning my original carpet set to see how it could look.

The technique was to clean each carpet section at least three times with the wet carpet cleaner, using various carpet cleaning products along the way to remove stains. I then 'cleaned' them further using Dyson Zorb and Vanish.
Finally I removed my bobbles with a BobbleOff (ouch!).

Obviously if my wife was to ask - I would deny knowledge of all of the above cleaning practise.

So I now have a relatively clean carpet set.


A few sections are a little faded which makes it hard for me to identify the original colour - but my current guess is Sliverknit cork.

I've trial fitted it in the car to see what it looks like.


In the above photo the seat backs have yet to be cleaned - but are clearly faded compared to other sections.

So other than the holes that have been cut in the front carpet pockets I could fit it as is for that 'original' look.
The plan is to keep the carpet in the car for a few days and consider whether I could live with its imperfections.

[Gary71]

Certainly looks good in the photos


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[murph2309]

Yeah - that looks great - a bit faded here and there is cool. Good effort on the cleaning.

[Lightweight_911]

I think the (cleaned) original carpets look great in the photos ...

For reference, here's the original carpet that was in my Sepia '72T:

[lamakdaddy]

i think I would either stick with the original carpets or go black for a nice contrast

[jb]

The originals look great and they are original so put them back.
I feel sure you can get the fairly small holes invisibly mended maybe there are parts of carpet that do not show that could be taken as donor pieces?

[misteralz]

They look ace. Read this thread on Retro-Rides recently (yay, alliteration!) about rejuvenating old carpets:

http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/200 ... ld-carpets

Always an option of the fading bothers you that much, and you've done the cleaning part already.

[AndrewSlater]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Today I took my son for a driving experience at Thruxton and as part of the trip I dropped into Southbound trimmers to learn more about my carpets.

I took a couple of pieces of my carpet as well as the new carpet I had bought from them previously.
Southbound were very helpful and knowledgeable.

The first thing I discovered was that my carpet would have been Special Velour and not SliverKnit as I had previously thought.
Here it is in the original catalogue.

So the good news it I now know it is special velour 501.

The bad news is that Southbound have never managed to source an equivalent to this carpet and it is very different to sliverknit - so I can't purchase any new replacement pieces.

If anyone has a source of the special velour or some pieces of original carpet they would be happy to sell then please let me know.

This explains why it is very different in material form to the one I bought.
The new carpet is made from Sliverknit which seems a much softer and more plush material to the velour. It is also in Light Brown Armagnac which is a slightly later Porsche colour.

So the current plan is to try to patch the holes in the map pockets by robbing some of the carpet from elsewhere (as per jb's suggestion) and see how that works.
I have also purchased some of the fabric paint as suggested by misteralz to see if it will dye my carpet to lessen the faded areas. I have tried it on a small section to see if it will work - stay tuned!

Finally it looks like I will be selling the full SliverKnit carpet set in Armagnac - let me know if anyone is interested.

[Dougieboy1]

am loving the 3 yellowy orangey restorations ongoing at the same time. Be great to see a piccie of all 3 finished cars together!

Am especially interested in your carpet thread (ha ha) as i also need brown. Am thinking the Haargarn brown from the EarlyS threads. Must speak to Garry about it although i think he already has my carpet, matched to some of the original out of the car (terrible state, not reusable although i still have it all. )

[lamakdaddy]

I may have a spare brown carpet from my car. let me check during the week

[210bhp]

I’m not sure that catalogue is correct for your car. It’s 1974 and that sample looks more like the one which matches a later cork interior rather than the earlier brown brown carpet (with the liver coloured edging like Andys picture).

Regards
Mike

[210bhp]

You will notice your carpet has a tan brown edging. This is often reported as being in Rhd cars whereas the liver edging is more often in lhd cars. I think you will agree the colour of your carpet material is also different to Andys. If you check out Rich’s very original 2.4T on here ‘ragamuffin’ you will find an even darker brown interior (and edging) but it is definitely original. I think there was at least three brown versions in early interiors. Cinnamon, tan and brown are often used as terms to describe them. I don’t think any of the modern repro carpets come close to the originals. It’s a much different story for the black which being a lot more common has been reproduced more accurately.

Regards
Mike

[gtBen]

I'm not sure what the original colour is called - possibly beige.

My COA


The Farbkarte say interior trim colours are “Cinnamon”.
I think most people say the color is tan.


The Farbkarte cover, in German - English - French - Italian.



Farbkarte inside

The first thing I discovered was that my carpet would have been Special Velour and not SliverKnit as I had previously thought.
So the good news it I now know it is special velour 501.

When you see the the two velours in the farbkarte, how do you tell you have “special velour” and not “velour”? did Southbound have a card with velour as well that you could rule out?

It’s very confusing with all names and different materials on carpets.


German Silver Knit - not similar


German Velour and Perlon - not similar


Bengt

[AndrewSlater]

Thanks for the comments with regard to the carpet everyone.

I agree with Mike that my carpet looks a different colour to Andy's one.

My understanding from Southbound was that the carpet types changed for the '74 cars and changed again in around '76 with the introduction of Sliverknit. Possibly the carpet from Andy's car was an earlier type being from a slightly earlier car. Similarly the one in Ragamuffins car is definitely a different colour but also looks like a different fabric again.

Re-reading Ferrymans thread he documents what looks like an identical sample to mine shown as a either Velour or Special Velour again ( page 69 of his thread ).

Thanks to lamakdaddy for the offer of some carpet fabric - interesting to see what you have.

Either way all this carpet delay is saving me from contemplating starting the engine for the first time, so that must be a good thing.

In other news I have managed to source a new green tint screen ( no top tint or antenna ) thanks to Stuby and National Windscreens.
After the success of fitting my rear screen I wanted to fit the front one too ( much to the amusement of the National Windscreen fitter who delivered it ).

It's a Sigla branded screen and looks great.


Had a start at fitting it using all new trims and rubber, but couldn't get a fit where I was happy with the way the rubber sat in the top corners. The rubber only overlaps the frame by a mm or so in the corners - so not happy with that.
I thought the front would be really easy after the rear - oh well I must have a rethink and try again tomorrow.