Carpets
From GTM Workshop
The GTM Libra comes with a comprehensive carpet pack ready cut and bound.
It comprises of seventeen individual carpet pieces. The seventeenth being in the boot By referring to the drawing it should be possible to identify the carpet patterns and fit them loosely into your car to see which areas are covered by the carpet set. At this stage do not glue the carpets in place as it is preferable to fit the soft trimming to the top of the monocoque or the optional hard trim panels before fitting the carpet set as any glue that falls from the top onto the carpet set would be annoying. Once the carpet set has been fitted loosely it should be clear the area that have to be trimmed by the soft trim material. The inner doors and the dashboard are covered by hard trim panels provided within the standard kit.
Carpets-assembly
There are seventeen individually cut carpet panels in the GTM Libra carpet pack The seventeenth carpet is for the boot. The drawing shows the relative positions of the carpet when placed in the car.
All the carpets within the monocoque are glued directly to the glass fibre surface and therefore before you start fitting the carpets make sure that there are not any sharp areas protruding into the monocoque. Where holes are cut or trimmed to allow access into the monocoque for instance seat belt mountings and rear suspension hangers it is best if these are covered with either aluminium or hardboard glued over the hole to form a flat surface for the carpets to be glued to By covering the holes it also prevents any noise transmitting through the holes.
A convenient way of dealing with the seat belt mountings that are covered by the carpet is to captivate the seat belt mounts on the reverse surface by taking the seat belt mounting out roughing up the mating surface with production paper and putting a small amount of body filler on it so that when you tighten up the seat belt mounting bolt it effectively captivates the seat belt mounting plates so that when your fitting your carpets you only have to drill a hole in the carpets and then fit the seat belt mounts. This prevents having to trim the carpets round the seat belt mountings. The carpets are glued directly to the glass fibre surface using a contact adhesive.
Carefully follow the instructions on the can or spray can when fitting the carpets. Fit carpets one and two over the lower front wishbone mountings. It will be necessary to cut these (and fold flanges) do not attempt to fit these immediately and dry fit the carpets over the area to be covered before putting any glue in place Glue the carpets into position.
Carpet pieces three and four run from the box sections previously covered and over the box section that comes down from the dashboard to the sills. Where the carpet pieces meet the sill it is necessary to cut the carpet to allow it to be glued over the top of the sill section so that when carpet five and six go over it the sill cannot be seen at the join. Where the carpet piece comes up to the door shut face take the carpet to the face and along the shut where the sealing rubber fits over and slightly over the top so that when you fit the sealing rubber to the door shut face it does not push off the carpet. Trim the carpet at this point so that you do not get an excessive amount of carpet thus preventing the sealing rubber fitting correctly.
Fit carpet piece ten over the tunnel. The front edged will have to be cut in two places to allow the front of the tunnel carpet piece to fold over the toeboard. Holding the carpet piece in place fold the sides of the carpet down the sides of the tunnel and mark where the carpet piece goes over the box section that holds the front of the seat runner. Now carefully cut two slits in the carpet so that the carpet folds over the top of the box section and down the sides.
Cut the hole for the gear change using the hole in the tunnel of the template Glue this carpet into place now but do not glue the flaps over the floor plan at this stage as it is more convenient to do this when you fit carpet pieces nine and twelve over the seat box sections. Fit carpet pieces five and six to the sill box sections. Dry fit the carpet pieces so you know where they are to fit and glue the carpet to the top face of the sill. This will hold the carpet while you mark and cut it to fit Cut the door seal piece in the same manner as you cut the seal on carpet pieces three and four. Cut the carpet where it fits over the seat box section in a similar manner to the tunnel section carpet piece. Now fully glue the carpet down the vertical face of the sill but do not as in the tunnel section glue the bottom flanges that go onto the floor. Now fit carpet pieces nine and twelve over the seat box sections over the top of the flanges that are formed over these seat box sections down the small vertical faces and under the flanges formed over the floor section. You can now fully glue the flanges from the door sills and the tunnel onto the floor.
Fit carpet piece eight over the petrol tank moulding and trim to suit. Note here that the handbrake cover TO126 will neaten up the carpet round that area and that on the hard trim option the parcel shelf front edge will neaten up the top edge of this carpet.
Fit carpet piece eleven to the front toeplate. Now finally glue in carpet pieces thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in place.
