Understanding original carpet / interior

[Matthew Abate]

I am looking into the options for carpet in my 7/1973 240z and have some questions about what was original. My car didn’t have much of the interior when I bought it. It was kind of a husk on the inside.

In reading about the carpet options it seems that generally people think the Newark Auto 11-piece kit is the best, followed by their 7-piece kit. Please disabuse me if this assumption if I’m wrong, but it’s what a few days of Google has turned up.

I’m also seeing that “some cars” had rubber in place of 4 of the pieces, hence the 7-piece kit. Does this mean not all Zs had the diamond quilted vinyl on the transmission hump? What was happening on the outer edges at the sills? I have the trans hump vinyl in a box, and my firewall had what seems like mat-board behind the dash, but not carpet.

I’ve put Dynamat down on the floors and will be putting foil-backed insulation over that. I may put carpet padding between that and that carpet, but either way I will need to go to the sills with something, whether its carpet or the afore mentioned rubber (?).

Advice and photos of your setup are appreciated.

[Tirnipgreen]

The sills were a thick, black, heavily-grained vinyl. The kit that I bought from MSA was much thinner and non-grained vinyl. I had carefully removed my originals, cleaned them up and am glad I did...! I returned the set to MSA and am very happy with the result. Your car had diamond vinyl on the transmission tunnel, the vertical surface behind the seats, the wheel arches and the rear strut towers (6 pieces). The transmission tunnel had jute padding underneath, the other pieces were adhered to the metal without padding. The diamond vinyl kit from MSA is VERY authentic. It is made by SEATZ Manufacturing and I cannot speak more highly about the quality. I chose to use a very thin (1/16") padding under the wheelarch and strut towers with excellent results. I also filled in the depressed areas of the luggage riser panel behind the seats with 1/4" foam...again, excellent results. I used 1/8" foam under the transmission tunnel and it turned out great after smoothing some of the original sound deadening material with a small disc sander. Original carpet was a nylon loop with whip-stitched edge binding. I bought the 5 piece kit from MSA. The edge binding is somewhat loose and I wonder what Newark's is like. I also like their 7 piece configuration, while not original, it provides pieces for directly under the seats. Carpet kits are available that eliminate the diamond vinyl all together and it is your choice as to what direction to go. I love the diamond vinyl and paid the price for professional install...well worth it in my book. All the best...Ryals in Ellijay, GA

[cgsheen1]

On 1/19/2021 at 8:00 PM, Matthew Abate said:

I am looking into the options for carpet in my 7/1973 240z and have some questions about what was original. My car didn’t have much of the interior when I bought it. It was kind of a husk on the inside.

In reading about the carpet options it seems that generally people think the Newark Auto 11-piece kit is the best, followed by their 7-piece kit. Please disabuse me if this assumption if I’m wrong, but it’s what a few days of Google has turned up.

I just installed the Newark Auto Products carpet kit in my early 260Z. The 7-piece kit is correct for originality but I am installing the 11-piece kit - or most of it... I actually like the carpet pieces for the sills rather than the vinyl it had and I'm not quite sure if I'll use the trans tunnel carpet piece - it's not supposed to be in a 260Z and I LOVE the small diamond pattern vinyl that the 260 has. (I personally don't care for the "large diamond" pattern vinyl of the 240Z's and would replace that with carpet in a second - but that's just me...) However, I really like their kit and definitely recommend it.