59 Cadillac - Carpet Installation

[Dan Eckstein]

How difficult is it to install carpet in a 59 Cadillac?  Is it a project that a beginner can do and have it turn out nice.  The car will be a daily driver.

[Jeff Wilk]

Dan, I'm no expert and my 14 year old and I just did that in our Fleetwood Sixty Special and it turned out great.  You do need lots of patience though when it comes to the final trimming and replacement of the front seats (getting the bolts back in was the worst part of all).  Remember the old adage....measure twice....cut once when it comes to trimming.

Jeff

[Fred Zwicker #23106]

Most carpets are pre-cut, but that doesn't mean that it will fit perfectly and some trimming is required.  Be sure to keep your old carpet for a pattern until the job is completed.  A heavy-duty walking presser foot sewing machine is a plus.  I do my own carpet work and do not feel that it would be possible to do an exact fit without this machine, especially if you buy carpet by the yard and do all of the fitting yourself.  I did my 1939 LaSalle Carpet from scratch, so had to make my own welt for the edges.  For the average person, a trim shop can save a lot of anxiety.  And as Jeff said, getting the seat bolts back in place is a real challenge (be sure to cut the carpet and padding for these holes BEFORE you attempt to install the seat), as it will be almost impossible to locate these holes once the carpet is installed.

Fred

[TheMan90241]

I just replaced the carpet on my 60 SDV.   I purchased the molded carpet kit from StockInteriors.com.  I needed help with three things.   My car has seatbelts installed.  I needed help removing the mounting bolts because one person must be inside the car and one must be under the car to turn the bolts.  The front seat removal was is a two man job as it weighs somewhere in the area of 100 - 120 lbs.  After that, I spent about 4 - 5 hours removing the old carpet, cleaning up 50 years of silt and deteriorated padding, then installing the new two-piece kit.  The last area I needed help with was fitting the carpet around the door post between the front and back doors.  If you have a sedan, then you may run into this issue also.  I think a 59' is the same as a 60' sedan.  The door pillar has a piece of leather covering the upper half of the pillar.  It is sewn to a piece of carpet that extends down to the floor.  The floor carpet then lays over the top of this pillar carpet piece.  The problem is, the piece of floor carpet does not have the nice sewn vinyl trim on the edge in the area by the door pillar.  So all you have is one cut piece of carpet laying on top of the door pillar piece.   After installing front and back carpet pieces, I then drove my car over to a local shop in my town that does auto restoration and specialize in interiors and trim.  I ended up paying $300 for them to finish the job correctly.  They removed the side pillar leather and sewed new carpet on the lower half.  They also removed my front seat again and removed the rear carpet.   Then they trimmed the area around the door post and sewed a nice vinyl edge to it.  It now looks like factory carpet again!   Thank you Colllins Trim in Downey, CA.

Terry Goeckner

[Bob Kielar]

Hello Jeff

                Just got done replacing the carpet in my 55 Fleetwood also put dynamat down first. What I did to locate the holes I took small pieces of threaded rod and put a tip on them and installed them in the holes that are covered or you could cut the top of a bolt off but the threaded rod to me was easier that way you know where they are. I also did this with the sheet metal screw locations but there I just cut the head of the screw off. HTH Bob

[Dan Eckstein]

Thanks everyone for the comments.  I believe I am going to do the installation myself.  I do have a question,

What carpet pile is commonly purchased (plush, 80-20, nylon loop, etc...) or originally found in a 59 Cadillac?

[Dan Eckstein]

What carpet companies have you had good experience with?