The Work Has Begun!!!

[mlsa]

Well, the work has begun on the carpet replacement. Took me about 2 hours to take all the lids off and another 2 to get the carpet off the boat and another 2 just working on getting the glue off the boat. Still not finished getting glue off boat.

I figure another full day to get the carpet off the lids and to finish cleaning all the glue off of everything. May take a little longer. We'll see.

Hopefully carpet will be in this weekend and I can start putting new carpet down Monday weather permitting. I marked all lids and carpet taken off with arrows pointing to the front of the boat so that I can lay it all on the carpet in the same direction.

My carpet was stained really bad and beginning to rot as you can see several tears.

Here's the before and when I'm through I'll post the after:








Modified by mlsa at 12:00 PM 3/24/2012

[ShawnD]

Great, sticking with the same color?

[mlsa]

No...going with Gunmetal Gray. I would like to have had a darker gray but for the price I'm pleased. I had never noticed before but when I took the lids off I saw that the inside of the rod box and storage box had black carpet.

The pictures makes the carpet look like it's a light gray but it's a light tan color.

I'm assuming someone had put this carpet on the boat years ago...but it was way too light for me...shows up anything on it. Hopefully the Gunmetal Gray will not show stains quite as bad.

[mlsa]

Thought I would give an update on my carpet replacement. The carpet came in late Saturday evening. Looks good. I bought it from someone on ebay...20oz....27' of it.

I started this morning stripping the lids of carpet and glue and then putting the new carpet on. I'm doing one at a time. I got 5 out of 8 done and it started sprinkling. I brought the carpet in to keep it from getting wet. I don't have room in my garage to roll the carpet out and cut the other pieces so I'll have to play it by ear on when I get to work on it again. Suppose to be 100% heavy downpours tomorrow. Oh well...I'm in no hurry...I'm retired now so I promised myself I wouldn't get in any hurry for anything.

The lids turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. The corners turned out pretty good so I'm pleased. I was too busy to take pics but I did everything just like all the other pics here so nothing different. I will post pics of the finished product when I'm through.

I WOULD NOT WANT TO DO THIS FOR A LIVING.

[PRKRANGER2]

I agree i would not want to do this for a living. I would have finished mine but the rain also.

[mlsa]

Well, the work is done thank goodness. Lots of work but I think it was well worth it.

Here are some of the things I learned while doing this job.

Cost if dealer recarpeted: $1500-$2000 (Those quotes are just some I got off some boat forums) My cost: $250.00. That more than made up for all the hard work.

I got the carpet from ebay from BoatCarpetSales. 20 oz…..27’ long x 7’ wide. Cost $168.00 including shipping. Carpet was very nice. Charcol Gray was the color name. Took about 4 days to arrive at my house.

I used 2 gallons of acetone, 1 gallon of contact cement for the lids and front and rear decks (needed 1 cup more contact cement to install a 2’ piece of carpet 6” wide…I just glued the remainder with outdoor carpet glue. I used ½ gal of outdoor carpet glue for the floor of the boat and under the console.

I ended up having approximately 10 yards of carpet left over so the 17’ would have been close…my neighbor wanted to buy it from me but he helped me put all the lids back on so I gave him the carpet.

Spray bottles for the acetone did not work well for me. It may have been because I was using cheap spray bottles but they quit working after a few squirts. I eventually used a 2” paint brush and just brushed the acetone onto the carpet and it worked great.

I taped off the edges of the boat where the carpet was going to go to prevent getting glue on it but I got glue other places and had to use acetone get it off. I’m the same way with paint…I get it everywhere.

It took around 35 hours for me to strip everything off, remove the glue and install the new carpet and put the lids back on. My neighbor did help me install two pieces of the larger carpet on the deck and all the lids. Other than that it was all by myself.

Oh yea….I had to shave every lid so that I could open them….they were so tight I had to use a large screw driver to pry them open…they are still tight but I can at least open them now.

I bought all new SS screws approximately ¼” longer than the ones that was on it…it sure made it easier to get a nut on it.

It’s not a perfect job but looks so much better than the old carpet.



Just noticed I don’t have the right livewell lid completely down.

[m.t.hands]

looks good

[mxmike]

Looks really good!

I've done several re carpet jobs over the years. The most important thing I learned is one every 5-7 years is enough.

[racefan]

that look great nice job

[keefus]

nice job

[Big Bass Man]

Nice work!!

[jkk]

Good Luck

[javelin90]

m. t.
im sent

[twitch]

great job on the rug just finished mine also see my post ,my lids are tight but not shaving them just gonna let them wear in so they don't get loose on me....