Carpet Replacement First Time

[gul717]

I have finally decided to pull the trigger and replace the carpet on my 2008 Nitro. Years ago I spilled 1/2 bottle of bang attractant and it destroyed the glue and rubber backing on the front deck (I have been hiding it with a similar color truck floormat). Carpet is 20oz ordered from Bassboatseats.com. I have decided to use carpet adhesive for the deck and contact cement for edges and lids (don't trust myself with just cc for everything. For the adhesive I ordered AAT390(use to be Birdsong). Anyone who has used this could you let me know how it went good or bad and any advice for using it.

Old carpet was put down with contact cement and is coming right up. Should the fiberglass be scuffed up prior to laying the adhesive or should I be ok. Based on searches here I will be leaving the trim down and tucking carpet underneath.

[sushi520vx]

It dont need to be scuffed up, but you do need to get the old adhesive off which sounds like its coming off already. Take your time, make sure its warm enough for the adhesives to dry. I believe most require 65deg min.
As far as the edging, I ripped it up on both boats Ive done. Its cheap on amazon. BUT....make sure you get all the old adhesive off and do this on a warm day and roll the edging out in the sun so it can loose its memory.
The whole job is a PIA but its well worth it when its done.

[sushi520vx]

Another thing I wished I did, put blue painters tape just above where the carpet will be cut. If you use too much glue and gets on the gelcoat, this way its on the tape. It make the final cleanup easy.

[gul717]

I was think about masking. But forgot about asking seems like a good idea because I'm always making a mess when troweling anything.

[Pancho390]

One of the things I did was take all the lids off to strip them. I numberd all the lids on the inside so I would know where they went and drew a rough layout of the boat and made sure the numbers matched. Once all stripped I layed the lids back where they belong and drew arrows on the top all facing forward. I unrolled the carpet and drew arrows on the bottom of the carpet. That way you just match the direction of the arrows so you get the nap the correct direction. Good luck and take your time.

[JoePA]

All excellent advice from above posts. When I do a customer's boat, I do the same as above as well as I mark with tape and/or a sharpie where the screw holes are located on the boat as well as the lids. Also, I mark the hinges for location, direction as well as what side of the hinge is bolted to the lid and/or boat.