I did the front deck, bottom, and the back first. I took a sharpie and drew arrows on the backing of the carpet every so often to keep the grain running the same. I found it very helpful to mark the underside of my lids with an arrow pointing towards the front, so i knew to match up the arrows to keep the grain right. Try and tear up the existing carpet in one piece so you'll have a pattern to go by.

You are going to have waste, it's just the nature of the beast. I did have some scraps that were used to do a couple of the smaller lids such as cooler lid, and the two livewell lids.

The hard part is the prep, the laying of the carpet is the easier part.

Don't shortcut the prep work, makes a better end result.