Driver's side carpet & seat before replacement.

22 years of wear, sun damage, and sliding butts have not been kind to the interior. Besides, we thought it was an ugly color to begin with, so it's getting the axe.

Passenger side before replacement.

This side looks just as bad.

The rear cargo area.

The sun had badly faded the carpet in the back and also made it very brittle and fragile.

Another view of the rear.

It was difficult getting the old carpet out in one piece. It's easy to tear and I wanted to keep it intact to use as a template on the new stuff.

Here's the cargo area after the old carpet was removed.

I decided to leave the existing sound deadener/insulation in place.

Reflectix brand foil backed insulation and aluminum tape was used throughout the car underneath the new carpet.

This product is about 5/16" thick and provides excellent protection from cabin heat as well as cutting down on road noise.

Here is the passenger side after the Reflectix went down.

A single 25' roll was enough to do the entire car.

The cargo area after insulation installation.

The Reflectix is very easy to mold and shape and stays mostly where you put it; but I still used 3M Spray Adhesive in certain areas to hold it in place - particularly on the wheel wells and up the back wall.

I insulated most of the storage compartment too.

This really helped quiet the sound of my "whining" differential. Because of the foil backing, I didn't put any of it near the battery terminals.

The new stuff goes in! Rather than staying with the original Charcoal color, we opted for something a bit different - Slate Gray.

This was actually my wife's idea, and I think she nailed it. The Slate (a 1982 model year color) looks great and it should help keep the cabin cooler in our summer heat.

Here's the driver's side after the console side panels were installed.

It's not too apparent from this picture, but I replaced the center console trim plate and gauge cluster bezel during this project also.

Another shot of the driver's side after cutting out holes for the seat bolts.

The passenger side. Hardly any trimming was required.

The passenger side carpet completed.

This carpet set was purchased through Eckler's but it's actually made by ACC (Auto Custom Carpets). Most carpet purchased from the major Corvette supply companies comes from them, and the quality is excellent.

The finished cargo area.

I was initially going to paint the storage compartment door frames and trim, as well as the seat shells, to match the carpet. After giving it some thought though, I decided I liked the contrast and left them Charcoal. The speaker grilles are unchanged too. It looked like trouble to remove the old carpet - and since I always use the parcel shade - the speakers can't be seen anyway.

Seat back after removal of old carpet.

The seats were the hardest part of the entire project, with the back shells providing most of the aggravation. The carpet on the back was attatched with both staples and the glue from hell. It took about an hour's worth of pulling, prying and scraping on each one before the residue was gone.

I purchased seat covers already pre-mounted on new foam. The bottoms installed pretty easily; the backs were another story.

The theory: Ready to snap into place! No Hassles! No Headaches! The reality (for me anyway): Impossible to snap! Nothing but hassles! Migranes!

The foam backs contain wire rods in 4 places . . .

That connect with 4 clips on the inside of the plastic seat back.

A close-up of one of the clips.

This is basically how it's supposed to work, with the rod snapping into the clip.

I say supposed to work, because no matter how much I pushed, pulled, poked, or prodded - by myself, or with a helper; by hand or with various tools - I couldn't make even one connection.

I hate to admit it, but sometimes you just have to turn the job over to "Bubba".

I figured I was screwed. The clips and wires simply did not line up and I couldn't see that they ever would; and since the seats had been sitting in my garage for more than a year, it was a little late to complain to the supplier. Fortunately (or miraculously), I somehow stumbled onto an unorthodox idea that actually solved the problem and is invisible to the naked eye.

The idea involved nylon cable ties and drilling holes.

The first thing I did was pry off the 2 lower clips inside the backs. Then 4 holes were drilled through the plastic in the spots where the clips were attatched. Notice that the holes are different sizes (3/16" and 3/8"). The bigger hole accomodates the "buckle" end of the cable tie. I didn't remove the upper clips and drill there because the holes would outside the area to be covered by the new carpet piece. Instead I placed 4 more holes toward the upper middle of the seat in line with a metal rod running horizontially through the foam.

Here the cable ties have been threaded through the wires before being run through the holes in the seat back.

A closer look at one corner. The cable ties are 15" long.

In this shot the ties have been pushed through the holes and cinched down.

This worked amazingly well. 6 ties secure each foam back to its seat shell. They are extremely strong; and with the carpet piece in place, completely invisible.

The finished product.

One of my early concerns was whether the addition of the Reflectix insulation would increase the overall thickness of the carpet to the extent that the OEM seat bolts would be too short. Not a problem - they were plenty long enough.

I really like the contrasting look of the silver and charcoal.

Here's how it looks from the passenger side.

At some point, I may try and dye the carpeting on the door panels silver to match, but for now I'm very satisfied with the way this job turned out.