SP250 Carpet Fitting

[wadams]

Hi
Any advice, tips and/or tricks for fitting new carpets to SP250 please?

Many thanks

Wayne

[Sydsmith]

Hi Wayne. My SP is fitted with what appear to be custom made copy carpets. They are very poor quality, sadly I don't know who is to blame except the previous owner. They were quite new when I got the car, a cheap set to make it look better. Not at all worthy of a Daimler.

Main tip I would say is don't buy blind, check the quality you are getting, both of the carpet and the workmanship in making them up. Buy the very best you can afford, poor carpets do detract from a cars finish and as I know they are not nice to live with.

If you are really brave, buy an industrial sewing machine on fleabay, carpet from a local supplier so you know the colour and quality, buy the edging on line then sell the machine, which is what I intend to do when I get round to it.
Hope that helps. Syd from Aberystwyth.

[Vortex O'Plinth]

If you want to retain originality there's quite a lot of work to do, and almost all pieces of the carpet are bound on at least one edge. You can of course buy complete - and expensive - sets. Two suppliers who can supply reasonable quality carpet sets are Aldridge Trimming.....

...and Bryan Purves....

The two are slightly different but the pictures may help you to make sure you don't forget anything if doing it yourself (like the seat backs for instance ).

[rogerharrop]

I've just fitted new ones from Bryan Purves - superb. Go and see him first to select colour and get good advice!

Roger

[Kbeal]

And don't forget that the 'A' spec carpets are different - no cut outs in the footwell carpets for the scuttle hoop and no carpeting on the seat backs
Kevin

[Fossil]

Wayne

I have also retrimmed my SP using a carpet set from Bryan Purves in addition to all the other upholstery, with the exception of the front seats which I obtained from Newton Commercial in Norfolk. Bryan is very obliging and will adjust pieces for you if required, for example I've fitted a Jaguar V8250 manual gearbox and had to revise the transmission cover; Bryan cut and restitched the carpet appropriately from measurements I supplied.

My only other advice might not apply to you: it regards carpet colour. My SP is BRG and came with beige upholstery and carpets. Although they looked nice when new the beige carpets rapidly gain dirty marks, everywhere, which are not always easy to eliminate. I decided to change the leather colour to tan when I did the retrim, which I think suits the SP well, and having seen a photo of an SP for sale in Oz with dark green carpets, I opted to do that too. Bryan's dark green carpeting is a close match to the BRG coachwork and looks superb.

Dark colours seem to suit the SP well, and I think the same applies to carpeting, most SP interiors look better with dark carpet colours, in my opinion of course!

Regards

Fossil

[Vortex O'Plinth]

......Dark colours seem to suit the SP well, and I think the same applies to carpeting, most SP interiors look better with dark carpet colours, in my opinion of course!

I agree. When I had my car retrimmed I went for a cream colour to complement the dark blue bodywork and chose a blue carpet rather than a matching cream....

The blue certainly shows the dirt far less than lighter colours but there is a disadvantage. Most of my SP motoring is on fine summer days with the top down, and I frequent quite a few car shows during the season. The blue on the transmission tunnel, and to some extent the seat backs, has faded quite badly from the bleaching effect of the sun. The rest of the carpeting is less exposed to sunlight and remains in very good condition. I fear a retrim of the transmission tunnel will be needed before showing it off again.

[Flinty]

Nick. I love your colour combination.
Steve.

[Vortex O'Plinth]

Nick. I love your colour combination.
Steve.

Thank you Steve. To take this thread slightly off topic, Dark Blue was the original colour of the car and the trim was a rather darker cream called 'Biscuit'.I can't now remember the original colour of the carpet but early on I replaced them in black. My personal opinion is that the darker colours suit the SP particularly well, but they do require the bodywork to be perfect as they really highlight any imperfections - sometimes a problem with glassfibre. When I bought the car (47 years ago) the seats and trim were quite tired and I decided to paint them a lighter cream - that to my eye seemed an improvement - so when the time came for restoration I stuck with the theme.

The car does always get a lot of attention at shows - people initially attracted by the bling of the chrome wire wheels - but the colour scheme does garner a lot of compliments. When making a decision on colour scheme, the colour wheel can be a good guide to the effect you want to achieve....

Selecting colours from opposite sides of the wheel will give a complementary combination - red/green for example - and choosing a bold colour on one side and a lighter one from the other side adds contrast as well. Hence my colour choice.

To come back to the topic, choosing a third colour for carpeting usually detracts from the overall effect and a choice of either body or trim colour is a good idea - with the dark colour more practical for obvious reasons.