Curse of the Brown Carpet

Alfa8486 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-08-2005, 07:01 PM

I've checked with the major suppliers to no avail so thought I'd see if you guys had any suggestions on our carpet dilemma.

Our '84 Veloce is due back soon from the body shop (read that as sometime in the next century) and I'm keeping myself occupied getting all the interior parts cleaned, polished and painted in anticipation of a refurbishment. I got very, very lucky and found an original one-piece, molded interior carpet for the main compartment in the original two-tone brown/tan loop. On the downside, the rear parcel shelf and back wrap-around carpet wasn't available. After 20+ years, those original parts have long since faded (photo attached). I'm considering a dye job to bring the color back or, alternatively, finding a "pretty close" piece of commercial carpet to template, cut and bind for those pieces.

If you know of any potential sources for this carpet, I'd sure appreciate your recommendations. I'd like to keep her as stock as possible (which kind of left out trashing all the brown and going with a single tone loop or converting everything to black).

Oh, and if you're wondering what was under the original carpet when I pulled it out... Let's just say that Fred Flintstone would have been right at home in this baby!

**sprintgtc** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 10:26 AM

Dave,
I've been refreshing the interior of my 84 Spider over the last month or so. I didn't get as lucky as you did by finding a NOS floor piece. I went to a company here in Seattle that sells a huge selection of wholesale auto upholstry supplies. After looking through all the carpet sample books I could not fine a loop carpet that matched. I settled for a Mercedes carpet in a "cognac" color. It is very nice but has more yellow in it than the original. I guess what I'm saying is you probably won't find matching carpet by the yard. You may not want to dye the carpet either as I think you will lose the two-tone effect.

Perhaps the best solution is to throughly clean the back panel and shelf carpets and see how they look.

AlfaRomeo1750 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 09:28 PM

Hey Dave,

Greetings from Lansdale,

I have seen your original carpet piece and it is in pretty good shape. What do you have to lose by dying it.... honestly give it a try and see how it comes out. The worst that can happen is you are not happy with the result where by you end up using it as a template any way. I can show you a way to make the dye have a two tone effect that is as close to original as possible. So my vote is to give it a shot, then if it really does not meet your expectations, try to find something else....

Sincerely
Your Friend in Alfa Romeo
Martin.

71 Spider Veloce
81 GTV6 (almost done)
87 Quadrifoglio
93 164 S

Alfa8486 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-11-2005, 05:03 AM

Dave, thanks for the tip on the Mercedes cognac color. I'll keep that in mind if no luck. I have found a couple of "close" two-tone loop commercial carpets that are a fall back position as well.

Martin, I got brave and tried a sponged-on RIT cocoa brown dye on a panel. It looks only okay and it turned out with a more of a reddish cast than a brown. The good news is that the two-tone of the original carpet absorbs the color differently so the shading still remains. There's a darker chocolate brown dye I'm going to try this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

Davy13 · #5 (**permalink**) 08-11-2005, 07:26 AM

Hi Dave... I have the same carpet, but mine was severely faded. I pressure washed it to get all the grime and coffee stains off, then I got the RIT Black dye. The result was a real nice shade of brown. I had hoped for black, but I don't hate this enough to not use it.