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Need help fitting roundtail trunk mats

1K views 11 replies 2 participants last post by  Alfajay 
#1 · (Edited)
My '67 Duetto had many missing parts when I got it 40 years ago. Among the missing pieces were the three vertical mats that cover the sides and back of the trunk. I'm now doing some light restoration and just got the reproduction mat pieces to finish this area from Cincognani. But upon trial fitting these pieces I have a few questions on how they should be trimmed etc.. I'm hoping that someone whose Duetto still has its original mats can advise me. Here goes:

Questions about the mat that mounts ahead of the tail lights

- What is the width and depth of the notch necessary to allow the trunk latch to operate? The piece I received has no cut-out, so I'm not sure if I should match the cut-out on the sheet metal below the horizontal part of this mat, or if it should be less wide.



- Should darts be cut into the lower edge of this mat to allow it to follow the curve without wrinkling? If so, how many darts and at what spacing?

- This mat seems wider than necessary to cover the metal and tuck over/under the side mats. How wide is the overlap between the rear and side mats? Which mat goes over the other?



- How should the top of this mat be trimmed at the left and right outer sides?



Questions about the left and right side mats

- I was surprised that these mats extend over the wheel arch at the front; I had expected them to be cut at an angle to conform to the rear of the arch (where I have the yellow pencil in the photo below). How should they look at their fronts?



- Should darts be cut into the lower edges of these mats to allow it to follow the curve without wrinkling? If so, how many darts and at what spacing?



- How should the top of these mats be trimmed at the left and right rear sides?



Lotta questions! Thanks
 
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#3 ·
#2 ·
All of the mats will need to be trimmed. Those two on the sides will need to be cut to length and at the correct angle. The rippling you're seeing along the bottom is caused by the piece not being made correctly. My guess is that they are all cast flat when in fact the side pieces should have been cast with the curve in them. In other words, the mold should be curved and not flat.

The rear-most mat has a rectangular hole, with curved corners in it for the latching mechanism. Do you see anything on the back side of the mat to indicate where the hole should be cut? The ends will need to be trimmed to follow the contour of the back of the car. You'll also need to punch holes for the two snaps. Those holes appear to be about 16mm in diameter.

I encourage you to make some templates with all of the holes prior to doing anything with those rubber mats.
 

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#4 · (Edited)
All of the mats will need to be trimmed. Those two on the sides will need to be cut to length and at the correct angle.
Thanks! That's exactly what I needed to know.

The irony is that I had created some templates, planning to just cut mats out of generic, ribbed mat material (yea, I'm a cheapskate like that). But I was ordering other things from Cincognani, the trunk pieces weren't that expensive, so I said "what the heck, they'll fit better than my home-made mats". Looks like I got raw materials rather than a finished product.

The rippling you're seeing along the bottom is caused by the piece not being made correctly. My guess is that they are all cast flat when in fact the side pieces should have been cast with the curve in them.
Yes, they're pretty much flat. I can try heat to flatten the wrinkles, or just notch them.

The rear-most mat has a rectangular hole, with curved corners in it for the latching mechanism. Do you see anything on the back side of the mat to indicate where the hole should be cut?
No marks for the notch's size or location - that area is just smooth. Your picture is a little hard to resolve; about how wide is that hole?

The ends will need to be trimmed to follow the contour of the back of the car. You'll also need to punch holes for the two snaps. Those holes appear to be about 16mm in diameter.
Yes, I guess that should have been obvious. Still, your photo helps show me the final shape. There are smooth circles on the inside of the mats that indicate where the fasteners go and their locations line up with the holes in my sheetmetal.

I did buy a handful of the rubber fasteners from Classic Alfa. Can those fasteners be pulled out after installation, or are they one-time use only?

I encourage you to make some templates with all of the holes prior to doing anything with those rubber mats.
Yup! Lot of "measure twice, cut once".
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
I've also included a template for you. IT should be an 8.5x11 pdf file. If it doesn't print to size, I screwed something up. Let me know if you need anything else.
Wow, Thanks! I think I'm on my way now. I played with the pieces some more today, and after looking at your photos, can see a solution.

The pdf seems to print about 94% size - the two holes for the fasteners are 4-13/16" apart on the printed page while the hole spacing in my sheetmetal is 5-1/8". No problem - I can scale up the dimensions by 6.5%, which would make the hole ~ 3/4" wide X 1-5/8" long. Make sense?

Just to clarify: earlier you had written "You'll also need to punch holes for the two snaps. Those holes appear to be about 16mm in diameter". I think you meant 8 mm. I'll use a 5/16" hole punch for leather.
 
#10 ·
Jay, the rear(by the bulkhead) of the trunk floor mat is held in place by four of the plugs in your picture. There are two holes by each of the shock towers for those plugs. At the fold, where the mat becomes flat, again, there are three holes across the width. Each of those receives a plug. The front of the mat (by the rear most part of the trunk) has two snaps (called a socket). In order to use the snaps, there needs to be a corresponding snap (called a stud) on the trunk floor. You can see in my picture there is a small hole. That hole at one point had a screw in it to hold the stud in place.
 

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#12 ·
Brian:

OK, you solved two problems:

- Yes, now I see the need for the 16 mm holes. Again, since I didn't have the old, side pieces, I didn't realize that the snaps that secure the trunk floor mat also secure the bottoms of the side pieces. I just assumed that gravity held the bottoms in place.

- And yes, checking "Actual size" allowed your template to print actual size. The spacing between the two mounting holes now measures the correct 5-1/8". I never knew that feature existed - just assumed that pdf's printed actual size.

Thanks again

Jay
 
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