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Topic: Carpets (Read 1539 times) previous topic - next topic

Carpets

The Carpets are a two piece set.

They were available in a number of colours:
  • Black
  • Grey
  • Blue
  • Brown
  • Tan

Depending on spec, trim level and upholstery code.

The rear part goes over the base of the rear bench and under the front seats and includes the handbrake cut out.

Early


Late


The front part overlaps the front beams in the floor pan for the seat centre bolt location. Provides the front foot wells and up the bulkhead under the dash. It included the gear selector cut out.

Early


Late


The two parts overlap together under the front seat

Early


Late


Note the differences.

Earlier car for Chassis 191 & 192 (up to late 1988 TBC) the handbrake lever is different from those with Chassis designation 1G
Earlier cars had better quality, thicker carpets than later cars
LHD and RHD carpets, for the front part at least, are different for obvious reasons

Although
3 and 5 door carpets are interchangeable as the carpet doesn't go all the way into the door opening and isn't affected by the door pillar.
Jetta and Golf Carpets are interchangeable assuming they are the same early/late handbrake configuration.


Because of the position of the handbrake early and late carpets are not interchangeable. The Handbrake on a later car has a plastic surround which fixes to the floor and covers the cut out in the carpet. This is further back from early cars. If later spec carpets are fitted in early cars there is a large area of bare metal that is not covered as the early cars did not have the same handbrake surround.



In the boot Base:
Early GTI and higher spec cars had carpet on the rear turrets and back of the rear bench seat upright. Later cars had foam on the turrets and hardboard type back on the rear of the seat.

Early GTI boot carpets are a desirable upgrade for later and/or poverty spec cars.

Early GTI boot:


The boot floor is carpeted, a flat carpet was fitted when the standard space saver was used. A full size spare wheel was an optional extra, this meant the car was supplied with a shaped carpet as the full size wheel protruded out of the wheel well.

There are no carpets or coverings over the rear light clusters or rear lower panel. However Newton Commercials do an aftermarket boot trim kit which by all accounts is a good OEM quality solution to finish what VW didn’t quite manage to complete.


Late spec carpets are also a lot less 'woolly' than early spec. The pile is very tight and flat and the carpet is quite thin:


It's not obvious if this was just a cost cutting exercise or maybe done for weight saving, as the later had safety bars in the doors which would have added a bit of weight.

The rear of the back seat was no longer carpeted and the rear turrets in the boot were just covered with a thin 'foam' rather than carpet.



It's been brought to my attention, (Thanks Rich) that the South African cars are worth a mention.

These are also RHD cars, and the carpet has a much thicker pile, more like "carpet" and has a rubber embossed VW logo on the rhd kick plate.

There are also some one piece versions.



Re: Carpets

Reply #1 –
Just in case anyone was wondering, this is what happens when you fit a late spec carpet in an early car:



Picture taken from a Facebook post where someone was innocently asking if there was supposed to be a trim bit to cover this. They were a bit gutted with the answer that they have purchased and fitted the wrong spec one.