ANY ADVICE ON CARPET

I wouldn't get your hopes up with the mass-backed carpet. I ordered a set for a '68 convertible directly from ACC a couple years ago. Paid close to $300 with shipping. Could see right through the carpet to the backing. Extremely disappointed.

I have heard good things about the new "Raylon" material, but have not had an opportunity to install a set.

Wish I had more to help!

My suggestion based on experiances we had during the restoration of my car is to have an upholstery shop supply the carpet and provide the installation, I think that would be the best.

It doesn't matter is an upholstry shop installs the carpet or not. its not molded right. If the carpet is not in the mold long enough you have wrinkles. the only thing an upholstry shop can do make non molded carpet. I would go track down some maslen carpet. they have been out of business since 82. Everyonce in a while it pops up, its not cheap by any means and the cheapest I have seen it is right around $1000

With so many Mustangs needing restoration and freshening up, I can't believe that we can't find consistent good quality carpet. Certainly there is a demand. I also can't believe the quality of reproduction parts (like Nordan bumpers) can actually get worse over the years instead of better.

I will begin this by saying that there seems to be no carpet available, no matter the price, that has the fit and look and durability of the original Ford Motor Company carpet that was installed in our Mustangs many years ago. So if you base your judgement on original quality then you will be unhappy. The normal ACC carpet is awful in my opinion and unacceptable for use in a car that you care about. It suffers from some or all of the following: poorly molded, cut too short in places, turns to fuzz as soon as it is installed, and is not very "colorfast" (changes color due to sunlight). The Raylon used now may overcome some of these problems and I hope that they have addressed other issues as well. That said, I have had good results with the massbacked carpet, as least when compared to the normal product. The mass backed is three times as heavy, the backing will not let moisture pass through to the floor, and it is heavy enough that when molded it holds its shape and fits the car very well. It comes in a much larger box because it cannot be smashed into such a tiny container, and is normally made to order rather than being smashed in a tiny box for, in some cases months, waiting to be sold. This wadding up and storage can really put in some bends and wrinkels that can hardly be removed even if the darn carpet was great to begin with. As far as the cost and availability, Virginia Mustang may be the only place where you can order the mass backed for a reasonable price, and most parts houses simply will not talk to you about the mass backed because they are unaware of it. I think that you can purchase the mass backed from

VA Mustang for about $50.00 over the cost of the regular carpet, which is far less than it costs going directly through ACC. Other places may also be able to get the product for you, just not sure who they may be. So compared to the noral ACC product the mass backed is great. Of the available choices I find it to be the best. If you search the old posts on here you may find a rather interesting post by Rich Schmidt from NPD outlining the good and bad points of the major carpet suppliers and why NPD carries the ACC line. Other brands do have some rather obvious problems. Remember, I do not sell parts or have any investment in any of the vendors, just wanted to give you the benefit of one persons experience with carpet. Good luck with whatever you choose. Again, no present day carpet seems to me to be as good as they once were, and certainly fall short of the quality that Ford used in the first place.

Last one I installed was the mass back. The loops and carpet itself is the same - just a think layer of "rubber" or similar material added to the back - fit was fine (no way could I see through the extra 10-20 lbs of liner. This was a couple of years ago. And last year purchased another one for my Cougar I've yet to install

More recent standard carpet I've seen was this week and every row in of loops was very crooked. The rows angled off (from drivers to passengers side) maybe 1/2-3/4" every two foot. Only good thing was the rear section was the same crappy angle. Workers must just toss a section in the press and it lays however it lands - once heated then they trim it.

I wonder why such a large community of (Mustang) people having the same results and comments about carpet in general that someone doesn't recognise this and try to make better quality and better fitting stuff-I personally don't think its practical to pay $1k plus for carpet-(mine is done mind you) but there are thousands of cars (Mustangs included) being built each year and I have got to believe that all the other folks are having the same issues too.

I don't get it either. This has to be a multi million dolar business. I imagine that at some point greed trumps quality.

My restorer originally tried ACC carpet in my '65 Convertible, it was so bad he litterally jerked it out and went with TRIM PARTS set which was much better but not perfect, I think with some coaxing the Trim Parts folks who claim to make their carpet in the great state of Ohio could make a better fitting carpet set, I have no problem with the quality of their carpet.