body and interior Fitting carpet around pedals

[stricht8]

I've been working on sewing a carpet set now on and off for a bit over a year- yes many other projects interrupted me! 

I'm now working on the drivers side floor piece and cannot figure out how to fit the slots in the carpet over all three pedals! It seems like I might have to remove a pedal in order to accomplish this! Any ideas,

[John_in_VA]

There should be 3 slits in the carpet piece for the pedals to pass through.

Photo courtesy of esty:

[stricht8]

Yes but I'm unable to pass all three slits over the pedals. That's my issue.

[Hans]

I vaguely recall wresting the carpet over the pedals one at a time and by turning the carpet piece. It's been a while, but I don't recall removing pedals - other than gas.

[Hans]

I'd take a minute to use a rattle can of black paint on those pedals. 

[stricht8]

I tried rotating it different ways without any success! Perhaps I try again!

 

BTW, here is the passenger side done:

 

 

[nbcbird]

Use the pad for the pedal box as a template. The slots in the pad are long enough to allow the carpet to slip over the pedals (by carefully rotating a little). 

[stricht8]

Perhaps I didn't cut the slots long enough. I will try again!

[Grover]

Obviously the throttle pedal needs to come off, but the other two are fine staying on. When installing, I believe I rotated the carpet clockwise a bit and then just fed through one at a time. I used the rubber sound deadener from the pedal box as a template for the position and shape of the slots if I recall correctly. Then I transferred this pattern to a scrap piece of carpet, did a test fit, and finally transferred that onto the wool carpet.

 

[stricht8]

I finally got it to fit over the pedals. My slits were not long enough so I lengthened them. 

 

Grover, I forgot how nice your carpet looks!!

[stricht8]

The worst is over! Inspired by Grover, I trimmed the pedal slits.

[Grover]

It's tough to trim holes that tight. I've subsequently discovered another method that I like much better. While I've not done it for pedal openings, I don't see why it couldn't work. I used it on a couple of elements for some interior work I did on a friend's Alfa, here you can see it around the battery cut-off switch. Drop me a note if you're interested and I can help describe how it's done. 

 

[stricht8]

Wow that looks amazing! Yes please tell me how it's done as I really struggled with this. The problem was when I made the second pass (sewing in the ditch) the stitches missed the vinyl around the bends. I had to put those stitches in by hand!