New carpet kit from Vicks auto

[sergio1977]

Good day all, I need information regarding Vicks auto carpet kit for my Fiat, I never bought anything from Vicks auto in the past always use IAP. They have a great sale on carpet kit 50% off. Can anyone give me hint's on the quality of their service and there product. Does anyone bought those carpet kits in the past and if so how was the quality.
Thank you for the info and have great holidays.

[spidernut]

One of my cars had a tan carpet set that the prior owner said came from Vick's. It looks just like the one in the photos on their website. Here's my assessment of it.

Color - 9 out of 10 (looked great)
Fit - 7 out of 10 (panels were generally cut correctly, but the material was so thin even with the backing that it wouldn't stay in place. Note the piece near the accelerator pedal...this was installed correctly but didn't fit right)
Durability - 2 out of 10 (the sewn edging was coming out within months)
Carpet quality - 4 out of 10 (very thin and light weight and was showing signs of wear after months of light use)

Here's how it looked in the car....look for wrinkling in the carpet. This was caused by the carpet and backing being too thin to stay flat like the original carpeting.

[azruss]

I bought the carpet kit from Vicks. The quality was what I expected. My complaint was all the corners were rounded for sewing on the edge. This created fit issues where the underlayment was exposed because the carpet didnt fit tight into corners. Next time I will go in a different direction.

[4uall]

[4uall]

[DieselSpider]

I was told the carpet in mine came from IAP and its hard for me to imagine anything worse as far as quality. The photos of the Vics carpets look ultra plush compared to whats in mine. I would be tempted to glue it down however that would make replacing it that much harder afterwards. At least with the pile being so light and sparse its pretty easy to vacuum.

[sergio1977]

I am convinced; I will buy new carpet by the meter and make my own using the old ones as a template. This way I will get better quality.
Thank you all for your input it’s greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

[RRoller123]

And you can probably have a local upholsterer do the edging at a reasonable cost.

[sergio1977]

And you can probably have a local upholsterer do the edging at a reasonable cost.

You are absolutely right

[narfire]

I had the same type of carpet in my car initially. Lasted about a year or two before I got so frustrated with the shite I binned it. Looked great for pictures but regardless of the efforts to keep it in place the stuff just bunched up was just a PITA. Really thin material.
Went the carpet from a roll, cut the pattern from the old carpet and used a torch to sort of bind the edges and all is good now...better anyway.

[spidernut]

If you make your own carpet set, try this for the edging. I did it and it came out pretty nice on the first try and I've never sewn before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPLrzq9NMM

[RRoller123]

Fantastic!

[spidernut]

I had my prior car's carpeting bound by a carpeting installer - $1 per linear foot for the type in the video, or $2 per linear foot for the thread type edging....well worth it if you don't want to do it yourself.

[adrians]

I had purchased a carpet kit from Bruce's in 2009 - it lasted until 2013 ( minimal use ) and then started falling apart - carpet was very thin and the edging/piping torn away from the carpet.

When I went to a local upholster to have a new set made from a good quality carpet he told me not to use normal carpet.

Instead he suggested marine carpet which is UV stabilizer for expose to the sun on boats etc ... makes sense for a convertible.

So he sold me the length of carpet I needed, I cut out the pieces using the old carpet as a pattern and then he sowed the edging/piping and the heel rest on to the newly cut pieces.

The other great thing with the marine carpet is that you can heat the back of it with a heat gun and mold the carpet into the correct contours and shape around the floor pan.

[DieselSpider]

If you make your own carpet set, try this for the edging. I did it and it came out pretty nice on the first try and I've never sewn before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPLrzq9NMM

I have a Kenmore 10 stitch machine (parts behind the Kenmore label appear to be old school White Commercial/Light Industrial) that I have used for tents and carpets for years doing similar. Its still a power tool and nothing to be scared of.

I may just go this route when the time comes (get tired of straightening things out).

My Dad managed the production floor at Tire Rubber and Roll Company for over 40 years and showed us how they put carpet on boots, life rafts and surf floats. For years he was the manager in charge of putting out the Converse, Keds, Jeepers and JC Penny sneakers along with the NHL Hockey Pucks, Deep Sea Diving Suits, Naval Life Rafts, Military Parkers, May Wests (she even stopped by to take the factory tour), surgical tubing etc, etc. He also worked out the issues of making foldable and durable rubber overshoes that he put into reusable plaid bags for storage under the seat of your car. He had been using old zippered leather tobacco pouches to store tools under the front seats of all the family cars so when they were helping with the development and commercial application of Velcro it was a natural for use on a light weight pouch for the Totes Overshoes that you had to at times open/close in poor lighting and with cold wet hands. I still have a selection of the forged shears in various sizes and even an electric clipper for trimming carpet which someone mistook for a hair clipper and made quite an impression on someones ears trying to give them a haircut.

My daughters have taken over my sewing machine now however it has edge stitched quite a few carpets and upholstered a number of cars over the years.