ACC Carpet With Fold Down Seat Carpet Original-Style Molded Set Mustang Fastback 1965-1968

Today, we're going to be installing some mass back ACC carpet in our 1967 Mustang convertible. ACC has carpets available for all '64 through current Mustangs as well as trunk mats and floor mats as well. The ACC carpets are available in two different backings, the mass back which we'll be installing in our '67 convertible as the original nylon backing. Both the mass back and the nylon backing both have the original jute backing on them. The main benefits of the mass back are going to be form and fitment. The carpet is much more rigid than the original, so it's going to fit your vehicle much better. The rubber also adds sound deadening to it so not only are you going to quieter ride, you're going to have a better fitting product overall.

All of ACC's carpets are going to come with this built-in rubber mat which is going to cover the common wear spots in your vehicle. Your '64-'73 carpet's going to be available in the original loop or in a modern cut pile while your '79s and up will come in the cut pile which will be original for those vehicles.

For this installation, you'll need a jack and jack stands, razor blades, lots of razor blades, Phillips head screwdriver, flathead screwdriver, 3/32" Allen key, 3/8" drive ratchet, 1/2" socket, 3/8" socket, a punch or awl, a small flashlight, a scraper, a brush, some sort of vacuum, and your choice of energy drink because you're going to be here for a while.

We put our '67 up on the lift to begin to the installation. You might be wondering why we're underneath the car when we're installing carpet. The first step is to remove the seats which requires you to access the nuts which are underneath the car. Step one, is to remove the grommets to get to the nuts themselves. The grommet can be removed by simply pushing down on the end with a screwdriver and then pulling the grommet away. Once you remove the grommets, now you're going to remove the nuts themselves from the seat. The original nuts they're going to be half-inch size. They're fairly far up there, so you may want to grab a flashlight so you can line up your socket.

Once you get your car back on the ground you can now remove the seats. Simply pull up and put them aside for later. Now you can remove the bottom cushion of your backseat, putting your hand underneath the seat and simply pulling up and out. Now you want to remove the nine, or in our case six, screws that hold in the original door sill plate to access the edge of the carpet. Now you want to remove the two screws that hold in your kick panels. Remove the screws and the kick panel will slide out. Now you need to remove your shifter bezel. In the case of our three-speed car, you simply pull up on the chrome bezel to release it. Once you remove the bezel, you can leave the rubber boot in the car. It does not have to be removed to remove your front carpet. The last part you need to remove to remove your carpet is going to be the seat belt bolts. Usually, the tightest bolts on the car, these can be very difficult to remove. I suggest using a breaker bar and a 13/16" socket. Once you remove the seat belts, we can now remove our old grungy carpet to make way for our new mass back carpet.

Once you remove the carpet, you'll want to grab a vacuum of some sort and clean the surface before you decide whether you're going to use the original auto laminate or upgrade to Dynamat. Before you throw your old carpet out, you want to keep it because you can use it as a template for your new carpet. You can see we have our new mass back carpet laid out on the floor here. You can see how rigid it is. It's already formed to fit your floor. To use the original carpet, simply lay it over it, it'll give you a ballpark idea where things such as your shifter are going to go. If you have an after market shifter, this is very important because a lot of times it's not in the same spot. You can use your razor to make a small X approximately where your shifter's going to go. You'll cut this out fully later. You'll want to use the original carpet as a template to tuck cut both the front and the back piece for proper fitment. Remember the old adage, measure twice, cut once. Make sure you don't take too much off. You may have to remove the carpet multiple times to make sure that it's trimmed properly before final installation. Now we're finished trimming we are ready to install our carpet.

Now that we've used the original carpet as a template to cut our new carpet, we were able to rough fit it into the vehicle. We cut the firewall first in the front to make sure the carpet slides forward enough that it fits down in the wells. The mass back carpet is molded so it will fit into the front and rear seat wells properly. At this point, we can drill holes for our seat platform as well as our seat belt holes. The seat belt bolts on the tunnel are a good place to start because it'll anchor the carpet for you when you're doing the installation. To find the hole, you need to go underneath the vehicle or you can just press down until you feel the indentation where the bolt would go. Once you find that, use some sort of an awl, press in, and now you have a spot to cut around. Once you have the location, use your razor blade to cut a small incision where the hole's going to be. You're not going to be able to cut a round hole, so just cut a small square around where the hole is. Once you cleaned out the hole, you'll have to deal with jute backing behind the carpet. Using your finger after you cut it, you're going to move your finger back and forth to move the backing out of the way and also to locate the hole for your bolt. At this point, you can mount the seat belt. Make sure you put the seat belt in the proper way, now you reinstall your seat belt with the supplied washer.

Now you want to repeat the process with the rocker side of the seat belts. These are a little bit easier because you can see it. You want to make sure you keep the corners of the carpet pressed down sharp in the corner. You can actually fold back the carpet and locate where the bolt hole goes, then put your awl through to mark the spot before you cut it. Once you've cut out the hole to remove the backing, now you can install the outside seat belt.

Now we're going to cut our holes to mount our seats. The front seat holes are going to be in the front piece of carpet where the rears are going to be in the rear, it actually helps to hold the carpet together. You want to make sure when you cut these holes that the carpet is tight on the trans tunnel as well as tight in the corner. If not, you'll get a fold here when you go to put the seat in. You want to hold it down. You can actually pick the seat up and get an idea where the hole is. Hold your thumb over it and insert your tool. At this point, I suggest grabbing some sort of a screwdriver, use that to hold your place for the inside that way you know the carpet's set on the inside when you go to cut your hole. The outside hole gets cut in the same way. You can flip it up, see where the hole is, and then you're going to use your awl to mark the spot before you cut it. You want to trim away any excess, make sure the nylon doesn't get stuck in the threads, and your seat holes are finished.

ACC provides this grommet for your dimmer switch to make it easier to mount the dimmer switch. We precut a hole using our original carpet as a template for approximately where the dimmer switch goes, but we'll trim it out to fit the supplied grommet. Now we're going to pull the carpet back to install the grommet.

The next step will be to fit your carpet underneath your quarter trim panels. The original nylon carpet it can slide underneath the panel and doesn't require removal. Due to the thickness of our mass back, we're going to have to remove the quarter trim panels to get the carpet in place and trim it around them. First step in removing the quarter trim panels is to remove the back seat by accessing the two bolts on the bottom. Once you remove the bolts, you lift the seat up and it'll pop out. Next step is to remove your window crank by accessing your retaining screw underneath. Loosen the screw and you can slide the handle off. Next step is to remove the wind lace by prying up the bottom and pulling it upward towards the top. The wind lace is just press fit, so it'll just slide off. The last step to removing the quarter trim panel is to remove the three screws located here, here, and while a little bit harder to see behind the convertible top here. These two are easy to access. The top one can be accessed by simply lifting up the convertible top and putting your screwdriver through. You can now lift the panel out and up to remove it. The panels in your coupe will remove in a similar fashion. They're a little bit larger but they're held on by the same style screws. After you've repeated the process to remove the quarter trim panel on the opposite side, you want to cut the carpet to fit underneath the panel.

You want to make sure the carpet is pressed tightly into the corner against the brace against the door post. You then want to trim it so the carpet can lay back further. Basically, you're going to follow the line straight down on the post so the carpet can go next to it. Do the same thing on the outside here so the carpet will lay flat. The flap will be covered by the quarter trim panel. That's all you have to do to make fit on this side.

Once you've completed the cut out on the other side, you're ready for your final trim out which is going to be the door sill area. You fold the carpet back you can see the holes where your door sill plate mounts. You want to make sure the carpet goes over them and goes right up to the seam so you get proper coverage and the carpet doesn't pull back when you put the door sill plates in. Again, you want to make sure the carpet is tight against it, and you can begin the trim. See, nice and tight and flush against your seam. This section of carpet will have three holes for the door sill plate screws. You want to line up approximately where the hole is, just put a little hole in the carpet to make it easier for the screw to go through on reassembly. You want to install the front carpet the same way you did the rear. You want to make sure that everything is tight down below, push up against the rocker and cut off the excess at the seam. You don't have to worry about much excess in the corner here because it will be covered by your kick panel.

Last step is to trim out for your shifter bezel. Once you're finished trimming the door sill plate section, you're ready to put the interior back together. You want to do it in the opposite direction of how you took it apart starting with the quarter trim panels, back seat, kick panels, door sill plates, and finally reattaching the seats. Once you bolt your seats back in place your installation is now finished. The installation time will vary. You want to make sure you take your time because you want to get the cuts right the first time. Give yourself the better part of an afternoon to install your carpet before you're back on the road.