Shag

A genuine measure of Pile Depth, the RennSport style Carpet for the 993 has minimal Shag. Lightweight is the main aim, and with that comes the need for the lightweight Sound Deadening tackled in the previous Blog post “Inside Job“. The Carpet Kit I purchased was a Bargain, but in line with the idiom that there’s No Such Things as a Free Lunch, so it goes that There’s a Reason it’s a Bargain. Instructions. There were none. It was a bit of a Lay it Out and Work it Out. Sure, I searched the Internet [almost all of it], and found several posts, threads and How Tos, but before the Carpet could be installed, there was yet more preparation required..

OEM Porsche Carpet Treatment

There are a few pieces of Carpet in the 993 that have Plastic Backing, specifically around the Driver and Passenger Footwells; Pedal Backing Carpet, A Pillar Base Carpets and the Console Head Switch Housing section. Finding these pieces in Black at a reasonable price was difficult, I did succeed in one piece, but it was incomplete. I didn’t want to recover the plastic with sections from the RS style Carpet kit, so I decided to go my own way and use a Carpet Dye to colour the pieces I had from Midnight Blue to Black, thus involving me in the Build whilst also saving Moolah; Win Win.

 

They were pretty filthy, presumably from 25 Years of Not Being Washed with Auto Glym Shampoo..? After a good scrub or two, they came out pretty great, ready to take the Dye:

 

Again, using an Auto Glym product, their spray on Black Dye: conservative application so as not to soak, but enough as to penetrate:

 

Coupla passes; Sun Bake; Flip; Repeat:

Not. Bloody. Bad.

Repeat the process for the Centre Console Switch Housing. Next on the Prep List was

Wiring Loom Fixing & Shaping

The original Loom Fixings were shot; covered in old glue, old foam and old news in general. I could not find like-for-like so fashioned a similar mechanism from two pieces: a Cable Keep and a Screw Thread Rubber Cover. Remarkably effective once you had lost the skin on a few fingers and worked out that pushing the Keeps into place using anything other than your Fingers. Place some Duct Tape over the Loom to create “shape” rather than a “lump” and voila, we are good to go..

 

RS Lightweight Perlon Carpet Fitment

Laying out the Kit inside the 993 to see what went where was a good idea, as it was not entirely obvious [as you would think], and at one point it was even considered that the Wrong Kit had been received. The inside of a 993 [indeed most cars] is curved and moulded and contoured either to make way for Wheel Arches or accommodate a Bottom or two. This makes fitting anything that wants to be flat rather difficult and it soon became obvious that in order to follow these Curves, we’d need to cut relief curves into the Carpet and hopefully not at the expense of coverage.

 

The Centre Console Carpet piece, because of the sections needed for the Gear Shifter, Switch Housing and Lower Dash Frame, we cut clean in half lengthways. I am not sure how long fitting this piece would have taken otherwise, nor how much worse it would have looked for all the Cut It & See incisions we would have made. I can hear some of you shake your head and tsk, and I’ll admit that it wasn’t done this way back in 1994, but with the Leather Centre Console Tray etc. covering this section the End Result justified the Means; it looked great, and moreover didn’t take Hours [it took only one.. Maybe more..].

With the Wind in our Sails and a confidence that bending Installation Rules [which we didn’t have from the beginning anyways] meant we could Cut & Fit & Mosaic the Carpet in with ease, we set about the rest of the Kit. Laughing along the way because the it became increasingly valid hypothesis that the Carpet Kit we had was not for a 993. Nevertheless, we prevailed, and two cans of Contact Adhesive later, the Cabin was fast becoming a place you would want to be. And once the Glue Haze had been moved on from the Car by the Sea Breeze, the Cabin started to smell like a place you would want to be too. New Carpet. Carpet!

 

We started at 10am and started to pack up at 6.30pm, a solid 8 1/2 Hours of Toil without Lunch, stopping only for a Real Coca Cola and a Bag of Crisps, and a Coffee & Cake given to us by a local Septuagenarian around mid afternoon; Passers-By chatted and quizzed on What We Were Doing and Why; local Residents smiled and chattedrecognising the Hours we had and were still putting in. It was an inclusive and involved day, and I enjoyed [almost] every minute of it.

I have to especially thank my Girlfriend Hollie for giving up [not only this] Saturday to work on the Pig, putting up with my frustrated temperament, my ramblings as the full effect of Glue Intoxication kicked in, and my rather large Frame inside what felt like a Shrinking Space. She was amazing. She is amazing.

A few finishing touches to the Contact Spots, Seat Installation and CNC Gear Shifter Knob by Function First and the Cabin was done. It was emotional. I think I cried. Either that or the Glue Fumes caused my Eyes to Bleed. I don’t remember.

 

It was only the following day, Sunday, when we took the 993 out for a short drive that the impact of the Work we had done the day before hit home and could be really appreciated; could be felt, could be smelt, could be seen. It was a Sensory Experience, an Overload from the Stark Metallic Shell that was there before, from the Years of Neglect to the Year of Dedicated Attention. Sure it has cost a small [large] fortune to get her to this point, but as a friend once told me “the good thing about Money, is that you can earn it all over again”.

Next, a trip to Le Mans 24h..