Quote:
Originally Posted by rustED_
Nice looking 4runner! Interior turned out great, how did you get the carpet to follow the contour of your wheel wells so good, looks like it was pre-formed and made for it!
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Thank you!
The carpet was a bit difficult at first. I did the wheel wells separate. I mocked it up with a big piece of paper. I laid it on the top of the wheel well, smoothed it down the middle, about where the hook is to strap cargo down. Because this just has 1 90 degree angle, the paper could contour to both the top and side. This gave me basically a max width of what the paper would have to be. I trimmed a long strip of paper to be this width, and the length was a bit longer than the whole wheel well. Then, I laid it back on the top and side (in the middle again) and started forming towards the back of the wheel well, you keep the top edge of the paper butted up against the wall, and the Bottom of the paper butted up against the floor. As you make your way down the wheel well, you will get excess paper as the wheel well starts to angle down. Pinch the excess paper to ensure the paper is flat on the top and flat on the sides. Once you do this all the way down, and at the bottom, you should have the paper laying flat on all parts of the wheel well with excess hanging around. Make sure to make a hard crease where the excess. Then remove the paper and cut at your fold lines. You will have an interesting looking piece of paper, but it will form together to follow the whole contour of the wheel well.
To make things easier, I did the front and back of the wheel well on separate pieces of paper, but added the templates together when cutting out the carpet.then the template for the one side is just the opposite for the other side, so you only have to make a template for one side.
Test test test. Do a lot of tests and trimming where needed to ensure that the carpet is close after the first cut. You can always trim a little more when you are forming the carpet on the wheel well, so obviously leave a little extra everywhere just in case.
I then used some spray adhesive to keep it down. I'm actually quite happy about how it turned out, and even when close up, you can't see the seam along the curve of the wheel well.
Sorry if this makes no sense at all, pictures would probably help. I can take some pictures of the process if you would like. I am no professional, this was my first time laying carpet over contours, but it does look pretty good.