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I've decided to trim the Newton Commercial 'lightweight' carpet to size before I put much more on the car, so have laid it in place to take the shape a little first.

To be fair the colour matches well, though the texture differs of course.

I am now wondering about the best way to cut the holes for the dip switch (right in the middle of the webbing too) and the steering column, which will then need a slit too. I can feel where the holes will be needed so once it has settled I'll mark them up.

Any wise words out there?

Here's a direct comparison between old and new

Carpet can shrink once fitted, so I would not trim too much from the width otherwise you could end up with a gap by the sills over time.

For cutting the holes I would find a small, sharp pair of scissors, with sharp pointy ends for poking through. Failing that a small exacto knife.

Leather hollow hole punch up to about an inch. above that use a meatal hole cut like this
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203309953253 ... %3A2334524

This YouTube video shows heating a socket to burn a perfectly round hole in the carpet.

https://youtu.be/dpufNiXvQgU

Suggest that when the carpet is down and has been allowed to settle, you mark the column and started button hole from underneath the car, with chalk and then cut

Agree with Mr. Laidler. That is the technique I use also. Works wonderfully. Only works when the car is disassembled though.

Chris Miller

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

I used a scalpel on the underlay today - so some progress. Definitely some trimming required on the carpet, but only nipped a bit off at the arches so it can settle before I do more. All loose at the moment and it will have to be lifted for the subframe fitting etc. anyway. From looking at an old carpet, the foot switch will be right in the middle of the ribbon joiner.

Have ordered a cutter and tried the socket idea on an offcuts, but the melt didn't quite go to plan as this stuff from Newton melts rather easily!!

Nice
Hopefully soon I’ll be in such problems;)

Well thanks for the suggestion of the cutter peasantslife - it certainly did the trick including the middle of the trim, which now looks almost identical to an old green one I dug out from a long gone car... well maybe a bit fresher

Funnily enough it pushed the stitching through and didn't cut it, so I carefully glued the thread to the underside of the carpet to stop it fraying.

I cut the steering column 'slit' after the hole was made and it lined up perfectly. Huge sigh of relief on that score!

Looking good.

I too use a set of wad punches to do this sort of thing.

This sort of thing, only not identical.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BGS-566-Punche ... HOLE_PUNCH

Looks like a great set Mark, but I note their intended usage and wonder how good they'd be on the tough newton carpet? I was surprised at the pressure it took and nearly reverted to a circular board cutter, which I have to say also worked well in my experiments as it lightly melted the edge. The negative was in my first experiments I neglected to stop after starting the cut to remove the melted parts from the cutter. It bogged it down resulting in twisting not cutting when not cleaned.

I'll post some pics later

I used them on my red newton carpet in the white car with no traumas.

As a matter of (probably little.....) interest, I bought a set of various different diametr size round cutters from ALDI about 7 or so years ago. Cheap too for a pack of 5. Been using them in my pillar drill ever since, on rubber, neoprene, carpet, leather - no, not my bondage gear..... and pretty much anything else you can think about including felt helper spring oil soaked washer thinggies. That said, I always spray the cutter with silicon oil to prevent sticking and rucking the material being cut. Easy to re-grind too although I've only had to regrind one once.

They'd be perfect on carpets especially to cut the rounded corners perfectly. I'm sure that they'd whizzzz through Newton carpet too. Alas, like most thing from Aldi, what they have in stock is periodic so you've got to get it when it's in!

OK, here as promised are the results

The two on the right were cut using the stamps, and the one on the left was cut with the circular wood cut saw - as used for pipes etc. If you spin it into the carpet a little, clean the blade of the fluff, then spin a little faster... it ever so slightly melts the edge, hence the cleaner appearance.