Lightweight s13 Carpet?

[a_ahmed]

So... this is ridiculous I know, but I start such ingenious unique threads all the time.

My current carpet is filthy as hell from oils and God knows what, I vacuumed it very good, so it's clean but the stains and such are not worth fighting for. Plus the grey s13 carpets are so damn ugly even clean/new.

I know there are some aftermarket black carpets (that look great!) for a hundred bux... and I could opt for that... but since I'm all about weight savings I thought...what's out there?

I am also going to be installing the braille battery/mount behind the passenger seat so either carpet goes anyways or that portion will be cut anyways.

I know it's a weird thread/question but who knows, maybe something's out there...a black carpet is sexy, but the carpet is like 20lbs if im not mistaken too... plus the unsuspecting ugly tar sound deadening...

I know I've seen something like this before... carbon fiber carpets (lmao) i think it was on some civic tuning forum... and they were suppose to be ultra thin and ultra lightweight... but strong and not loose..

Discuss.

[e1_griego]

really?

[McCoy]

Spray on bed liner... it comes in black

[a_ahmed]

Really

[veilside180sx]

Rip it out, or leave it. There is no in between.

[WilloW]

Dude, just yank it out, kill it with fire and be done with it.

[a_ahmed]

lol, peer pressure... alright you win. me = 0, nrr = 1

I'll do it probably next weekend... that **** is filthy ugly with the oil/grease stains... who knows I might discover some treasures underneath. Removing all the sound deadening under the carpet may be hell. Can't find that dry ice crap locally...

[McCoy]

check your local supermarkets... that's where I find mine at.

[racepar1]

If you are worried about weight, just rip it out. There is not really anything out there that can do what you want. One thing to keep in mind though is that the floor will get VERY hot under your feet. I have actually had mine burn my heel through my shoe before. If you do get an aftermarket carpet make sure that there is some sort of insulation between the bottom of the carpet and the floor. If there isn't it is very likely that it will melt the carpet.

[a_ahmed]

Was that while you had the cat in there or after you removed the cat? I always thought that heat under the seat would be coming from the cat?

[djsilver]

There's a bazillion companies selling aftermarket carpets for the 240sx in the US but they all come from the same carpet plant in Dalton, GA and they all suck for fit. I bought one made for my S13 and and later bought one for an S14 trying to fit something without the seatbelt reel pockets in the rear floorboard. I ended up trashing both of them out of frustration with the fit and quality. Right now I have a rather well worn JDM carpet that fits perfectly but has several holes in the wrong place! It's made of loop carpet and it's much better quality than the cut-pile USDM carpet, but it's no lighter. BTW, I also did extensive research but could not find a company in Canada making aftermarket carpets for the 240sx. Again, my motivation was to find an S13 carpet without the holes & humps for the US only passive seatbelts.

There's an Australian company that's selling two piece carpets for the 240sx made of loop carpet. He says he'll make them for LHD or RHD cars. It looks tempting but I haven't bit the hook yet....,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=360109692361

[a_ahmed]

Good info, I heard the fleabay stuff also doesn't fit that well... all of them kind of need trimming.

Well, I gotta say... all out black carpet is the only way to go... but I'm just going to scrap it all, paint interior black, worst case scenario get another black carpet and put back in... done. I'm getting another chassis down the line anyways.

[jmauld]

I would just get one of the cheap replacement carpets. They are likely to be less weight than the factory stuff due to lower quality carpet. If this is a daily driver, and you're concerned about noise, you probably don't want to remove it.

[racepar1]

Was that while you had the cat in there or after you removed the cat? I always thought that heat under the seat would be coming from the cat?

That's with the cat, but even with a test pipe it still gets hot enough to be uncomfortable. Since I plan on running redline time attack events in street class regularly I now have to run a cat. By then end of the session at the last event at buttonwillow the heat was almost un-bearable and was distracting me a bit as I could feel my heel slowly cooking. LOL.

I plan on getting some of that stick-on heat sheilding sheet and lining the cat heat shield and the floor with it. I will probably use some rivets to secure it as well just to be sure that the adhesive won't give-up and fall off. I am also going to heat wrap the cat and the header too when I take it out to repair it. I am a little worried about cooking the cat if I heat wrap it though.

[Matt93SE]

I'd suggest a fiberglass or some sort of heat insulating mat/blanket under a piece of sheet metal riveted to the floor. You might even do it on both sides of the floorboard if you have lots of heat issues.

One thing to keep in mind there also is that the exhaust temp right there varies greatly with air/fuel mixture. If you're running lean, you'll cook your foot no matter what you do or what exhaust you're using.

As for the carpet, The OEM Nissan carpet in the S13/S14 is freaking light as it is. The carpet out of every other car I've touched is 2-3 times the weight and thickness. If you want lighter, you're going to just have to go without.

If you want to put some back in, I have the OEM carpet out of my S14 that's in 'decent' shape. I took a bunch of pics a few days ago, but my camera got stolen. I'll eventually dig it out of the attic and take some pics again.
If anyone wants it, it's free- just pay shipping.


To remove the sound deadener, one of the things brought up to me was to use canned air or freon. That stuff gets $$$$$$ for doing the whole floor of the car though.
You might try a way to use Propane though. Propane makes a great refrigerant- you just have to be able to spray liquid propane on the floor of the car. it'll instantly evaporate and get REALLY cold.

I'd also suggest doing this while it's cold outside, if possible. It was 90 deg when I tried to remove the last of the stuff on my car. I left dry ice sitting on the panels for 15-20 minutes and it never would get cold enough to break loose because the hot outside air on the back of the panel would almost instantly reheat the panel and prevent it from breaking apart. I wound up using an air chisel, wire brush, and acetone to remove all of it. what a PITA.