Fish-Hawk.Net

Hey Folks,

Hope you can help. My Nitro needs to have its carpets replaced and my dealer nor manufacturer want to help, so its a job for me to do.

I am not thinking it will be too hard but I want to do the best job possible. The carpet I have is comeing up and pulling itself off the fiberglass underneath it.

Here are my issues and looking for advice:

1. Where do I buy the carpet. Good Marine Beige carpet preferably with a rubber backing ( I understand it doesn't strectch or shrink, so I won;t have these issues again)

2. I need the carpet I do have to come off the floor in one piece so I can use it as a template to cut the next rug. I want to find a chemical or dissovler that will help this along, not damage the fibergalss underneath and won;t cuase the carpe to fall apart.

3. Then I need your general advice on putting it back on the boat ( what type of glue (paint it one, spray it on, roll on and such)

Has anyone replaced thier carpets in a Fibgerglass boat before.

Any and all advice welcomed!

Lucannus,
I haven't seen a marine grade or outdoor carpet that has a rubber backing. My guess is the marine environment would dry out the rubber quickly.
I think a marine grade carpet would be your best bet. I think contact cement would hold down the carpet well. There are also some construction/outdoor adhesives that are excellent for the job. I have also used some indoor/oudoor carpet sold through lowes building store in watertown N.Y. I think home depot would be similar.
Stripping off the old material could be interesting! I don't know of any solvent that would leave the carpet intact.
The carpet you use won't cost much to do the boat. You should be able to replace sections of the carpet and trim any excess easily with a utility knife.
Good luck with the job...Larry

I did mine in '97 and it still is holding its own. Start by getting the marine grade carpet. It's rubber backing, and it's worth it cuz it lasts and doesnt hold hooks. Forget about keeping the old to use as a template, you'll stretch/rip it before that idea! Mine was already shot :


I just laid it as I went (or use cardboard cutouts if you want) and trimmed the edges with SHARP scissors.

To get the old stuff off just scrape/pull off as much of the old stuff as possible:


Take your compartment lids off and deal with them inside at night or something (I needed as little downtime as possible). To get the old glue off I used Goof Off (Home Depot)-works great-takes off the waxes and all:

I used 3M Super77 spray glue from Home Depot to glue my stuff down, just followed the directions, no noticeable lifting in ~8-9 yrs(and I don't have a garage):


Get some heavy duty sharp scissors for the cutting-as-you-go. Make sure to run the knap / grain of the carpet the same way as the deck when you do your compartment lids.
G