THE CARPET

Most automobile carpets are cheap. Sadly I am not talking of their price, I am talking of their quality. The quality is normally so bad that you would never have them in your home. Even the rubber backed variety has a poor pile and poor durability. I looked through catalogues everywhere and have a war chest of samples garnered from Malvern to Manila and everywhere between. The Factory uses the cheapest variety made by their supplier. They begin shedding before they leave the Factory.

Happily, Morgan do not require molded carpets, made specifically for the vehicle. Any carpet will fit.

Outside of the issue of color,  one wants a synthetic carpet with a thick rubber or rubber like backing and that did not need finishing of the edges to stop fraying. After all that, it still had to be flexible enough to take the corner curves and heavy enough to lie flat.

Believe me this does not exist within the automobile world, which took me many months and finally an honest friendly auto carpeting store manager to learn myself. He suggested a great alternative...outdoor carpeting (which he didn't sell.)  He explained that this carpet had all the properties that I was looking and the color ranges were becoming unlimited. When I asked why it wasn't used for automobile carpeting kits, he replied "because it lasts forever."

Now that you know what to look for go to it. Now the problem is to find the right brand, pile, and color. Most carpet stores only stock 2 or 3 colors so this can be difficult.  Here in Canada, I found a company by the name of MAT TECH at (450) 375 3542. They will not sell directly to you but will send you samples and help you out with a local supplier. The line I bought was their Superluxe (207) which comes in fern green, taupe, walnut, burgundy, red, gray, charcoal, evergreen, teal, steel blue, navy blue and cosmic blue.

I bought a piece 6 feet by 10 feet which is double what you need if all goes right. However, nothing ever goes completely right and us amateurs need a comfort zone. Save the balance for floor mats or whatever.  I paid $115 US or 75 British pounds. The cost of a poor quality pre-made kit is more than double this.

THE FITTING

Surprise! Morgans aren't like other cars. Pre-made or fitted carpets won't help you out as they almost certainly won't fit perfectly. Even the old carpet you take out is only a rough guide as different carpets of with the same cut still fit different.

Remove the seats. Then find a  good pair of scissors, a hook razor cutting blade and a staple gun. After cutting out a piece of new carpeting using the relevant removed section as a pattern. Fit the new piece into place. Use the staple gun to temporarily hold the carpet in place on the wood floor sections and carefully cut the piece to the right shape.  A tip here.., always trim off LESS than you think and try the piece again. It is very easy to make a mistake and cut too much.

THE CROSSMEMBERS

To cover the cross members or not, that is the question. Frankly it is hard to get a good fit over them and if it is attempted glue is the only solution. Some Agents sell polished stainless steel crossmember pieces (with the Morgan model +4, 4/4, +8, heavily engraved in it) to cover the cross-member in front of the seats. They are very fetching and very expensive. You can also measure what you need and have a U shaped piece made yourself out of pre-polished stainless at any machine shop. A set of 4 (back and front) will cost about 30 pounds or 45 US.

EDGING THE CARPETS

For effect. I had the front edges of the foot well side pieces, all four sides of the rear piece and all of the rear section removal carpet edged by a professional. Instead of using his vinyl, I had some leather left over from some upholstering in the car I had done and he used that. It was done in an hour and he charged me 33 US or 22 pounds. If you take this option, please tell the fellow that the carpet fits perfectly without the edge in case he must do some cutting to allow it to fit.

ATTACHING THE CARPET

You can here add a "softer deeper feel" to the end result by using 1/4 inch of foam between the carpet and the floor. I didn't feel it was necessary.

If you took the option of the cross-member covers, your job now is much simpler. Simply use carpet tacks or small nails to affix the carpet in the 3 areas on each side of the car between the cross members, that is  the foot-well area, under the seats and behind the seats. Cover the cross-member at the firewall with carpet.

Tacking the carpet makes it easy to remove and re-tack for any reason. At the end of the foot-well, you must use carpet glue and on the sides of the foot well use carpet glue and tacks near the door. For the rear section covering piece (the largest), you must replace the clips...or user Velcro (and reinforced the adhesive it came with with a little contact cement.

The sloping piece at the very rear is a problem as it faces downward. Here I used contact cement and when the moment of truth came I had my wife help me position the piece.