Chinook RV

Decided to take a break from my current electrical misery and upload some photos of my finished carpet that I installed on my 2002. Hopefully you Folks can do the same. My turned out perfectly and I couldn't be happier with the results...

Step One
Remove both of your front seats. On my 2002 Concourse, each seat is held down at four points. On both rear points, they used bolts and were easily removed with a 18mm socket. The studs stay in place and the bolts come off. The front seats use a Torx bolt that goes down into the floor and the whole bolt is removed. After much research, the ACTUAL size of the Torx bit is a 57 which is very hard to come by and not normally sold in stores from what I gather. Fortunately a size 55 worked well enough to get them out and was pretty close. This is a pretty standard size. Disconnect any wiring harnesses under each seat. Remove your foot wells beside each seat. They have about 5 screws each and are then held down by clips. A good tug will release them. Remove your doghouse and side kick panels which are also held in by clips and can be gently pulled out. The clips are attached to each panel so no danger of losing them. You should have an empty cab at this point.

Step Two
Move your seats well out of the way. Fortunately most of my stuff behind was removed so I could just move them towards the back. This photo is them going back in but you get the point. Step Three
Remove your old carpet. Wear a Hazmat suit
Red arrows show the rear seat studs, green arrows show the front Torx bolt holes and the yellow arrows show where the plastic foot well clips insert into. There are two others not being shown on the bottom of the actual foot well that go into the body. Give it a good vacuum, there will be lots of sand and dirt.

Step Four
Obviously, buy new carpet. I found a 8'x10' area carpet for $50 or so. Lay out your old carpet on top of the new and trace your pattern. Do a good job here because the tolerances in some areas are tight like around the doghouse where there isn't much room to hide a mistake. Use a sharp Xacto knife and cut from the BACK side and not the front. The front fibers will prevent your blade from cutting cleanly, the harder and smoother back side will not. **WARNING** Be very careful how you trace your carpet and which direction you face it when tracing.

Step Five
Test fit your freshly cut piece in place. I gave myself an extra 1/4" around the perimeter for some safety and felt trimming it after it fit okay was a good move. You will notice there is no carpet for the wheel wells at this point...keep reading!

Step Six
Remove the carpet and bring it back inside after you feel it fits well. Remove the old wheel well carpet pieces from the old carpet, it is roughly sewn together and easily cut with a knife. Trace and cut out matching pieces. If you want perfection, cut the stitching from the rubber foot pads and remove those as well from the old carpet. Mock up pieces in their correct orientations.

Step Seven - Optional
Restore your Grandmother's 1956 Singer sewing machine and teach yourself how to sew. I've done a few past projects with it, it's lovely to work with. Forget how to thread a bobbin, spend 3 hours getting frustrated. Realize you have the wrong bobbin. Thread the bobbin and have it work perfectly again.

Step 8
Layout and sew your foot rests to each wheel well cover.

Step 9
Sew each wheel well cover side to the main body of carpet. Nothing too fancy here, just keep your hand stitches relatively close together so it doesn't come apart. I did one running stitch (in and out inline) and then a loop stitch (around in circles) so it would stay put. There isn't any real pressure on these joints.

I used heavy duty polyester sail making thread on this job because I had it leftover. I don't think you need to go that heavy but I was very pleased with it's performance, it is incredibly difficult to rip or break.

Step 10
Admire your final work, ready for the next install test fit

Step 11
Re-install all of your trim, panels, seats, seat wiring, foot wells, etc.

Final Step
Will be to cut some custom floor mats from the leftover carpet. I am planning on removing the carpet edging that is shown and binding each mat for a professional finish when I get around to it.

Good luck !

Dano

Very informative!

Wow! Great detail - looks like a pretty major project. And I think I'm "handy" because I still change my own oil...

Not too bad but a day for sure. Forgot to add the layout and tracing photos. I did this step wrong and cut out my piece backwards. Make sure you place your old carpet over the new carpet and face them both forward. The doghouse on the Econolines are offset and if you cut it with one piece of carpet facing opposite to the other, your final piece won't fit. Luckily, my 8x10 piece had lots of spare...