I plan to do some metal fabricating to the center console and to accomplish that naturally the carpeting will need to be removed to avoid a fire. In checking the service manual it says to remove the following for the floor carpeting:

- seat
- kick panel
- front console cover
- rear side trim

In addition, should the center carpet need to be removed, remove the following:

- dashboard
- rear console
- SRS (safety restraint system) clips for the wiring harness & steering hanger beam wire harness
- cut the carpet where shown

My initial questions are:

1. Can anyone who has removed their carpeting enlighten us more?
2. Is it really necessary to remove the dash? Must the carpet be cut?
3. How is the OEM carpet held in place? By trim pieces, glued down, or what?

Removal of the black center plastic console is detailed on Rick's site with photo's. Since I previously installed one of Rick's leather console cover's I'm aware that is a simple removal process if you follow his outline.

I tried doing a search on this topic and copied down some comments from a couple different threads on the topic..... here they are in no general order:

First I removed the seat. Then I removed the scuff plate, foot rest, black plastic thing under gas pedal, clear plastic tab which unscrews- not pops out, removed the side panel, rear panel, pulled out carpet clipsall the way to the back. One thing to remeber is if you are also replacing ALL the carpet there are two pieces that flow into the center console which also need to be replaced .
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You have to remove the center console glovebox piece to remove the center carpet. The center carpet piece is shaped like a Y and goes behind each seat a few inches.
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yes you have to remove the dash. to remove the dash you have to also take off the steering wheel and drop the steering column. there are 2 bolts in the carpet infront of the airbag sensor.

what you should do is just cut the carpet with a knife infront of the airbag sensor (That little grey box under the radio). on each side infront of it the carpet gets about an inch wide for a couple of inches. just cut it there and take out the carpet. you'll never see the carpet up under it because its covered by all the plastic. you can tug on it really hard to rip it out of the 2 bolts holding it in if you want to just get it out of there and throw it away.
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he's talking about the carpet under the dash, not the part under the glove box. you can get to the 2 clips behind the glove box with a flap tipped screw driver and pry the 2 carpet clips out. you have to remove the 2 frotn screws that hold the glove box plastic to the center tunnel to be able to bent the bottom of the glove box around so you can stick the screw diver in the side/back of it to get at the clips.
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End of comments from other threads

I would love to hear any input or advice on the subject. I plan to remove both the floor and center carpeting.

 

Well, I haven't removed my carpet, but I am carpeting the "hatch" area. I just removed my soft top and didn't like the exposed metal back there. I ordered red automotive carpet from part express, a great site for all kinds of stuff. If you need carpet, vinyl, anything they have it.

www.partsexpress.com

 

anything to add anyone?