Page 35 - Transporter Talk Issue 195

DON’T PANIC! ASK THE MECHANIC
Ask the Mechanic – Flooring by Neil Hyatt
My dilemma is, I have an original 8-seater microbus, but I wanted to make it more practical retaining its originality. My idea is to have the ability to retain the 8 seats (as it’s great for transporting larger groups and dogs for picnics and walks etc) but have the option to switch to a sort of day van for trips with the wife and daughters.
I didn’t want to permanently remove anything, alter anything and I wanted to keep drilling to an absolute minimum. There’s not many original 8 seater microbuses out there!
All I had was the original rubber matting underneath the middle row of seats. Although it’s practical when it’s an 8-seater, it isn’t very nice to look at when the middle row of seats have been removed.
I trawled the internet looking for tailor made or even off the shelf carpets that colour matched the original very dirty rear cargo carpet, but they either didn’t fit what I wanted or didn’t have the right colours. They also seemed to be very expensive. I thought to myself, there’s got to be another way, so I measured up what I needed and headed down to my local carpet shop looking at the offcuts. Although not an exact colour match, it was close enough. I found quite a large roll of grey carpet for the bargain price of £40. The next problem was how was I going to stop the edges fraying? I asked
how much to have the carpet edged, it was approx £50 for the rear cargo and passenger areas. I had been looking at approx £200 for fitted carpets from upholsters and off the shelf.
I went away and started fitting and cutting, when I was happy with the fit, I took it back to the carpet shop who then had it edged. I’ve made it fit around the rear seat supports as I wanted the carpet to go right up to the bulkhead at the rear. I followed the same principle for the rear.
In conclusion, I think it looks great, even if I say so myself, and for not a lot of money. If it gets ruined I can just buy some more carpet and do it again. The only potential downfall is that it does occasionally slip on the rubber mat when you get in, but I can live with that.
Transporter Talk Issue 195 | 35