[nytrainer]

We recently added new carpet (to one) and new boots to both of our 4 speed cars. They both have consoles but we cut the carpet as if we had no console (why hack it up even if it's covered by console?). Here's what we did (sorry no pics).
After centering front carpet section (enough to go under both sill plates) and making sure there was enough to go under the toe kick we made a small X cut for the shifter (w/o knob obviously) to fit through. Then we finalized the fit of the front section (we used a heat gun and some contact cement) where we wanted it and placed the ring (w/o the rubber boot) on the carpet to find the original holes in the porch using the straight end of a point pick tool. We put in about 1/2 of the screws to sort of clamp down on the carpet with the ring and then cut out the carpet within the ring and then removed the ring.
We then slid the boot over the shifter. The bottom of the boot has a double flap/lip. One flap/lip goes below the sheetmetal of the porch and the other above. This would prevent splashed water from forcing itself up and under the carpet. Now we used the sharp pick tool to get through the rubber and install screws into ring.
Getting through the carpet was the hardest part as a drill tends to snag the carpet loops. We did a combination of using a drill in reverse and heating the tip of the pointer tool with a mini butane torch to poke and cauterize the holes for the screws to get through. Hope that helps some.
The seat's "feet" should go under the carpet too for the cleanest look. Check out this thread by Greg Reid http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...ghlight=carpet
Good luck with your project.