[70cheveng]

Does anyone know the proper way to cut the carpeting so the seat track attaching bolts are covered by the carpet?

The seat tracks should not sit on top of the carpet. There is a way to cut the carpet so the attachment points are covered. Does anyone have the method with some measurements?

[Andre]

My recollection is that you cut the carpet in a T pattern, which allows the foot of the seat track to fit under the rug. After you tighten the bolt or nut, the carpet flaps then fall back into place to hide it.
This was outlined in the Legend about 12-15 years ago in some detail

[FFD]

If you put your bolts in under the carpet. And take your seat tracks off the seats you can see a bit better to fit them when you cut

[3 Deuce 64]

I found this on line but I don't remember where . Don

[tripower]

Here's the original carpet from my 66, 65 has the same cuts. Takes some time to recreate but worth it cause it hides the bolts and tracks well.

[Terry M. Hunt]

After studying these photos, esp the red '66 original carpet, I'm wondering about a couple of things. I agree the factory process does a good job of hiding the bolt heads/stud nuts that secure the seat tracks, but wondering how you ever get access to the bolts/nuts to install the seat track. Do these slits in the carpet allow you to fold the carpet to one side enough to expose the stud or threaded hole in the floor pan, attach the bolt/nut, then lay the carpet back down over the bolt/nut once they are tightened? Or, should you install the seat tracks first and then attach the seats to the tracks in order to have more access to the seat track fasteners?

There is an interesting link on the Jeff Lilly Restoration site showing carpet install on a '66 442. There are some useful tips/photos shown. (Every other site I found had pretty generic instructions and/or instructions for carpet install in newer cars.)

The last photo shows them cutting small slits for the seat track studs to protrude up through the floor, which seems to indicate they just bolt the seat track down on top of the carpet, which seems surprising given their reputation for exacting restorations. Was this the way Oldsmobile did this?

[tripower]

Well one thing to note is that the repo carpets (like ACC) are not as long to do a perfect factory match. You would have to extend a repo carpet to get the longer flaps to go under the seats. Anyway, those flaps that are made by cuttings those "T" channels allowed me those flaps back to get to the seat bolts. It was a pain and I can't imagine the factory spent more than a few minutes installing seats in these cars.

[gtoric]

The carpets are not slit primarily to cover the seat tracks, but are slit to allow easy installation of the carpet after the seats are bolted to the floor. Covering the tracks is an added bonus.

Tripower, does your original carpet have "extensions" taped to the front half carpet where the outboard seat belt retractors are located? Most original carpets I have seen have this feature. I'm guessing, in order to save on material or to facilitate pattern cutting.

[tripower]

Through that carpet out Eric so don't know if they were taped on...seems reasonable though

[Terry M. Hunt]

Eric, interesting. I wondered if the slits were there to enable the carpet to slide into place around the seat tracks. I couldn't imagine the assembly line worker having enough time to fiddle with the slits to get the seat tracks lined up and tightened down. It seemed more likely the seats were installed first as you say.