Thought i would give an update to the group on my carpet installation with tips & tricks i learned along the way. I bought a formed carpet for my 56 Chevy truck, i think from Classic Industries. It had no pre-cut holes. I had also purchased a rubber matt to go underneath it, which did have pre-cut holes - this thing was a waste of money, the pre-cuts in many cases didn't line up well at all. Instead i went with KilMat sound deadening under the carpet. Now back to the carpet. I laid it out way in advance, just placed it under a bed in our house to be out of the way. This helped it lay flat when i did go to install it. Putting it in the sun would help otherwise.
I started by having the front of the carpet rolled up, and put the rear cab area carpet in first, (gas tank and seat removed)and then rolled it forward as far as i could. I removed my floor shifter and flipped up the gas pedal (i didn't take it out- i would have but it wasn't cooperating to come out, so just left the pedal in, but flipped up). I checked each side to make sure it was even, and i made sure the pre-formed cross raised beams matched up - they run sideways across the cab and helped in matching up where the carpet should go.
Then i used white chalk to mark where the shifter opening needed to be - this was pretty obvious with my truck which has the original shifter. Then i cut out the circle to match it as close as possible, while leaving the carpet in place over the shifter opening/hump. Then i did the gas pedal and basically cut an upside down T, marking this as best i could with chalk to make the cut, then slipped the carpet over the pedal, and then tucked in the excess underneath, i did cut a little extra so there wasn't so much extra needing to be tucked under the pedal.
Next i did the foot pedals, i did the clutch first, then the brake. In pictures of carpet that came pre-cut, it showed a cut all the way to the top/front of the carpet (see red carpet pic below - very similar to my carpet but without the cuts and my transmission hump was not cut out like the red one appears to be, also mine went all the way under the gas tank and to the corners). I did not cut pedal slits all the way to the top, like the red carpet, i just marked with chalk and cut a slit wide enough to slip the pedal over it in both cases, which worked great. To get a good mark, i rolled the carpet forward, and right up to the base of the pedal where it comes out of the floor, made the mark, and cut the slit there, mostly toward the top since i thought it would be less noticeable above the pedal.
Next i cut a small hole for the high/low beam button, i don't think i marked this with chalk, i just cut it, holding the carpet right up and against the button. Next was cutting the hole for the speedometer cable, i removed the cable from the gauge bezel so i could just shove it through a hole in the carpet, i didn't want to cut a slit all the way to the top. The less slits you make all the way to the top should help keep the carpet in place better. I did a cheap carpet earlier where i did that and the carpet would fall forward. So i avoided that as much as possible.
The last cut was for the steering column. Again i pressed the carpet up as far as i could to the column, marked the circle hole for the column, made the cut, and for this i did cut a slit all the way to the top. Now i need to finish the job by cutting small holes for the bolts to hold the seat in place and to hold the gas tank in place. I hope this helps anyone doing this in the future. Below are some pics. Thanks for taking a look.
