# 1965. What was under the stock carpet?



## wishihaditback (Jun 9, 2011)

A recent purchase and pulled the seats for eventual carpet replacement and found the pictured under layment that apparently used some kind of adhesive to the sheet metal. The carpet was very old and i thought maybe original, but i've read that originally Pontiac used a tar paper like material. If correct, what i have shown is some other type of pad/insulation? The carpet removed has the jute padding attached as shown. Any thoughts appreciated.


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## GTOJUNIOR (Aug 7, 2011)

That sure looks like some very old house carpet padding.


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## wishihaditback (Jun 9, 2011)

Cool. Maybe I'll replace the carpet with orange and gold shag!


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## GTOJUNIOR (Aug 7, 2011)

Shagadelic


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## dd68gto (Nov 14, 2012)

wishihaditback said:


> A recent purchase and pulled the seats for eventual carpet replacement and found the pictured under layment that apparently used some kind of adhesive to the sheet metal. The carpet was very old and i thought maybe original, but i've read that originally Pontiac used a tar paper like material. If correct, what i have shown is some other type of pad/insulation? The carpet removed has the jute padding attached as shown. Any thoughts appreciated.


I owned a very nice original 65 in 2001. I was running some wires under carpet and that is not what I had . It was a black tar like pad that you would have scrape up with a putty knife . I think you will find that that was added at some point . Maybe the carpet is original but if they replaced pad they might of done both? I think the question is why ? Is the metal floor under this? Can you tell if flooring pan has been replaced ? If total pan might be difficult but you should be able to see at rockers and tow pan . Real good after market pads and ACC carpet now available. Quality is as good if not better than original . Best luck let us know how it works out . Doug


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## dd68gto (Nov 14, 2012)

dd68gto said:


> wishihaditback said:
> 
> 
> > A recent purchase and pulled the seats for eventual carpet replacement and found the pictured under layment that apparently used some kind of adhesive to the sheet metal. The carpet was very old and i thought maybe original, but i've read that originally Pontiac used a tar paper like material. If correct, what i have shown is some other type of pad/insulation? The carpet removed has the jute padding attached as shown. Any thoughts appreciated.
> ...


test


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## wishihaditback (Jun 9, 2011)

Thanks for the input. Right now i'm working on TRYING to remove the padding. I'm guessing that the original tarpaper pad had been removed as i've not run into any of it. From what i can glean it does appear to be the original floor pan....maybe. Haven't removed the front portion of the carpet yet but from underneath the metal looks great, just like the rear part of the pan. I've attached a couple of pics. Wish i could go back in time and thump the head of whomever used the adhesive on the padding!


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## devildawg (Apr 27, 2012)

This underlay was definitely not applied by Pontiac as the ribbon harness should be under everything. My recommendation once you get that mess cleaned off is to check the ribbon harness with a meter. First check for continuity at each wire / from one plug to the other. Then check for shorts between runs. There should be no continuity between adjacent wires. These ribbon harnesses are usually bullet proof unless damaged or corroded due to water emersion. Once you determine you have a good harness lay it in it's floor channel and secure with the metal tabs. Rather than the very expensive products on the market for sound deadening I used a product I got at H-depot called Quick roof aluminum instant roof repair. I did a lot of research on various products and this one is the same thickness with no oder and easy to apply because it's 6 inches wide so better to work into all the creases . Can't imagine what it would have been like working with wider pieces. Also get a set of tin snips to cut and make pieces the size you need.I found myself making a lot of triangular pieces to fit into various areas. It was a bit of work but the end result was outstanding. I'll try and attach a few pics. I installed under-seat speakers and two rear speakers so the pictures also show some of the speaker wiring. Best of luck with your project and hope to see some pictures as you go.


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## wishihaditback (Jun 9, 2011)

Thanks for the info and pics devildawg. I saw that there had been some water retention at some point on the drivers floorboard and made scraping the padding off much easier. Downside was what i had hoped was just surface rust turned out to show pinhole openings in several places as i was wire brushing the area. This wasn't readily apparent from underneath when i first looked at the car. Didn't appear to be a concealment issue, just some rust waiting for a chance to show through. Now i'm trying to figure my options. Unsure if it needs a replacement pan (and i wouldn't know where to get that done) or try some acceptable alternative to treat and then cover the affected areas. The car will never see wet weather again so i hate to go full bore with replacements. I've attached a couple of pics, and i shot some light up from underneath the car and you can make out a few of the places showing the light in the inside. But i digress. Whatever i decide to do, i'll refer back to your input. Thanks again.


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## devildawg (Apr 27, 2012)

Pinholes in the floor pan you say. No surprise there. Now you have to ask yourself how far are you going with the project and how deep are your pockets. Floor pans are affordable but labor intensive and it's difficult to find those with the skill and talent to do the job properly. Once you do find a skilled welder/fabricator they most likely will have a backlog of work because those skills are so in demand. I've found over the years those without a backlog of work are available for a reason. I know what I'm about to say may raise a few eyebrows from purists but I would do a fiberglass Mat repair so long as the floorboard is structurally sound. Sand it down on both sides removing as little material as possible. I like using a 90 degree die grinder and 3 inch disk. after cleaning it up reassess the structural integrity. If it's still sound treat it with POR-15 and then let it fully cure. Eastwood also has a rust encapsulator you can use instead. After that get a fiberglass kit with Mat and epoxy. I say Mat as opposed to cloth because the strands are interwoven and it's stronger than the cloth when fully cured and bonded. Just cut the Mat to overlap the damage by 2 inches. So with a pinhole you really only need a 2 inch square piece of Mat for the repair. Only use the Mat on the inside of the floorpan. There should be enough resin to fill the void on the bottom side. After fully curing sand the bottom and apply another application of POR-15 to both sides. After that your done. You can apply the coating you plan to use on the undercarriage ,paint the entire floorboard and lay in your sound deadener of course after the paint cures.


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## wishihaditback (Jun 9, 2011)

devildawg said:


> Pinholes in the floor pan you say. No surprise there. Now you have to ask yourself how far are you going with the project and how deep are your pockets. Floor pans are affordable but labor intensive and it's difficult to find those with the skill and talent to do the job properly. Once you do find a skilled welder/fabricator they most likely will have a backlog of work because those skills are so in demand. I've found over the years those without a backlog of work are available for a reason. I know what I'm about to say may raise a few eyebrows from purists but I would do a fiberglass Mat repair so long as the floorboard is structurally sound. Sand it down on both sides removing as little material as possible. I like using a 90 degree die grinder and 3 inch disk. after cleaning it up reassess the structural integrity. If it's still sound treat it with POR-15 and then let it fully cure. Eastwood also has a rust encapsulator you can use instead. After that get a fiberglass kit with Mat and epoxy. I say Mat as opposed to cloth because the strands are interwoven and it's stronger than the cloth when fully cured and bonded. Just cut the Mat to overlap the damage by 2 inches. So with a pinhole you really only need a 2 inch square piece of Mat for the repair. Only use the Mat on the inside of the floorpan. There should be enough resin to fill the void on the bottom side. After fully curing sand the bottom and apply another application of POR-15 to both sides. After that your done. You can apply the coating you plan to use on the undercarriage ,paint the entire floorboard and lay in your sound deadener of course after the paint cures.


Thanks for this info. Just the day before your reply I learned that POR offers a floor pan restoration kit, which if works on mine, is certainly an affordable alternative to pan replacement. I ordered the kit, but as we are moving shortly, it may be some time before I can get to the repair. When done tho, I'll post my results and thoughts here. Thanks again!


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## devildawg (Apr 27, 2012)

I should also mention you need to do a very thorough examination to find out the source of the water entry / leak. I can tell you from experience that most floor pan water saturation comes from the windshield seal. Over time the seal dries out and loses it's bond with the glass and or the channel bed allowing water entry. Even though you don't have plans to get the car wet you must be prepared for the cursed unforeseen thunderstorm. You don't want to go to all the hard work on the floor only to get the new carpet and jute soaked. If the window seal is the culprit it's a relatively easy job to pull the windshield clean and evaluate the channel , then prep , apply pinchweld primer to both the channel and window and install with new butyl seal. I'll try to add my utube slide show that has some good pictures of the process at 7 mins 40 seconds into the 9.16 show. 



Keep us posted on your progress .
Keep on motoring


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