Aircooled VW South Africa

I was waiting for this thread, seeing where you are with your project. I called the guy that I dealt with many moons ago and he reckons that we should look into hemp..........yes hemp or a large, chunky-weave sisal style carpet. You can get them both backed or not backed and he reckons with a contrasting trim it'll look the part.

Sisal.







Hemp, for some or other reason there are a lot of suppliers of hemp in SA.......lol.





Personally I like the Sisal Sand Boucle style.......................I just aint had time to follow it up at the moment. I did find a place in Cape Town http://www.coirtex.co.za/products/ that supply it. Surely there has to be a retail outlet in GP.

Not a bad idea! When I eventually get round to it though, I want the full original treatment.(Obviously depending on the car) Will have to wait till the rand improves again!

What a good idea! For me, it's a replca so as long as the carpet looks the part!

I hope the hemp is not treated with a flame retardant

Gary, lets get on the Sisal lead and get this thing done.

Gary, remember at last year's "Ferdi's Swap Meet" was the Green Speedster, the owner had the oatmeal carpeting, which is Belgotex - it really looked the part, but taking Armand's comments into consideration, one wont really know how long it will last. Builders sells the Belgotex carpets, I want to go check the weekend what their price is - sounds like in the region of about R300/m - comes in 3m width) as I'm considering it for my Speedster as well. I'll send you the photo of the Green Speedster.

Cheers,
Marius.

Hey Marius, yup, I remember that car and the carpets and a few other things that I really liked.

Yup..........how they hold up long term is the thing though. It comes down a lot to the backing that's on the carpets, too thick and it's a total bitch to get around bends, but it will last. Too little and it won't hold up over the long run.

I have to shift to builders tomorrow as well and will follow that up as well.

The colour I'm after and I think most people will be after is the Oatmeal.

http://gauteng-upholstery.co.za/

http://www.gautengupholstery.co.za/


I called these guys (top link, based in Joburg) and the closest thing they have is ribbed auto carpet, which is close, but not close enough. BUT ! If you take a look at the second link they also have LOADS of other automotive fabric, leather and hard wearing PVC flooring and rubber extrusions. I think it will be worth a trip past there at some point.

EDIT - The bottom link is actually a totally different company, they are based in Randburg. I went to see them and spoke to Cathy. She is very helpful and friendly. I left with the prices for a few items and some samples of ribbed charcoal carpet and some vinyl. The ribbed charcoal carpet is indistinguishable from the sample picture I took with me of charcoal square weave.

I've mailed Louise (got her details from the http://www.coirtex.co.za/agents/ site, will see what she comes back with - she is based in Pretoria according to the website, will let you know if they have a shop here.

Cheers,
M.

Just for comparison:

Feedback from Louise on the SISAL:

"Hi Marius,

Baie dankie vir die epos.

Ons het laas jaar 2 projekte gehad waar ons matte met spesifieke rondings laat sny het, en om eerlik te wees, verleen die produk homself nie daartoe nie.
Die sisal, coir en jute is natuurlike vesels, wat n latex backing op het en is spesifiek ontwerp vir huisgebruik. Die matte word omgewerk met n binding om hom stabiel te hou.

Ek sou dink het mens sou liewer iets gebruik wat makliker buig om die rondings meer effektief te kry?

Sterkte, ek hoop jy kry iets wat sal werk,

Groete

Many Thanks

Louise Barnard
Cell: (+27)73 039 2013
Work: (+27)12 362 2377

From FERDI's Swap Meeting where I saw the Green Speedster, the owner said he used the Belgotex Carpet:
I went to Builders Warehouse in Centurion the weekend to go check out the prices:
The "assistant" could only tell me that the one is thicker than the other, hence the price diffs. Also, you have to order before 11:00am in order for them to order from the Factory in Pietermaritzburg, with delivery then the next day. They also have a subcontractor that can do the "edging" at R25 per running meter.

What I'm thinking of doing, based on the color of my Speedster:
I'm considering using a mix of these:
With one being the "floor cover" and either of the other two as the "Floor Mats" (Boertjie British - if you know what I mean?!?

Builders also have a SISAL Carpet:
Cheers,
Marius.

Marius gary, how do you guys then SEAM off the carpets? or are you just going to leave them after cutting??
I'm almost at the Carpet Stage now, but no idea how to Seam the ends of the Carpets. Do you get them done by an upholsterer?

Fcukti.
I didn't see that, my apologies..

I had a look at builders as well, in Gezina. They were about R10 cheaper per square meter.









My advice if you go for this route, make a cardboard template of all the carpet that you may need and then calculate how much you need as it comes in 4m widths. The factory won't be cutting this to the shapes that you need and also won't be finishing off the edges as well as this is a lot of trimming. Once you have calculated the size needed, order that size from builders and then have them order it for you, then you measure out all the sections that you need and cut them yourself and then go to a upholstery shop and ask them to trim them off.

I honestly think that this is the route that I'm going to go. If it only lasts a few years, then it's going to be about R400-R500 Ront for the lot.

Thanks, great words of wisdom. I'll be doing the same.
Hope to get my two seats back this week, then the upholstery's finished. So want to do Carpets soon.

Alan