Tunnel Vision

After a while of looking, repositioning, pulling, pushing, I wasn't happy with the tunnel carpet piping for where it follows the fibreglass shell.  With the leather placed on the top, the angle of the piping, tunnel and leather didn't quite line up and just wasn't right.  No matter what way you pushed and pulled to try and keep the tunnel carpet correct at the rear and at the correct angle of transmission tunnel I had to do something drastic.

After a bit of persuasion from a friend, I decided to slice a strip out of the tunnel carpet - the join will be under the leather tunnel cover so you won't be able to see it.  

I marked the centre line with chalk then cut the carpet in two - no turning back now!  We then positioned each side of the tunnel carpet until it lined up better with all the angles - the piping ends up up and under the leather cover.  That is the best position for fitment.  Once both sides were done, I then cut through both layers of carpet where they overlapped which meant that the carpet joints butt up to one another.

With the strip removed (Approx 50mm), and the carpet pulled up a bit the piping will not be seen.  I also had to re-cut the gear lever hole due to the split, and also we ended up moving the carpet further back to improve it's apperance so required a bit more trimming.  I will glue in an insert at the gear lever prior to leather panel install to keep it all the same level.  The carpet was glued using EvoStick - that's the tunnel piece in!

Cut line (Centre line) marked ready for cutting

Tunnel Carpet glued in position