Removing carpet 93 318is

[lqbanotxano]

We had severe thunderstorms with local flooding...6 inches in one hour. My 93 318is got water inside sitting in front of my house. The carpets were drenched.

First, I spent Saturday, chasing a fuel leak. It turned out to be the 2 small hoses going to the fuel rail. I changed the injectors some months ago & changed these hoses. The auto parts store gave me non fuel injection hose...they ballooned & started leaking.

On to Sunday....I spent all day taking my carpet out. The hardest thing was taking the accelerator pedal off. Every thread I read on the internet about removing the accelerator pedal had it wrong. I had to get my face a few inches from the pedal to see the (3) clips. All internet articles mentioned only the center clip. It took me over (1) hour to figure this out. Next hardest was removing the door sills holding down the carpet. The front & back seats had to be removed...kick panels, center console, lower dash, seat belts etc...

The carpet has been sitting upside down on my garage floor since Sunday night. There has been a fan blowing over it the whole time & it still wet. We have been having mostly rain & high humidity this past week.

I have to clean the carpet & get rid of the "old mildew" (window was left down during rain by PO) & new wet mildew. Then it has to be dried again....& everything put back.

While it is drying I have to do the Z3 shifter & all new clips mod.

[keflaman]

The foam rubber on the back of the carpet holds a lot of water. I've found that propping the carpet at an angle or hanging it will help evaporate water a lot faster.

[lqbanotxano]

Thanks for the tip keflaman...I will do that when I clean it & de-mold it.
It is finally dry now.

[jrobie79]

are you going to dye it? colorbond by bryndana skid mark black is the tits. completely changed my whole interior....e30 is stored for winter so no pics till spring, but its worth the 30 bux for 3-4 cans

[lqbanotxano]

Not dying...leaving it as is, tan.

[lqbanotxano]

Carpet back in....also no gas leak so far. I have BMW specific injector "O" rings (just in case that is what was leaking) I could not get the exhaust nuts off without breaking, to change the guibo & finish the shifter overhaul. New Z3 shifter (& the new shifter parts that I could change) made a HUGE difference. The old shifter hole was actually wallowed out.
   I am going to let my mechanic change the guibo on his lift.
Report on changing the carpet...
IT WAS A LOT OF WORK.
1.   Remove carpet (you got to take out a lot of stuff to do this...plus cut the carpet around the heater core)
2.   Dry the carpet (it rained most of the time & the humidity was up. It took 4 days in my garage with a big fan blowing over the carpet 24 7 to dry it. The bottom has foam & Styrofoam & took the longest.
3.   Thoroughly wet both sides of the carpet with Sporicidin Disinfectant Solution. Wipe excess with towel. There was nothing to wipe. It soaked right up.
4.   Dry the carpet (it was still quite humid & again, this process took 3 or 4 days in the garage 24 7 with fans blowing over it.
5.   Clean the top of the carpet & dry (I only dried overnight)
6.   Replace carpet & put everything back.
7.   One entire day to remove carpet (no help). Half a day to put back (with help)
I also sprayed the bottom of the car, the vents & everywhere that mold could possibly live with Sporiciding. No more mold smell in the car. The whole inside of the car & the air coming through the vents smalls "fresh" The carpet is clean.
Now on to…. removing the fog lights & replacing with covers, changing the steering wheel (from a OBD2 car…don’t know if possible), changing the door panels (have better..not good, junkyard panels), changing tie rod ends…etc, etc, etc.