In my mind a brand new carpet is one of the last things done and certainly after you are sure no more water will be coming in. My convertible is not there yet so I decided I had nothing to lose and "repaired" my existing carpet. I apologize for the lack of in process pics. The black carpet had the typical fading and had a nice purplish tint. It had rips in the drivers foot well and drivers rear footwell. Mostly where the floor metal stamping produces edges. It was obvious to me the rear tears were because that's the first place a foot goes when entering the rear seat. I had rips/tears and very thin areas about to tear. But no missing carpet. I took everything out and turned it upside down. I made a frugal decision to use hot glue patches and vinyl paint. I know its sounds stupid but it worked and has stayed together for 2+ yrs. As patch material I used those thin recycle shopping bags (see pic) in black. They are very tough, flexible, and will let the glue soak through. Used regular hot glue...a lot of it. I cut the bag into sections and added glue to both sides and applied. Let it soak into the patch mtrl. You will burn you fingers so keep open beer ready and keep away young ears!. Cant do too big of a section as it will cool off. On the sections I knew needed contour I bent it with my hand as it was cooling. In the end, from the back it was ugly but from the front very respectable. As a added benefit I would say not only were the tears mended but now they were reinforced with a tough flexible backing. Now for the paint I used a vinyl paint from Duplicolor that mentioned carpet in the applications. It did NOT dry hard and crunchy or look like a bad mascara application. Have good ventilation cuz and put out the cigarette. I was able to even do my floor mats with the help of kids white play dough to mask the white stitching. Don't use colored, it will bleed. Any thin areas where a little glue came through were complexly hidden by the paint. Because it seemed that the carpet shrank a little I added some home carpet padding under the carpet in the back seat to reduce the stress that your feet would put in it. It has held up great and not faded much if it all. Not restoration worthy but definitely makes it unnoticeable while you do something trivial like BRAKES.
