Just received my new carpet and insulation kit today. The old was discarded awhile back. Does anyone know the proper installation of the insulation. There are no instructions for the location of the various pieces. Its from Corvette America for a 1978. It has the jute padding backed with heat reflective felting. Does the black material lie on the floor?

If you have the black felt paper type pieces, they should be already cut out for the front and back. On floor, then put the foil backed insulation down, I would use 3M spray adhesive for that, then the carpet down, using the same 3M.
Check the rubber floor plugs. They are black tapered rubber pieces, and available at the supply house's.

You may want to lay the carpet front and back, and leave it there for a while before securing it. If you use foil backed insulation that is too thick, (what you may buy at Lowes, HD, etc.), you will find it is too thick to lay the carpet properly.
The factory type for your year is available.
Watch when you cut around the rear speakers, I took mine out and re-did everything. Go slow, be patient, and you will have a professional job.
You might as well replace the brake pedal cover, clutch pedal if you have one, gas pedal, and re-dye or re-painting everything you can back to stock original. Buy an interior screw set, (all bags are marked), and this is all details that will come together and compliment all other new carpet, etc. Take the seat tracks off, take all old paint off, or get media blasted, new bolts, etc.
I am getting carried away here, but to do a nice job, it all comes together. There are many other details you can do along the way. Only reason I am suggesting all of this, is that if your carpet is shot, then a lot of other areas could use an improvement, unless you already have it done.
You will look at the finished product and say: "Did I do that"?
Good Luck !
Boatman

Other things you can do while you're at it:

Treat and paint any oxidized or rusted areas. C3s are notorious for leaking windshield channels into the floors of the pass compartment. Needless to say, if theres significant deterioration......your windshield pillars are the likely suspect.

Depending on the year of your car, if you have the carpeting on the sides of the console, the boards they are mounted to get deformed and brittle. I went to HD and picked up some 1/8" pegboard material sans the holes. Traced the old pieces to it, drilled throuch the old pieces to match up the screw holes and attached the new carpeting with 3M adhesive. Awesome fit if you take your time!!

If you find your insulation too close to the seat mount bolt holes, adjust or trim it. The seat bolts aren't that long and they could be a b*$%^$# to mount. Clean the bolts up and use some anti-sieze compound on them.

Keep a sharp icepick handy. Some of the smaller screw holes like the ones for the bracket that the forward T-Top stowage strap attaches to are a ton of fun to locate under the carpet.

Doing you compartment doors? Thay are quite a bit of work themselves. Take your time. Do not over tighten the new bezel when you put it in!! CRRAAAAK !! When you attach the hinges to the new bezel, 1/8 x 3/8 pop rivets do a great and professional job of securing them. Rivet from the inside out.

Some fine steel wool works wonders on the compartment door stainless buttons. Paint the door handles whiles they are apart. Take your time trimming the carpet around the holes after the adhesive has completely dried.

Lay the carpet and fit it to make sure all of the contours match up correctly. Sit the car in the sun with the windows rolled up for a few hours and have lunch and take a short nap. This is a great trick - takes out shipping creases and the carpet sits down a lot. Unfortunately, it works better in warmer weather.

Finally, make sure that the carpet is sitting all the way down in the grooves by the seatbelt bolts before you cut.

I just did mine over the weekend and I could go on and on about the details...Like the previous post said, take your time and you will not believe how great it will come out

Any questions, shoot me an email. This is the third one I've done this year.

Good luck and have fun

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