I dont know what the rest of TMI's stuff is like but their carpets kits are woeful. If I owned TMI Id embarrised at the quality of this carpet. Doesnt fit properly at all and I could shred it with my bare hands its so thin, and its like 300 bucks a kit here. admittedly in the US it would be a third of the price Im sure, but even that'd be too expensive.

yeah I seen a few TMI carpets installed, they looked shithouse.

door trims are pretty decent, seat covers not too bad but can be better.

dont know about the roof linings.

Iv'e been told Newton carpets are the go.
Cheers

Often times the fitting issue is a case of the kit not matching the year of the car. Easy to get wrong because TMI base their kits on German production. Subtle production modifications occurred every year in German production. Those changes didn't necessarily happen in Aussie production simultaneously or at all in some instances so the kit patterns for German produced vehicles might not match the patterns for a locally produced car of the same year.
TMI don't know Aussie cars. (Aussies don't know Aussie cars).
For $300 you get 10 (?) pieces, cut and bound. That's $30 a piece and half of that would be freight from the US. So at $15 a piece cut and bound, that's an inexpensive carpet kit.
You can buy a moulded kit manufactured locally for the same money but they really are tragic and come nowhere near fitting.
The other thing too with ordering TMI carpet kits, their standard kit has string binding which makes the pieces look like your front door mat. For an extra $15 or so you can have cloth binding which looks more like the real thing. Most retailers don't tick the box or are aware you can tick the box, so the customer ends up with a pretty ordinary looking kit.
Probably a bit unfair to say they look shithouse fitted. Can depend on who does the fitting. As with most reproduction gear, it's not unusual to have to do some modifying before you get the result you want.
Newtons do nice work but patterns are based on German production and pretty much twice the price.
Feeling your pain Gents but sometimes there's more to it than meets the eye. Maybe?

Cheers
Brad


This one came up ok.

What about their carpet kits for in the rear behind seat cargo area?

Which ones are they Brad? Newtons or TMI?

That looks like the Sewfine oatmeal square weave carpet that they've been making for the last 20 years. It's probably TMI if its from Bus'n'bug.

TMI do make some great products, and their prices are competitive, but if you want to deal directly with the person who's making your carpets, try Sewfine in the US. They make great carpet kits, but they cost a bit more than the TMI product. They also allow you to send your own templates too, so you don't need to worry about getting a bad fit or cut outs for pedals on the left. (Maybe TMI do too, but they didn't offer this service years ago) You just need to know how to do an accurate pattern. If not, leave it to the experts like Brad.

That's a TMI kit but it's been trimmed to fit and had the gearshift, handbrake and heater tap openings cut and bound. So they can come up well but for the best result they need tweaking. Like most repro stuff whether it's interior or not.
The rear luggage area kits are pretty hard to get wrong.
I'm sure Sewfine make a good product.
You get what you pay for.
I can make a kit that will fit perfectly but will only do them in German Square Weave.
Cheaper materials are almost always harder to work with and consume more time.
Cheaper automotive carpet will always be synthetic and generally has less backing, making it soft and floppy and therefore harder to run through a machine when binding.
GSW is tuff as old boots. Really solid stuff and lasts 20 years plus. It's cheaper in the long run but a bigger hit up front.

Wish i had read this thread before buying my TMI carpet it is CRAP

What's the problem? I'm sure TMI would like to know about it and get it right.
Happy to help if I can.

If my carpet looked like yours (65busser) i would be real happy but it looks like sombody trimmed it with tinsnips and just made up the shapes as they went along

Are you sure you got the right kit for your year model, keeping in mind Aussie year models don't always match US year models?
Also, unless you specify cloth binding, you get string binding which looks very ordinary. Sounds like you got string binding?

65busser, are you able to give me some tips on putting in my TMI kit?
Thanks,
Denver

Yeah sure. Give us a call. 03 9555 5440

Cheers
Brad

Cheers, will give you a call monday arvo..

that looks beeeautiful.

i spent a fortune on mine...

Quote:

Originally posted by 65busser Often times the fitting issue is a case of the kit not matching the year of the car. Easy to get wrong because TMI base their kits on German production. Subtle production modifications occurred every year in German production. Those changes didn't necessarily happen in Aussie production simultaneously or at all in some instances so the kit patterns for German produced vehicles might not match the patterns for a locally produced car of the same year. TMI don't know Aussie cars. (Aussies don't know Aussie cars). For $300 you get 10 (?) pieces, cut and bound. That's $30 a piece and half of that would be freight from the US. So at $15 a piece cut and bound, that's an inexpensive carpet kit. You can buy a moulded kit manufactured locally for the same money but they really are tragic and come nowhere near fitting. The other thing too with ordering TMI carpet kits, their standard kit has string binding which makes the pieces look like your front door mat. For an extra $15 or so you can have cloth binding which looks more like the real thing. Most retailers don't tick the box or are aware you can tick the box, so the customer ends up with a pretty ordinary looking kit. Probably a bit unfair to say they look shithouse fitted. Can depend on who does the fitting. As with most reproduction gear, it's not unusual to have to do some modifying before you get the result you want. Newtons do nice work but patterns are based on German production and pretty much twice the price. Feeling your pain Gents but sometimes there's more to it than meets the eye. Maybe? Cheers Brad This one came up ok.

How much would it cost to carpet the boot - fuel tank area?

I got TMI door trims and seat covers a few years ago. Got a local trimmer to make new padding and fit the seat covers. The results were excellent. Last year I decided to replace the locally made carpet with TMI kit. I ordered the dearer kit wich included edge binding and better material .Apart from a small area around the pedals the fit was perfect. Being RH drive they had just reversed the LH template for the pedal cutout. I contacted TMI and they were happy for the feedback and were going to investigate further. Mine was for a Karmann Ghia so the issue of Aussie built cars being different to USA and Euro doesn't occur.
The result, the door trims are perfect, the seats perfect the carpet 95/100 and most people don't notice. No comparison with the locally made trim previously fitted.

Hi guys I have a 66 Beetle that I am about to clean up interior wise, I was thinking about using the TMI seat covers, door skins and carpets, can anyone recommend the year model I need to order from the states as I have read above that our year models don't seem to match what was delivered here, thanks in advance, or any other company/s that do good things, cheers