Re-carpeting the lids on a Ranger 680t

I’ve been in the process of tearing out, cleaning, cleaning and re-cleaning all the old glue off the front deck and the main floor. Now that I have the carpet almost ready to lay, I took on the chore of taking off the old carpet from the main storage deck lid on the front deck. HOLY COW!! I thought the lids were going to be the easy part of carpet removal! Does anyone have any hints or ideas on how to get the carpet off in under 2 hours?? I kid you not it took me almost 2 hours to get the carpet out of the 1/8 gap on the lid. Great idea and no wonder the lids show no signs of loose carpet. These things are on there. Then I had to drill out the hinge from the lids which was no easy chore either.

Just looking for any hints on easier removal because I have 4 more lids to tackle.
(Sorry for the poor quality of the picture)

Thanks

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Spilled gas in my old boat once, carpet lifted up not too long after.

Maybe put a little gas on the carpet and then yank it off.

Try a heat gun. Get the glue warm and hopefully it will pull away easier.

4″ window scraper and 3M adhesive remover

When I redid my old 680T I left the carpet in that gap. You’re not getting the new stuff in there anyway, right? I used 3M spray glue on the lid tops, then wrapped it around the lid edges and glued to inside of the cover…it’s still holding solid after 10 years last time I saw.
Show us the finished project!

Will do. I have a couple of before and I’ll get the after pics of the first lid. I did end up taking it all out and then used a putty knife and a light hammer to wedge it back in there. Great idea that Ranger had as well. I took off the carpet on the little space above the fuse box and found a label that gave the information on who built the boat. Pretty neat stuff.

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cool.

i dug up some old pics (this was 11 years ago for me) from when i did the same project. good luck with yours, can’t wait to see how it turns out.

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That turned out awesome! I opted to not go up the sidewalls on the front deck. I noticed that on the main deck you didn’t go up the walls of your livewell and rod lockers. Did yours used to have carpet there? Mine did and had an aluminum trim that ran around the whole front and then around the whole deck about a foot off the floor to the top of the carpet. can’t understand why they would run the carpet up the sidewalls but I’m not going to be doing it.
Just realized I never really took any good pictures of the before. This was after cutting the old and using them as a template. The carpet used to run up the sides on the front deck and the main deck up the side walls. I’m really glad it was the gel coat flake underneath. I never liked the carpet running up the side walls.

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mine did not have carpet on the cockpit walls like yours, just up the walls of the front deck. i left the aluminum trim piece in place on the front deck when i removed the carpet, and just put the new carpet in place snug up to it without going underneath. glad i didn’t have that issue in the cockpit – i like your idea of not carpeting up the sides, but i suppose that means you’ve got some serious buffing or wet-sanding in your future to shine them up!
i also replaced the seat bases as long as i had the carpet torn up.

Yeah, lots of rubbing compound and then some polish and wax. There will be some spots that don’t look “great” but so far turned out ok. Lots of elbow grease! Never thought of the wet sanding though! Great idea, Thanks

What color is your boat by the way? Kind of looks similar to mine but blue carpet. I have a reddish brown with gold/silver flake.

I can’t believe how well the carpet has held up from the factory for 27 years!

FINALLY, almost there! Just have the remaining lids to do but that might have to wait until the snow is flying again. haha. Not excited to tackle another one of the lids but might have to bite the bullet and get er’ done one night/weekend. Final cleanup underway shortly.

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Looking good!
And you know you’ll be happier if it’s all the way done…