I want to re-do the interior in my new to me 96 impreza obw. What I definitely need is all new carpet and new seats. What's the best way to go about installing new carpet? I figure I just rip up the current carpet completely and find a good donor car and take the carpet out of there, ya? Also, what year vehicle would you guys recommend taking seats out of if I wanted to put in more comfortable seats?

You answered your own question . Cheapest way is din or car, if the carpet in it isn't torn to shreds, take it out and pressure wash it and re- dye it. Or if you have money to burn, new fitted carpet. Seats are a dime a dozen if you can find a donor that the glass hasn't been out of too awful long and in good shape. Same car donor carpet comes out of even better. No mismatching then.

You answered your own question . Cheapest way is din or car, if the carpet in it isn't torn to shreds, take it out and pressure wash it and re- dye it. Or if you have money to burn, new fitted carpet. Seats are a dime a dozen if you can find a donor that the glass hasn't been out of too awful long and in good shape. Same car donor carpet comes out of even better. No mismatching then.

What's the process for putting in new carpet? Is it just ripping up the old carpet and laying the new stuff down and snapping it into place or something like that? Do I need any special tools or can I just take a day and rip out old then throw in new? Also...what year for the impreza obw can I look at for an exact carpet match?

Edited May 7, 201411 yr by cascadeclimbn

Carpets in all vehicles are generally put down with a light upholstery adhesive that is water resistant. Beat way to start is remove seats and the trim work / console and it generally crimes out fairly easy from there. Learn how to remove these items on donor car so you don't break anything on yours taking trim and stuff up. I am a fairly new subie owner myself so not sure what yrs the interiors are the same. I have dome many trucks and SUV's this same way so all in all the process is the same. Hopefully someone with more experience in bodies and interior knowledge will chime in with what yrs will match up. Sorry for some of my spelling, stupid phone thinks its smarter than I am correcting things I shorten lol

No adhesive on these cars.

Pull the seats out, center console, pull the door sill trims up, b-pillar trim off. A couple clips on the sides and some screw clips up under the dash and the carpet lifts out.

 

You can get carpet, seats, pretty much the entire interior from any Impreza (including all sub models; wrx, STI, obw, rs, ts, etc.) 93~06/07ish.

Any front seats from 90-04 Legacy/outback/baja will work fine as well. Just have to bend the front bracket a tad so the angle matches the impreza floor. Takes 30 seconds with a pair of vice grips.

 

I have Baja seats in my 97 Impreza outback.

 

Forester 98-04 should drop right in as well.