Good day. Hey my cars a few steps away from blue slip auditions and the next thing I have to tackle is getting some headliner. Has anyone got some good ideas for a quick, simple bung up job? I don't have the $800 spare to have one made up and installed. Better still. Is there anyone in Australia that has some headliner lying around? I do believe they used the same headliner from 1949 to 54 for both 4 and 2 door models. Mine's a 150 though.
buy some of that stretchy carpet they use on speaker boxes.Comes in all sorts of colours and can be glued direct to the roof and will stretch over all of the roof braces etc.If you cut it too short at the edge you just stretch it a little.
800 bucks- holy shit, i'm in the wrong business.... oh, wait whats wrong with a bit of fake fur to get ya rollin' ? doesn't have to be that naff super long stuff.
I think what I'd do here in the US is try and find a junkyard Chevy Suburban that had been a school bus or fleet truck and had the perforated vinyl headliner. Peel the vinyl off the backing (if it's not falling down already), and use that - it comes out in two pieces, which should be enough material to do a car, worst case you have to hide a seam along one of the bows. The stuff is thin enough I think you could run it through a regular home sewing machine to hang it on the bows. And if you don't like tan, paint or dye it some other color.
Drive to an interior shop. Pay them. Drive home with a new head liner and a lot of extra cash to spend on something else. Gary
Headliners here only run about $100-125 installed including materials. I can buy the fabric at a local shop for about $3 per foot, 60 inches wide. They really aren't that difficult to fit and install.
don't forget though that a headliner is fairly complex. chev would have 6-7 panels, if one doesn't fit right they all don't fit. there's a big difference between stitching up something to fill the hole and having a nice, properly fitted headlining. if you're gonna just stick something up for the meantime its a lot easier to glue it in. then save some coin and have a professional shop install something when you get all your trim done.
GREAT STUFF. the stiffer kind. Use a couple cans, then shave it down with a Electric meat cutter. Spray the addheisive on it and lay the material over. Or just shave it down, make some designs if need too. and Rino line over it.
Who sells the tack strip material that the headliner material is fastened (tacked) to in '50s cars? Typically this stuff is in channels around the inside of the windshield and up the posts. Tried to save the old stuff but it pretty much crumbled.
Check out couple of good articles -- Dec '07 in Rod & Custom, and Aug '08 Auto Restorer. Both are more than spray-on adhesive and zebra fabric, but less than a professional installation would cost.
clean up the outside of the roof, coat with a mold release agent, apply fiberglass on top, pop it off, trim to fit inside, finish as desired(body work and paint it, or spray adhesive fabric on it)
I went to spotlight and picked up some stretchy black fabric. I had an old headliner and measured all the distances and put 5 cable ties for each retaining rod to hold the head liner. Next couple of days I'll have a crack at putting the stuff up. The fabric is nice and stretchy so with a bit of glue, a spatula and the odd commando roll I should get it in there. I'll post a few photos when I'm done!
We dont need no stinkin headliners! Just hot-glue some mexican blankets up there. Be cool. Be bold. Start a new trend!!!!
Go to Africa, shoot a zebra, preferably in the head as not to ruin the hide, skin the animal, leave the carcas for the local lions, tigers and bears to have something to eat. Fly back to the states drive your hotrod to the upholstery shop and have your new zebra headliner installed, shouldn't cost you more than 3 or 4 thousand in airfare and fines.
There was an article in one of the more recent street rodder or hot rod magazines about doing this exact type of headliner. The result turned out pretty nicely as well.
The Jalopy Journal
