Technical 39 Chevy headliner - Stapling through sheet metal?

Prepping to replace headliner. Tack strip was used above the doors and package tray but for the majority of the fastening under the window and windshield trim the material was stapled directly to the sheet metal (about .042" thick - ~19 gauge). It looks like the 'right' gun to come close to duplicating what the factory did would be something that fires 16 gauge 7/16" crown staples at ~5/8". I found such a gun. $300. So for a one-time job... nope.

Anyone have personal experience and know first hand whether 16 gauge 1/4" crown staples would go through? Those pneumatic guns are easy to get and relatively cheap. I'm just looking for the staples to hold things in place while adhesive is setting so I don't need to mess with clips.

If stapling isn't an option I'd also like to hear thoughts on whether ADHESIVE ALONE (e.g. weldwood landau/trim) without tacks/staples would be sufficient (the trim itself also helps top pinch the headliner in place in the window areas). While I've only been seeing adhesive being used alongside tack strips, I'm thinking that may be a bit "belt and suspenders" today since they only used staples every four or five inches and no modern adhesive back then.

 

If you can get to the back of it, a piece of wire through the original holes and then twisted together where you can't see them? I have used short bits of wire instead, and just bent them over and give them a tap with the hammer.

 

Interesting idea. That'd be great for some other things that were stapled and clinched, such as the rubber insulation on the fenders and the fender vents where there's also access to both sides. Unfortunately, for the headliner it looks like the headliner material itself would block the way. That is, the headliner it covers up any access to back of the holes. The original headliner staples weren't clinched so apparently the factory just drove them in straight through the headliner and into the metal relying only on friction to hold them in. But since there's no vertical force on them that works ok.

 

Enough room to use a stud welder? Weld the studs at the appropriate intervals, cut short enough, and bent them over to hold the cloth.

 

these days the trim guys just use contact adhesive, don't they?

 

I usually rivet or screw the tack strip on when it was originally stapled.

 

My '39 Chev coupe had a tack strip stapled above the windshield for the headliner to staple to. Nothing around or above the rear window. The tack strip appeared to be an old original piece, but was barely there, and not much to staple to when I did my headliner.
I cut up thick leather I bought at my local Tandy Leather store, and since I don't own an industrial stapler I took the time to glue it in, and then drilled every few inches and installed pop rivets to ensure it stuck forever. Then I glued and stapled my headliner to the leather tack strips for a solid connection. Once the garnish molding went on it isn't going anywhere.
Not sure how the pros do this, so I just winged it, and did what I thought was best.

 

Thanks. Interesting idea to use a stud welder. It could be used to make some teeth for hooking the headliner. I've already gotten the dents out so not sure I'm ready to pull the trigger to get one (no pun intended). But for sure I'll be keeping that approach in mind. It seems like it would be really clean.

 

That's also what I want to know But looking at info and video online for bowed headliners I either see adhesive being used with staples alongside traditional tack strip or for later cars with the toothed metal tack strips that the car came with. I haven't gotten any info on 'adhesive only'.

 

I think it depends on the particular car, what there is to attach it to, what angle the headliner is pulling from, etc. Posting pictures of what you are looking at in your car, will help remind others what you are dealing with, so they can offer more useful advice.

it's been 33 years since I put a headliner in a 39 chevy, after all

 

Hmmm. I'd have expected all the 39 models to be built pretty much the same way because they have so much in common - although my '39 Town Sedan was a pretty early production, actually built in December of '38, so maybe that's a difference?

You mention that you also had nothing around or above the rear window. How was your headliner fastened back there?

Checking my dis***embly photos, the area around the inside of my rear window had some 1/8" cardboard strip which might be called tack strip - but the fasteners themselves were 1/2" tacks that were driven through the headliner, the strip, and into the sheet metal.

There appears to be provision for similar 1/8" strip around the rear quarter windows as well, though again, the headliner was stapled through and into the sheet metal. Even the windlace along the A-pillar was stapled into the sheet metal.

I think the cardboard strip was put there not to hold the tacks but as a cushion and to help keep the staples or tacks from ripping through the headliner material over time. In any case, while I can put in new 1/8" strips using blind rivets or screws, they wouldn't be deep enough to hold staples alone and I'm back to where I started with fastening the headliner.

The attached picture shows how the headliner was fastened around the rear window using tacks that were driven into the sheet metal.

 

Here's a photo of the situation at the windshield from the inside. There's about 3/4" flat area under the trim where the headliner was stapled to the sheet metal. (The trim has a gap in it that allows flexing it to show how much space is behind the trim.) It all fits pretty tightly. There's not much room for adding anything else. My hope is that I can just use adhesive to fix the headliner all along that flat area under the trim. Otherwise, unless a 16 gauge staple is known to work I'll need to drive some other fastener through the headliner and into the sheet metal in those places.