| !!Warning!! |
| I have had a lot of people asking about how I did this modification to my headliner. If anyone chooses to use this information, I say go ahead, but I am not responsible for any problems that might happen. This process worked well for me as you can see, so I'm not saying it will or wont work well for you. To start things off, here are the main supplies/tools you may need for this project. If you do any sort of work around the house, you should have most of these supplies around. 1. Exacto knife or Box-cutter 2. Philips screwdriver 3. Headliner material/foam 4. Fiberglass material/resin (depending on the status of your headliner backing) 5. Stiff wire brush 6. Elmer's Wood Glue 7. Cardboard or Foamboard 8. Strong Contact Cement. I used Hybond 80. It is thick like corn syrup, but must be applied with a paint brush. 9. Wax-paper Step #1 Remove the old headliner. Be careful not to break anything. The plasitc clips around the trim break very easily. Try hard not to bend the headliner backing. If it becomes broken, it can easily be fixed with fiberglass. Step #2 When the headliner has been removed, you should next look it over and see if there are any breaks, or weakend areas of the backing. If so, you should probably give this a layer of fiberglass. It will make it 10 times stronger. With the headliner removed and fixed of any weakness, you can now start to remove the material and foam. I used a box cutter when I got to an area where the material would not pull off. Do not tear the headliner backing. it should reamin intact. Little amounts of tears will not hurt much, but the backing will tear easily. When all the material and foam is off, give the backing a nice brushing with the wire brush to remove any extra foam that remains on the backing. Once again, the backing will tear easily. Step #3 After the backing has been brushed, you can now begin the process of designing your design that will be put on the headliner. I chose the bird since I have a Firebird, but anything can be used. I suggest trying to avoid lots of little indentations and avoiding as much detail as possible. The material and foam are not as easy to work with as one might think. When your design has been drawn up on paper, you can now transfer it over to the cardboard. I used 4 layers of cardboard on my headliner. 2 layers for each level. If you want to keep it simple, I would only go with a single layer. But 2 pieces of cardboard on top of eachother will give a nice design with enough detail to notice it at a glance. Cut out the design from the 2 pieces of cardboard and you will be ready to go on. Be sure the 2 pieces are the same though. Step #4 When the cardboard pieces are cut out, they can be glued to the headliner backing. Start with the first piece of cardboard and glue them on one at a time so that the shape of the backing will transfer to the cardboard. The cardboard should lay flat on the headliner, so some portions may have to be bent to conform to the curves of the backing. The first piece of cardboard can be glued to the backing using the contact adhesive. Be sure to use plenty of adhesive to ensure that it will stick to the backing. Keep pressure on the cardboard so that it sticks down well. The remaining pieces of cardboard can be glued together with the wood glue. A thin layer of glue will keep the cardboard flat to the other pieces and yet keep it glued well. If you chose to use the foam board, you should probably use the contact adhesive instead of the wood glue because the cardboard rougher than the foamboard. Step #5 When the designed cardboard pieces have been glued to the backing and let dry, you can now begin the process of gluing the material/foam to the backing. This is the hardest part of the whole process. Be sure to put lots of the contact cement on both surfaces. Follow the directions on the can of adhesive. I went through nearly 2 quarts of the adhesive when I glued both the cardboard and material to the backing. The more adhesive used, the less likely this thing will fall apart in the future. When both surfaces have been covered in the glue, and it has dried to the touch, cover the backing with the wax paper so that when you lay the material/foam on it, it will not stick down right away. When the two surfaces with the contact cement touch, there is no way to separate them without something tearing. You only have one shot at this. I began in the middle and worked my way towards the edges of the backing. Slowly remove a piece of wax paper from the middle and press teh material down firmly. If there are any edges near the center, you should conform the material to the cardboard focusing on the edges where the material drops from the cardboard to the backing. These will be the areas where the material will separate from the backing first. Be sure enough pressure has been applied so that it holds well before you continue. Keep removing the wax paper and continue until the whole thing has been glued together. Keep working on the edges until the whole thing has been glued together. Keep working on the edges where the material drops from the cardboard layer to the backing. Step #6 Clean up all your messes and wait for the headliner to dry. After it has sat for a while, you can begin cutting the holes for the dome light and seat belts. Also, trim around the edges of the headliner. I chose to leave an inch or two at the front where the headliner meets the windshield. I then wraped the extra material up behind the backing and gave it a few strips of duck-tape until I got the headliner back ing the car. Be careful when reinstalling it, it can still break easily and might not be fully dry yet. Step #7 Also, drop me a line and take some pics of the finished product. I'm interested to see what other ideas you have and the designs you come up with. Email: tzfbird@yahoo.com |