57 2Dr Hardtop - Headliner installation

[Belair-o]

Hi,
I have been working on putting in the headliner on my 57 2Dr. Hardtop, and wonder if any of you can give me some advice? The front half is in good shape, tight, with small minimal wrinkles, and pretty much ready for final stapling, but the back half is giving me trouble. The fit of the last two panels in the back, where the the roof rolls over toward the back window is not working out so well. Seems real hard to get the headliner to the back window tack strip, and to the side tackstrip without ending up with wrinkles and slack sections. Any tips/tricks from your experience?
Thanks, Doug

[Tabasco]

I checked youtube and found 2 videos on trifive headliner installation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7LAIS8X45I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHC9evR4_og&t=33s

They are both sedans so I don't know if that will help you.

[Belair-o]

Hi Tabasco,
Thanks to you for searching, and for the two links. I have watched the Ciadella video many times before, and maybe because it is a sedan, I don't find help for dealing with the rear corners, or maybe it is just me. It is a good general help for the headliner though. The other one just dealt with the sedan pillar, so didn't think it moved the ball forward for me. I do appreciate your help! Thanks, Doug

[Bihili]

Using a air gun stapler helped me the most and the heat gun works good on small wrinkles. The rear corners just take a lot of time.

[chevynut]

Hey Doug, my interior guy lives in Berthoud and if you need an expert to take a look he might be willing to drop by and give you some tips. Let me know if you want his info.

[Belair-o]

Using a air gun stapler helped me the most and the heat gun works good on small wrinkles. The rear corners just take a lot of time.

I have the air stapler, just need to get a better guy doing the stretching - oops, that's me! I have been tepid on using the heat gun, from hearing the horror stories of melt throughs, but will try some more. Your statement that the rear corners just take a lot of time tells me to be patient, and persistent. Thanks! Doug

[Belair-o]

Hey Doug, my interior guy lives in Berthoud and if you need an expert to take a look he might be willing to drop by and give you some tips. Let me know if you want his info.

Hi Chevynut,
I am interested, and would like to pursue your offer of his contact info.
Thanks, Doug

[Belair-o]

Thanks to Chevynut for putting me in contact with his interior guy. To recap, I was pretty happy with how my headliner install looked, except for the rear corners. Try as I might, I couldn't get those wrinkles out:

IMG_2465.JPG

After the interior guy looked at my pics, he gave me a few tips:
* In attaching the rear of the headliner to the rear tack strip, not only pull toward the window, but also pull toward the corners.
* With my vinyl headliner, use heat on each wrinkled panel, starting from the front most wrinkled panel and working toward the rear. The heat makes the vinyl headliner more supple, and able to be more easily stretched.

Those tips were key! Having read plenty of advice to be careful in using a heat gun for fear of quickly blowing thru the headliner fabric, I had been too timid with the heat. I had a small piece of fabric that I had trimmed from the front, so I experimented with the heat gun on that piece to get an understanding about what the fabric could take. I also used a fine marker to draw a circle on the piece to see what stretching I could get. It could take quite a bit of heat, and would take quite a bit of heat to stretch the fabric. I didn't go crazy with the gun, but did heat it quite a bit more than I had previously. I also had to trim some of the listing pockets a tad more, because I was stretching more.
After using the interior guy's tips, this is how the corners turned out:
IMG_2484.JPG

[WagonCrazy]

It looks great! Like it's supposed to look.

[LEE T]

Way to go Doug, it looks great!

[Belair-o]

Thanks guys!
I am pleased with how the install turned out in the end. For quite a while, I kept trying the same stuff over and over, hoping for a different outcome (definition of insanity). The input from Chevynut's upholstery guy was the game changer.
Thanks, Doug

[BamaNomad]

Does the man have a name and a shop? Or does he go by 'Chevynut's upholstery guy'???

[Belair-o]

Does the man have a name and a shop? Or does he go by 'Chevynut's upholstery guy'???

Hi Bama,
Ha! Yep, has a name, selling his current shop.
I have not had any business dealings with him, just a brief phone conversation, so I don't know that he would want to be 'unmasked' on the internet. If you wanted to pursue contacting him, I would PM Chevynut - he knows the guy way more than I do.

Regards, Doug