In a previous post I made comments to wanting to get glass in the car. This helps keep the interior dry. But, before glass can be installed I have to put the headliner in.
The headliner is one of those jobs that is not difficult and not fun. I have completed several of them. This one actually gave me some fits. Why? Bows. No, I am not talking about Bose an audio company. I am talking about the tension rod bows that hold up the middle of the headliner. Since the sunroof was cutout I have to add all the parts for a headliner. I am not a fan of a bare roof. Now, the biggest challenge here is the headliner bows that you buy, even with Factory PNs on them, do not fit the car. they are physically too long by more than 1cm. It actually varies but 12mm is about average extra length I found.
The solution, Cut and weld. It didn't take too long to cut them, fit them and weld back together. Here is a quick weld bead that was finished .
You can see that they now fit in the slots relatively easily. The are not quite straight but clean up once the fabric is installed and tensioned.
The headliner process is simple once the 4 bows fit. In my case, I put the headliner fabric in the dryer for about 20 min on high. This will soften the material. Then its a race against time to slip the bows in the fabric, insert the bows in the roofline slots and pull tight while also, clamping into place along the perimeter. It looks like this when finished. You can see the extra fabric around the perimeter. There is always a generous cut of material on these patterns.
Next I trim the fabric back until there is approximately 1" margin around all the seams and perimeter. This allows you to pull even tighter for a second round of tension. I then leave in this position overnight.
gluing is done with contact cement. I use a paintbrush to paste the car pinch weld seams and the fabric all the way around. Then I start pulling tight, tensioning and gluing. I start in the middle of the doors on each side, then middle of the front and rear glass sections. Then work carefully toward each corner.
In the end, the fabric is glued and clamped. I then leave overnight before carefully trimming off the edges. Don't forget to use a roller to make sure all the glue is well stuck to the car.
Toight like a Tiger!
Oh, don't forget the headliner seam "clips". I install 5 per front and rear distributed across the roofline.