my beat up bonneville commuter car developed saggy headliner syndrome. after many mornings of spray adhesive, I finally pinned it up to stay out of my way. Not really wanting to go to the bother of pulling the foam backing down and re stretching a new liner, it made me wonder what cheezy but creative headliners everyone devises. let's see what your ceiling looks like (pictures please), especially pictures of real classy ones .
The headliner in my '53 Chieftain is filthy but otherwise in perfect condition. No low spots, no rips, no problems. I have to figure, judging by the stains in it, that there are probably rodents of the deceased varaiety lying in state on top of the dingy fabric. That's going to be a fun R&R.
Mine looks like shit, if you really wanted to know. About half of the seams are COMPLETELY separated, and until I used those corkscrew-lookin' pins to tack it back up, it had a nasty habit of blowing what i'm assuming is asbestos-based foam/insulation shit in my face while driving. Those pins are a wonderful thing, btw.
yea I found those little spiral pins this weekend at the auto parts store, work fine. it seems that no matter what the auto manufactures do, some company comes up with a cheap way to put em back together on a sunday afternoon. i did fight the temptation to by some stick on pinstriping. i might just rip all the liner down and just paint a mural that looks like headliner and send a picture to Martha Stewart Living.
the 55 has half of the original headliner torn out, showing all the foam that padded it, and whats left of the headliner looks like freddy kruger got a hold of it.
No, its something that a nicely finished traditional custom interior has. Mine will be tuck and roll, ala- early carson shop interior work.
I'm trying to find backing foam, but I'm not sure of what to use. My brother suggested foam found at a fabric store. Anybody use that before?
Check out this old thread from Skipstich... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38449&showall=1 I thought it was very easy to follow, and I used it for mine, with some variations.
my headlinre looks like a piss soaked matress. There was an old record shop out by me thats sold cloth band posters. I made a misfits headliner out of one for my cadillac. Come to think of it, it smelled like a piss soaked matress too.
I didn't have a headliner so the padding from the top insert was falling in my face all the time.I held it up like this until I got a real headliner.........
Holy shit, the trouble a guy gets from asking a respectable question! Looks like the ratrodders all came out for the day. Jeez....a headliner finishes off a nice car. I like my cars to be nice, ergo, they get headliners! Since you're not asking for a recommendation where to buy a headliner, or have one installed, I'm assuming you are looking to do something "on the cheap". Almost anything done really cheap is going to look like it. Unless you have a sewing machine and the skills to use it. I would suggest going to JC Whitney, and buying one for your car. They ARE relatively inexpensive. They even make cloth and vinyl headliners for cars that came with the shitty fiberglass and padded headliner that falls on your head in a few years. I put one in my 80 Regal. Whitney sells them as a kit (if I remember correctly). It has alum. rails that screw onto the sides of the roof, so you can put up "real" headliner bows, and therefore a real headliner. Back when I did it, they were only aobut 50 or 60 bucks. LOTS cheaper than an upholstery shop! And you can do it yourself.
This is mine. I didn't do it, but had it done. It's the only part of the interior I designed, and let them run with the rest of the car. I'm really happy with it, so's my wife! Look for a recent post by Stitchbitch, really slick 'liner in there too!
Tonight at shortly after 2300hrs, go outside someplace where there is no light pollution. Lay down and look straight up....that's what my headliner looks like. This style of headliner is OEM in every roadster ever made. You need to get yourself one. "if you can choose what to bring to a gunfight - bring an automatic weapon and a friend with an automatic weapon" dj
You know....some people dont seem to like a headliner, but I dont have one in my wagon, and it echos like a football stadium in there, when you shut the doors, hit a bump, or talk, its crazy loud. Im going to get or make one this winter for sure.
The headliner in the rod is non existant as its a roadster, the one in the dodge is a custom made one and is done in leopard print and looks pretty damn good, not tacky like it sounds. There was no headliner in the stepside when I got it, which was fine until the winter, when it condensated something chronic and then rained icey cold water in the cab with every bump in the road. I made a headliner up with some hardboard sheets, which worked well but was kinda dull. So I spent last christmas day doing this to brighten things up a bit.................
now that's funny personally I like the gray primer look in the 55. Who the hell looks up when they're cruisin down the road? For that matter I don't even think about the damn headliner, just get in and go
I did a similar thing last summer - fed up with tears, holes, and patches of black paint I went with a similar collage theme, but the wife vetoed the pinups in favor of the more kid-friendly Archie comics... Gives them something to read on a journey, and is cheaper than a headrest DVD player.
Those late-model headliners are pretty easy to remove. Its a molded foam dish which has a foam-backed headliner fabric cemented to it. The foam deteriorates in about 10 years or so and the material starts to sag. If you remove the dish and take it to an upholstery shop to recover you'll reduce the price by about 1/3 to 1/2, i.e. $95-100 to $40-50 since they'll have no in and out labor charge. Thumbtacks work pretty well to keep the material up and don't stick you or scratch you if you happen to wave your hand and hit them.
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