Vinyl! (and felt, possibly)

[1987cp]

So the other day I took the somewhat scuffed headliner out of the wagon because the Mercury blue will severely clash with the burgundy/walnut color of the "new" interior that's going in. Should be very easy to apply some new fabric right over the old foam/felt junk just by using some spray adhesive and generally doing what we did at the trailer plant when applying heavy felt to the floor areas of storage compartments, so today I went out to JoAnn Fabrics to see what I could find. I found some mottled charcoal color synthetic felt for $5/yard that won't be quite the level of finish I'd like for bothering to do this at all, but it should look OK and I already know how to work with it. Over in the home decor section, I found some stuff called "Marine Vinyl" for $10/yard, and a color they call Walnut looks like it might be fairly close to what I need. It'd probably be a good option for sunvisors and maybe wrapping some of the plastic and rubber trim that's scratched and faded or discolored beyond belief (as an alternative to trying to smooth it and find a dye that's just the right color), but then I got to thinking about how it might look as a headliner. I do already have some color contrast since I have black carpet with the brownish vinyl, but I'm a little hesitant about the idea of a vinyl headliner since headliners are usually either felt or some sort of woven fabric.

Any ideas on headliners or interior vinyl work in general?

[DuceAnAHalf]

you need to completly remove the old headliner before you put anything else up there.

and use automotive headliner. comes on 1/8" or 1/4" foam thats all i use.

the vinyl will be heavy and might not stay up. and the felt (trunk liner) will look like crap IMO

plus with the headliner material, you can do something like this.

[1987cp]

Hm, I see your point about the weight of vinyl, especially if it's just glued to the old headliner. The finished appearance of the synthetic felt stuff is a concern too.

Where does one buy headliner material in particular? I did notice some rolls of stuff at the fabric store that appears to be constructed just like the stock headliner, though it would require either many hours of work to remove all felt stuff and foam from the old cardboard, or to fashion an entirely new backing from scratch.

[DuceAnAHalf]

we get it from wholesellers, but im sure the fabric store will have the same stuff.

the old stuff is not hard to remove. peal the facing off and as much foam that will come off. then get a wire brush and scrub it all off. should be able to strip it in under a half hour. if you really want to do it quick, get a wire brush attachment for a drill or angle grinder

[1987cp]

Well Duce, thanks for the input! I bought three and a half yards of "Headliner - Tan" today at JoAnn Fabrics, and tonight I reinstalled the back half of the headliner in the wagon. I was concerned initially about color choice, but after taking along the little strut-like trim piece that runs roughly between the wagon's C pillars, I discovered that this tan color should coordinate very nicely while not being starkly overpowering like something like black would be. Scrubbing the foam off the cardboard backing took a while (I found the hand brush was somewhat easier than the wire wheel), but once that was done, the new stuff was pretty easy to work with and went on quite easily with some spray adhesive I grabbed before leaving the fabric store. I could have wished for the cardboard to have been in somewhat better shape, but I think overall it'll work out very well.

I did also pick up a couple yards of that "Walnut" marine vinyl I was talking about, with the idea of being able to use it, if nothing else, on my finished dash panel. Might even be an option for sprucing up plastic trim bits ... I'll have to do some head-scratching on that, but it's either that or try to smooth the plastic pieces in an acceptable manner and/or hope walnut-colored vinyl dye will work OK on top of some of the old blue pieces.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to do the other piece of headliner and maybe even get some pictures!

[1987cp]

[GoodSamaritan]

ohhh, looks good.,
I have been tempted to pull the headliner down and atake some measurements in my wagon. I want to make an overhead console, for a cb and other gizmo's without having to further alter the dash.

I don't suppose you have ny pics of the roof without the headliner do you?

Does anyone know how long it is between the top of the windshield and the first rib/roof support?

Sorry for the thread hijack.

Btw, the roof looks GOOD!

[DuceAnAHalf]

looks good, looks like no wrinkles either

[1987cp]

Thanks guys! Yeah, no wrinkles, just a few annoying dimples here and there that I'm hoping will settle out with some seasonal heat-cycling sort of like with new carpet. And if I'm honest, there's a little area that's mostly covered by the d/s sunvisor that I screwed up by peeling some of the fabric back to restick it and not realizing a small section was stuck better than I thought. Next headliner attempt will involve getting the better 3M spray adhesive to start instead of that Duro stuff that sprays more like hair spray. In other fun news, I just got through swapping the '79 front seats into the car (no more non-coordinating burgundy full bench) so that all the quasi-finished portions of the interior at least coordinate, with the exception of figuring out how to recover the sunvisors (looks like it should be easy, once one learns how to get the front and back halves apart) and further attention to the Medium Red plastic trim that's gotten faded and oxidized.

Unfortunately GS, I didn't think to take any measurements of the roof ... have a feeling it won't be *that* long till this stuff comes back out for some attention to the plastic pieces, though. Hey, wait, I do have a couple of pics I took of the front seat area with the headliner out. Looks like the first reinforcing piece is pretty much in line with the B pillars. I do like the idea of an overhead console..... please keep me posted on your brainstorms!

[DuceAnAHalf]

i dont care for the 3M super tack stuff, does not seem to work well, and smells like urine. real contact cement is better

[P72Ford]

That looks really nice, Michael. interesting color combo here, but I can see it working well.

[1987cp]

i dont care for the 3M super tack stuff, does not seem to work well, and smells like urine. real contact cement is better

Okay, I can see that. Will keep that in mind, especially as there's at least one annoying sag (visible in the long-view picture) that I need to find a way to inject some more stuff into. What would a person use for that sort of touchup work, something along the lines of a hypodermic syringe filled with glue?

[torquelover]

3M Super 77 = urine aroma? I must have lost my sense of smell.

Michael, it's looking pretty good. I think a Maple veneer stained in fruitwood would look awesome on the dash with the color combo.

[DuceAnAHalf]

Okay, I can see that. Will keep that in mind, especially as there's at least one annoying sag (visible in the long-view picture) that I need to find a way to inject some more stuff into. What would a person use for that sort of touchup work, something along the lines of a hypodermic syringe filled with glue?

what you can try is to steam the material off. best thing to use iss a fabric steamer, or a clothes iron on steam should work. the steam will weaken the glue and enable you to pull the material up without messing up the foam back.

3M Super 77 = urine aroma? I must have lost my sense of smell.

Michael, it's looking pretty good. I think a Maple veneer stained in fruitwood would look awesome on the dash with the color combo.

yeah, it stinks. we use a spray adhesive that we get from our wholeseller. it is relabeled, but not sure who makes it. stuff is tacky. really sucks when you get it on your hands

[1987cp]

Steam, of course! Might even be able to do that in place (though maybe it wouldn't be the most advisable). Will try to do that soon.