Hi Smokey,
I took a 1/2 day vacation yesterday (it was a
gorgeous day) and I put in my fiberglass headliner.
It was kinda like putting a square peg in a round
hole. It is still not perfect - there is a gap
on each side. I think this is because there is
too much of a bow. It has the length to go side
to side when I just hold it up, but when I put it
in and it curves a lot at the sides and I lose some
length. I'm planning to put some heat shield
insulation under the headliner, and I think I can
add some extra on each side so it curves a little
less and fits side to side.
I also need to get some of the molding that goes
right below the headliner. There are remnants of
this molding left in my truck, but it is mostly gone.
Does anyone know where I can get this stuff??
Here are some installation suggestions.
1. Protect everything.
The edges of that fiberglass are rough. It will
scratch your paint if it hits it. My interior is
pretty rough, so I didn't have to worry about it.
But if I had already painted inside, I would
have been real concerned.
2. Remove your rear view mirror.
You probably don't have to do this, but it is
only a couple of screws to take out and then it
is one less thing to be in the way and one less
thing to get scratched up.
3. Work from the passenger's side.
It is a little bit awkward moving the headliner
around inside the truck. The steering wheel
is just an extra obstruction to deal with if
you try to put it in from the driver's side.
4. Make a template.
I didn't do this but I think it would have
helped. The headliner has to be trimmed and
you don't want to cut your $135 headliner to
short! I think a big piece of cardboard
could probably be used to make a template.
5. Trim.
If you do the template thing - you just have
to trim the headliner to match your template.
Otherwise, you'll have to do what I did and just
wing it. I made a few cuts, held it up, made
a few cuts, held it up, etc...
I trimmed it with a strong pair of scissors
and that worked ok. A dremel-type tool may
work well also.
6. Install.
I found it worked best to start at the front.
I tried to get each of the front corners tucked
in and then the rest of the front tucked in.
Then I could slide the whole thing forward until
the back was lined up with the bow. The sides
are pretty easy to tuck in.
I did this by myself, but an extra set of hands
would have been helpful at this stage.
If anybody else has installed one of these fiberglass
headliners and has any other ideas about the best
way to install these suckers, let us know.
Good luck!
Steve
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_____|L\___ Steve Parham
(_,._____,._) 55 3100 1st
---`'-----`'-- Knoxville, TN
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