For those that live in the Cypress/1960 area and Houston area. There is a store called Hancock Fabrics and they sell Headliner fabrics. They don't have too many to choose from but they have the most common shades of color. I decided to restore my sunvisors and the upper console. Picked up a yard of light grey fabric for $ 12.99 minus 40% from a coupon an employee gave me. Out the door with taxes $ 8.36, not too bad. Picked up a can of 3M adhesive from Advanced and hopefully start on them this weekend. I'll try to post up some pics, hopefully I have better luck this time posting pics. The only thing I need to look for is a used visor with a lighted mirror because the driver's side lid broke. I can always do that last.
Restore Sunvisors & Upper Console
- Thread starter CUSTOM06
- Start date
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TruckinAin4Sissies
L.E.D. Whisperer
Howdy, I'm in the same boat as you hombre. I was interested in recovering the visors but have my doubts. Take lots-o-pics please.
Good luck it should come out fine. Back when I had a 1976 Firebird I did my headliner with vinyl everybody liked it because I would keep it shiny. My seats on my 93 truck were leather I had them redone with vinyl that looks like leather they have lasted a long time. You might view some videos on Youtube they might help you.
JollyGreen
Metalworking Madman
Would definitely like to see this when your done.
sewlow
Bitchin' Stitchin'
Welcome.
Headliners are fairly easy on these trucks. The hard part is getting them out, & putting 'em back in without screwing up the panel itself.
Do you have the large one that goes side to side to the top of the doors, or the shorter one that ends about 2 or 3 inches from the top of the doors?
-Removal-
For the short one, there are 2 plastic plugs over the doors that have to be popped out. I use a door panel tool to get those out. 2 flat screwdrivers on either side will get 'em out too, but that might break the tops off. Any auto parts stores will sell those.
Remove the visors, the 'panic bar' on the pass. side 'A' pillar, & the grab bar on the roof over the pass. door. The 'A' pillar plastic pulls off. There are 2 clips holding them. Remove the top first. Remove the dome light.
Over top of the windshield, there are 4 pieces of velcro, evenly spaced, just behind the leading edge of the H/L.
Try to gently separate the two pieces of velcro from each other one piece at a time. Once you have a section apart, stick some masking tape between the two so they don't re-attach themselves together as you work on the next one.
If you have a cardboard shell, the velcro sticks to that better. If you have the fiber shell, more than likely the velcro will come off of that, & may even stay stuck to their other 1/2 on the roof. Save those. They can be re-glued to the H/L.
Before you take the H/L all the way down, flip the seat forward. This will give you room to drop the H/L enough, down behind the seat, so that it can come out through door almost at a 45 degree angle. Take the H/L out the passenger door, so that you don't have to struggle getting the length of it over the steering wheel. You may still have to bend it, but carefully so that you don't crease the shell.
-Prep-
The original material has a 1/8" foam that is laminated to the actual fabric. It's manufactured that way. It's the foam itself that deteriorates. The material will probably come right off & leave the foam, or whatever is left of it, behind.
To remove the leftover foam, I use an 80 grit sanding disc folded in 1/2, but any grit that's fairly rough will work.
If you have the cardboard headliner, you don't have to be really aggressive, but you can go at it pretty good to remove the foam. Usually two or three swipes in the same spot will get it off.
For the 'fiber' style H/L, you have to be gentle. One to many swipes with the sanding disc, & you're into the actual H/L itself. Any divots will show through the new material. Have patience.
On both, be careful around the edges. Any broken pieces can be re-fit into where they belong, & then held in place by gluing a larger backup piece of cardboard in behind it. Cereal box cardboard or similar works. On round areas, cut a circle 2x larger than the repair, then cut straight to the center about 1/2 way in. Place the center of the cardboard over the repair. The flaps that have been created by the cuts can now overlap each other. A bit of glue on the top side of the flaps will allow them to stick to each other. Start with one flap & lay them over each other, one at a time.
-Material Install-
Make sure that the headliner surface to be glued, & the H/L material are clean & free from any foam chunks. You can use air to blow this off, but not on the 'fiber' style. Use a whisk broom lightly or your hand. Air will blow those apart.
Lay the material over the shell. Let it sag & slightly conform to the shell shape. Cut the fabric so that there is 4-6" extra all the way around. Fold the material in 1/2. Either way, doesn't matter. Cut a small notch in the material on either end of the fold. Unfold the material, & re-fold the other way. Do the notch thing again. These are to help you center & square the material on the shell when you glue it down.
Unfold the material over the shell, but this time, pull the material slightly tight so that it doesn't sag or touch it. Check for square. Re-fold the material in 1/2 from one side to the other. (door to door) Adjust the material doesn't touch the shell. It'll want to sag at the fold.
Spray the glue on the exposed side of the shell, LIGHTLY. You don't want to soak into it. Do the exposed back side of the material. VERY lightly. Let it dry. 5-10 minutes. You want this coat & the next to create a 'skin' of glue ON TOP of the 2 pieces, so that the last one will not soak through.
Once you have done one side, unfold the material, not letting it touch the shell, kind of suspended over it by the outer shell edges. Fold the unglued side over, so that it' exposed & repeat the glue process. Let dry.
Once that's done, unfold the fabric over the shell. Give it enough slack so that it touches in the center. Use the palm of your hand & very lightly touch the pieces together. ONLY in the center.
Grab a corner &, holding it with one hand, smooth the material towards the corner, lightly. If you're getting wrinkles, give the material a bit of a snap to release it and continue to smooth the material back down, using your hand holding the corner to adjust the material as you work the wrinkles out as your smoothing. Do all 4 corners.
Once it's all down, give the material a final smoothing down. DON'T push too hard. The glue is still fresh, & if you push too hard, the glue cause the foam to compress INTO the glue, leaving permanent marks.
Turn the headliner over, & give the edges of the material, & the edges of the shell a fairly good coat of glue, about 2" or more onto each. Trim off the extra material & start wrapping it around the shell.
For inside curves, you'll have to make straight cuts into the material towards the shell edge. Not too close. 1/4 inch is close enough. You can always give it another little nip if you have to. If the material is still a little tight when you wrap it in some spots, don't cut the reliefs more. Cut more reliefs. Divide the ones there now, in 1/2.
Re glue the velcro pieces back on if they came off during removal. You may have to trim off some of the wrapped fabric.
While the H/L is upside down, carefully cut out the larger holes for the visors & dome light. Use a razor knife with a new blade. Just mark the screw holes with a pencil or chalk. No need to cut those.
-Re-install-
Repeat dis-assembly in the opposite order.
Hope that this makes the job easy. Any Q's, & I'll be happy to help.
AL.
Headliners are fairly easy on these trucks. The hard part is getting them out, & putting 'em back in without screwing up the panel itself.
Do you have the large one that goes side to side to the top of the doors, or the shorter one that ends about 2 or 3 inches from the top of the doors?
-Removal-
For the short one, there are 2 plastic plugs over the doors that have to be popped out. I use a door panel tool to get those out. 2 flat screwdrivers on either side will get 'em out too, but that might break the tops off. Any auto parts stores will sell those.
Remove the visors, the 'panic bar' on the pass. side 'A' pillar, & the grab bar on the roof over the pass. door. The 'A' pillar plastic pulls off. There are 2 clips holding them. Remove the top first. Remove the dome light.
Over top of the windshield, there are 4 pieces of velcro, evenly spaced, just behind the leading edge of the H/L.
Try to gently separate the two pieces of velcro from each other one piece at a time. Once you have a section apart, stick some masking tape between the two so they don't re-attach themselves together as you work on the next one.
If you have a cardboard shell, the velcro sticks to that better. If you have the fiber shell, more than likely the velcro will come off of that, & may even stay stuck to their other 1/2 on the roof. Save those. They can be re-glued to the H/L.
Before you take the H/L all the way down, flip the seat forward. This will give you room to drop the H/L enough, down behind the seat, so that it can come out through door almost at a 45 degree angle. Take the H/L out the passenger door, so that you don't have to struggle getting the length of it over the steering wheel. You may still have to bend it, but carefully so that you don't crease the shell.
-Prep-
The original material has a 1/8" foam that is laminated to the actual fabric. It's manufactured that way. It's the foam itself that deteriorates. The material will probably come right off & leave the foam, or whatever is left of it, behind.
To remove the leftover foam, I use an 80 grit sanding disc folded in 1/2, but any grit that's fairly rough will work.
If you have the cardboard headliner, you don't have to be really aggressive, but you can go at it pretty good to remove the foam. Usually two or three swipes in the same spot will get it off.
For the 'fiber' style H/L, you have to be gentle. One to many swipes with the sanding disc, & you're into the actual H/L itself. Any divots will show through the new material. Have patience.
On both, be careful around the edges. Any broken pieces can be re-fit into where they belong, & then held in place by gluing a larger backup piece of cardboard in behind it. Cereal box cardboard or similar works. On round areas, cut a circle 2x larger than the repair, then cut straight to the center about 1/2 way in. Place the center of the cardboard over the repair. The flaps that have been created by the cuts can now overlap each other. A bit of glue on the top side of the flaps will allow them to stick to each other. Start with one flap & lay them over each other, one at a time.
-Material Install-
Make sure that the headliner surface to be glued, & the H/L material are clean & free from any foam chunks. You can use air to blow this off, but not on the 'fiber' style. Use a whisk broom lightly or your hand. Air will blow those apart.
Lay the material over the shell. Let it sag & slightly conform to the shell shape. Cut the fabric so that there is 4-6" extra all the way around. Fold the material in 1/2. Either way, doesn't matter. Cut a small notch in the material on either end of the fold. Unfold the material, & re-fold the other way. Do the notch thing again. These are to help you center & square the material on the shell when you glue it down.
Unfold the material over the shell, but this time, pull the material slightly tight so that it doesn't sag or touch it. Check for square. Re-fold the material in 1/2 from one side to the other. (door to door) Adjust the material doesn't touch the shell. It'll want to sag at the fold.
Spray the glue on the exposed side of the shell, LIGHTLY. You don't want to soak into it. Do the exposed back side of the material. VERY lightly. Let it dry. 5-10 minutes. You want this coat & the next to create a 'skin' of glue ON TOP of the 2 pieces, so that the last one will not soak through.
Once you have done one side, unfold the material, not letting it touch the shell, kind of suspended over it by the outer shell edges. Fold the unglued side over, so that it' exposed & repeat the glue process. Let dry.
Once that's done, unfold the fabric over the shell. Give it enough slack so that it touches in the center. Use the palm of your hand & very lightly touch the pieces together. ONLY in the center.
Grab a corner &, holding it with one hand, smooth the material towards the corner, lightly. If you're getting wrinkles, give the material a bit of a snap to release it and continue to smooth the material back down, using your hand holding the corner to adjust the material as you work the wrinkles out as your smoothing. Do all 4 corners.
Once it's all down, give the material a final smoothing down. DON'T push too hard. The glue is still fresh, & if you push too hard, the glue cause the foam to compress INTO the glue, leaving permanent marks.
Turn the headliner over, & give the edges of the material, & the edges of the shell a fairly good coat of glue, about 2" or more onto each. Trim off the extra material & start wrapping it around the shell.
For inside curves, you'll have to make straight cuts into the material towards the shell edge. Not too close. 1/4 inch is close enough. You can always give it another little nip if you have to. If the material is still a little tight when you wrap it in some spots, don't cut the reliefs more. Cut more reliefs. Divide the ones there now, in 1/2.
Re glue the velcro pieces back on if they came off during removal. You may have to trim off some of the wrapped fabric.
While the H/L is upside down, carefully cut out the larger holes for the visors & dome light. Use a razor knife with a new blade. Just mark the screw holes with a pencil or chalk. No need to cut those.
-Re-install-
Repeat dis-assembly in the opposite order.
Hope that this makes the job easy. Any Q's, & I'll be happy to help.
AL.
TruckinAin4Sissies
L.E.D. Whisperer
Hey CUSTOM06: Did you ever complete this?
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