Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
We worked on the car outside. The hope was that the sunshine would help dry any chemicals we might be using. There was very little insulation left above the old headliner. We were lucky because there wasn't any mouse turds there either.
This particular headliner has little metal clips that hold the sides to the outer edge of the roof. Once they were removed we popped the bows out of the holes they were seated in on the sides. There are 'teeth' in the ceiling along the front and back that grip the headliner. There are also some that are behind the sail panels. It took just a few minutes to remove the old headliner. Ray had already removed the trim pieces and had them re-painted.
Yesterday Ray layed the new headliner out in the sun hoping that the wrinkles would flatten out. It was from Legendary Interiors. Today it was a bit breezy so we kept in inside his garage laying on cardboard.
The rollbar didn't make it impossible to change headliners but it didn't make it any easier either. The hardest thing was trying to crawl into the back without banging your head.
Some of the bows had surface rust on them. It came off easily with some steel wool. We used a putty knife to remove any of the old insulation that was still on the ceiling. Ray did not want to sand the ceiling clean. Instead he just wanted it scraped down and shot with a light coat of a rust converting paint. If it was my car I'd probably made it as shiny as possible and then applied some POR-15. I still find it hard to believe that they never coated that bare steel from the factory. We also went ahead and painted the rollbar prior to installation of the headliner. We measured and marked the center of the roof in front and back. The headliner already had a center line on it from Legendary. We measured it to make sure it was marked correctly. The socket for the dome light pops out easily with a little pressure with a pair of pliers.
With the new headliner laying upside down we began installing the bows. First we took each one and centered it out. The sewn in sleeves that the bows slide into need to be cut on each side because they are longer than the bows. There needs to be a few inches of bow sticking out on each side.
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We worked on the car outside. The hope was that the sunshine would help dry any chemicals we might be using. There was very little insulation left above the old headliner. We were lucky because there wasn't any mouse turds there either.
This particular headliner has little metal clips that hold the sides to the outer edge of the roof. Once they were removed we popped the bows out of the holes they were seated in on the sides. There are 'teeth' in the ceiling along the front and back that grip the headliner. There are also some that are behind the sail panels. It took just a few minutes to remove the old headliner. Ray had already removed the trim pieces and had them re-painted.
Yesterday Ray layed the new headliner out in the sun hoping that the wrinkles would flatten out. It was from Legendary Interiors. Today it was a bit breezy so we kept in inside his garage laying on cardboard.
The rollbar didn't make it impossible to change headliners but it didn't make it any easier either. The hardest thing was trying to crawl into the back without banging your head.
Some of the bows had surface rust on them. It came off easily with some steel wool. We used a putty knife to remove any of the old insulation that was still on the ceiling. Ray did not want to sand the ceiling clean. Instead he just wanted it scraped down and shot with a light coat of a rust converting paint. If it was my car I'd probably made it as shiny as possible and then applied some POR-15. I still find it hard to believe that they never coated that bare steel from the factory. We also went ahead and painted the rollbar prior to installation of the headliner. We measured and marked the center of the roof in front and back. The headliner already had a center line on it from Legendary. We measured it to make sure it was marked correctly. The socket for the dome light pops out easily with a little pressure with a pair of pliers.
With the new headliner laying upside down we began installing the bows. First we took each one and centered it out. The sewn in sleeves that the bows slide into need to be cut on each side because they are longer than the bows. There needs to be a few inches of bow sticking out on each side.
View attachment IMG_4750.jpg
View attachment IMG_4751.jpg
View attachment IMG_4757.jpg
View attachment IMG_4760.jpg
View attachment IMG_4761.jpg
View attachment IMG_4758.jpg
View attachment IMG_4759.jpg