Headliner ala scarabY2k- A D.I.Y Joint

[scarabY2k]

How yall are...oops sorry

for all you grammar smiths here ya go... Greetings and salutations

Like myself, some of you all have experienced the ol sagging headliner- especially here in hot/humid Florida. Sadly Buttercup was-a-saggin something fierce but no more. I opted out of going to headliner dude and decided to do the job myself; i'm crafty like that. Anyhoo, here's a photo journal of said project.

EDIT: very useful information
It is my opinion, that when doing mods (mechanical or cosmetic) on your bug, that the first tool necessary is A BENTLEY MANUAL. I strongly reccomend that you purchase one (CD-ROM or Book Form) ASAP. You'll find it to be your best investment

[scarabY2k]

For those of you who are without a Bentley Manual and need a step

by step on removing your interior trim,

Frank (D2Beetle) did a superior how to for you... CLICK HERE

Here's the headliner panel with old fabric removed and the foam stripped off. I used a scotch brite pot and pan pad to remove all of that groady foam. You'll find the purpose of the board (right) in a moment. And of course, this can't be done without contact cement. Oh yeah, the fabric you see in the bottom right corner is black tweed which I purchased at a local upholstery shop.

The amount of Tweed purchased was 1.5 yards. There was a little excess but better to have enough than to find out your short on fabric

[r0nd3L]

Please go with black suede, it would look sick!

[GatorBeetle]

nah, Al has a whole tweed "thing" goin' on.

[GatorBeetle]

and, Al, tell me you are not staying up all night doing this like last Dave and Busters GTG...

Oh, and black headliners ROCK!!! I know someone with a black headliner...

[scarabY2k]

Originally Posted by GatorBeetle

and, Al, tell me you are not staying up all night doing this like last Dave and Busters GTG...

Oh, and black headliners ROCK!!! I know someone with a black headliner...

No my man the job is already done. I'll be sleeping good as soon as i'm through posting this.

And you're oh so right. I'm diggin the tweed And it's pretty sick too.

Now let us continue....

This next pic is the panel underneath that board from the previous pic, which was constructed into "Scarab's little helper"-patent pending. It's basically a glorified elongated sawhorse. The 3 mini clamps hold the excess fabric out of my way, so I can take my time and work the tweed into the contours.

[scarabY2k]

Pic #1 is just me mocking the fabric up on the panel, less the glue of course. Just mapping out the way to apply the fabric. By the way, I started from the back of the panel and worked my way to the front.

Pic #2: the panel on top of a paper blotter. Val would kill me twice if I got goo and other stuff on the new carpet. The bear wanted to strike a pose, so there you are.

[scarabY2k]

Pic #1: Here's the panel with a coat of contact cement. the panel was very porous, so a couple of coats were applied.

NOTE: I divided the applcation of fabric into 2 parts- rear to the middle section right about where the grab bar/eyeglass holder begins. When I started on the latter part, I applied more cement. Like I said, the panel was very porous. I applied the contact cement to the panel only.

ADDENDUM: In reference to the contact cement. Now usually you have to wait until the glue is close to dry before appying it to the desired surface. Allthough the glue is pretty much permanent, I wanted a sho nuff, sho nuff bond. I let the glue go to a semi-wet/tacky consistancy then applied the fabric. I wanted to be careful, so as not to allow the glue to seep through the tweed. It was about a 10 minute dry time.

Pic #2 is the tweed applied to the glued panel. Notice my special tools??? The spoons worked great for smoothing out any bumps and working the tweed around the contours. And yes, the bumps you see were smoothed out, so what you see is no longer there.

[Oyveychris]

Dang mang! Don't leave me hanging! I love a good story with pics!

[scarabY2k]

Pics 1 & 2 are the panel with the new fabric ready to be trimmed

Pic 3 is said panel, trimmed and ready to reinstall.

[scarabY2k]

The final pics. This saga has come to an end. It was a pretty cool project- one which I enjoyed a great deal.

Big props to my man 'Gate/Rob for pursuading me to go with the black. Good call man. The jurys still out on if i'm gonna paint the grab handle/eyeglass holder. I'll ride in Cup for a bit and make a decision soon there after.

If you come up to the Dave & Busters meet tomorrow (8.26.06) you can see if for yourselves.

More to come on the interior. What will it be???? Stay tuned.

[callisto9]

sweetness! looks awesome al!

[r0nd3L]

That's really amazing job you did, I'm really loving the look! Are you thinking of painting pieces like handles, dome light surroundes, and visors black or just leave them like that?

What the heck is tweed anyway?

[LadybugEwa]

Beautiful job! I'm in awe
Tell me, was it hard to get that panel out? Did you have to remove other trim panels to get to it?
That's exactly what Ladybug wants, only in red leather
Go figure...

[PhoenixRising]

Dang mang, you done did a booliscuis job on that, you did.

You is de snizzle de izzle when it come to headliners, mang.

(In other words, fine job! Splendid! )

[73standard]

WOW! Looks like that urange grank paid off!

[gypsy73]

very nice!

[mgwerks]

I hope a mod moves this over to the How-To forums, since so many Beetls have or will have this issues. Ours included.

[JuggBug]

Al, that looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!! You amaze me with your skill & creativity. Guess what new mod just went on my 'to do' list?

The Cup is wicked hot Al!

[73ladybug]

The pics don't do it justice! I saw it today. Looks awesome, Al.