Used to be Blue's Valiant

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Sat Feb 21, 15 4:51 pm

Just spent a frustrating day fitting the headlining, working around a full cage is not easy. First time I've fitted a headlining and I wish I'd just paid a professional to do it, the end result is not very good to be honest. I'll spend a bit more time trying to improve the fit but I think it might have to go in the bin......

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Sat Feb 21, 15 5:36 pm

I have done a few.... They aint easy! Simplest was my camaro.. It was just shaped hardboard!, pulled it off, recovered it, put it back!

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Sat Feb 21, 15 6:00 pm

They're not easy without a cage never mind with one. I did my Coronet with all the windows in.
Mick

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Sat Feb 21, 15 6:03 pm

Mick wrote:They're not easy without a cage never mind with one. I did my Coronet with all the windows in.
Mick

That must have been hard.

I thought there were lots of serrated "Teeth" on the leading edge of the front screen aperture to hold the fabric in place...how did you work around that?

MilesnMiles · Post by **MilesnMiles** » Sat Feb 21, 15 6:36 pm

Uh oh, hot mine to do this spring...any tips Blue, beside not installing a roll cage?

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Sat Feb 21, 15 6:45 pm

I used bulldog clips all around the edges until I had it tensioned as tight as I could then pushed it into the teeth. So far no amount of restensioning will get it to fit right.

MilesnMiles · Post by **MilesnMiles** » Sat Feb 21, 15 7:53 pm

Mmmm, any chance of pics. You have high standards Blue, maybe it's ok

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Sat Feb 21, 15 8:17 pm

I used the serrated teeth to my advantage, by hooking the liner on it untill i got it ok, then working my way round i kept pulling and hooking on the teeth and trimming eventually it was quite tight, i then went round with a heat gun to tighten it up. I made hardboard for the sail panels and they were the trickiest bits i thought. I only used a couple of clips to hold it in place at the beginning and i think i used them on the sides because they were slightly different. It was quite a job and a bit like wiring, you have to be patient and not Bananarama! but being a slowcoach is my speciality. Lol

lough3969 · Post by **lough3969** » Sun Feb 22, 15 4:23 pm

When I've read people's tips and 'how to' posts a few have said that some heat helps the whole thing tighten up.... Seems to be counter intuitive but....maybe?

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Sun Feb 22, 15 4:30 pm

Yea, you'd think heat would make it looser but maybe not, I'll try it and see what happens.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sun Feb 22, 15 4:48 pm

Heat will tighten it a bit but only if it is pretty close to start with.

I still have scars from those bloody sharp teeth.

The only problem area I couldn't get quite perfect was the sail panel area.

But I agree. It is one of the hardest bits to get right on a car. Especially doing it for the first (and in my case probably the last) time.

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Sun Feb 22, 15 6:01 pm

Yes it has to be close before you get the heat gun out, it just finishes it off nice. I thought the sail panels were the hardest part because it's more restrictive than the rest of the roof.
Mick

Ivor · Post by **Ivor** » Mon Feb 23, 15 1:22 pm

Blue, chuck all the clips, rods and headlining in the bin and flock the roof in black...quick easy and SO much lighter!

GJUK · Post by **GJUK** » Tue Mar 10, 15 4:21 pm

Ivor wrote:Blue, chuck all the clips, rods and headlining in the bin and flock the roof in black...quick easy and SO much lighter!

I would go with this!

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Sat Mar 28, 15 11:43 am

About time for an update! Been doing loads but not much to show till it all comes together. My intended front end rewire rapidly descended into a total rewire of the whole car, mostly done now and just needing a final tidy up.
I did a total system check on Friday and everything works as it should apart from having inadvertently having wired the side markers into the indicator circuit

Think I've just spliced into the wrong wire on one of the front sidelights so hopefully that will be an easy fix.
Before I switched on the power for the first time I made up a fused jumper wire to connect between the main live and the battery with a 7.5 amp fuse. That way if I'd got something catastrophically wrong the fuse will pop before anything burns. Once I'm happy all the ancillaries are right, it can be removed and connected as normal.
Moving the switches from the dash and fitting a larger fusebox in a different location creates about 3 times as much wiring as the standard set up even though I've only added a couple of extra electrical items, I'll have to count up how many wires are in the main loom, it's a lot, thank god for thin wall cable!