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the factory cardboard headliner in my pickup is shot. i was thinking of cheap ways to do it that would look decent and i came up with an idea with carbon fiber fabric. has anyone done this? i thought about getting some thin plywood and cutting to the right shape using the old one for a template. apoxy it to the plywood and use the factory trim to hold it up. any thoughts? i have a hard time visualizing stuff like this. here is an ebay listing of the pattern i was thinking.
Masonite or "hardboard" cut to shape using the cardboard original as a template. I use 3M spray adhesive. I also use a 1/8" foam backing on most flat surfaces I cover. Spray adhesive to both the padding and the board, let sit for a few seconds and roll on smooth. I stretch vinyl on a warm day and wrap from one end to the other. Adhesive on both surfaces just as with the foam. Staple the edges approx. 1/8 from the edge of the board on the unexposed side. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
thanks for the tips! i am really leaning towards this, i am going with a ford blue interior with black accents and i don't know how this would work. and i am in northern mn so we don't have hot sunny days as much as you guys so i guess i would have to hook up the nipco heater lol.
I bought a new LMC headliner and it was plastic. I bought a ford racing flag, white with blue ford ovel. I pulled it tight and used duck tape on the back side. It looks real good. It came out nice and clean.
Only issue I see with this is carbon fiber cloth is a lot like fiber glass. It is meant to be sealed in resin. If you don't seal it I believe it would break up like fiber glass and get everywhere. You also may have an issue mounting it if it's in resin. I know thin carbon fiber does bend. So if you do this, make sure it's thin.
I've built a few headliners from fiberglass for supercabs so this should be pretty easy for a regular cab.
The carbon cloth you have shown is not stable until resin is added (it will start to fray with just the lightest amout of touching with out resin and wow does it itch). You could do a single layer of cloth with resin over a chipboard headliner but you are then hoping you get the resin to lay perfectly smooth (super hard) and you are still left with a mostly paper headliner.
What has worked good for me is 6 ply of 7781 glass cloth (which is a 8.9oz per sq yard and .090" thick). To get the best headliner you will need some sort of a flat mold to build off of, I use 1/4" foam board because it's really smooth and available in 5'x10' sheets (only a supercab issue) and then apply several layers of car wax as a mold release.
If you want the carbon fiber look I would buy enough glass to make the headliner but then put down one layer of carbon first. The tool side of my headliners come out almost perfect and could be painted without any prep work. This should be perfect for a carbon headliner but I would still clear coat it.
One thing to note, most resins are kinda yellow. There are several epoxy resins that are totally clear but they cost a bit more.
You now have me thinking and I might make a carbon one just to see how it comes out!
Here is a layed up headliner waiting to be trimmed out.
i think i could figure it out but just don't have that kind of time right now. thanks for the responses, seems like you guys have a very good handle on how to deal with this and it makes sense that it would be like fiberglass. this forum is great, so many people from all walks of life, that's why it is better to first ask instead of going half cocked. and that looks great buckin, i would love to see you make a carbon fiber one, someone that knows what they are doing could make a pretty sweet headliner.
10-06-2014, 08:18 PM
