I vividly remember the first headliner I replaced .It was in a '69 Dart .Took all the steel top bows out of the original, threw them in a pile .Whoops !!!!!!!!!!! Didn't take too long to figure that major mistake out .

 

tried to put the ABS headliner in 4 days in a row, broke 2 tabs. had a great idea and cut it in half. ( never do anything when your upset.) went in real easy but without an overhead consul looked like hell. so rod doors sent me another one. going to take it to the upholster thursday. he says they are easy.

 

Wish I could do pics......and sorry you arfe having a tough time....but patience is needd for this job.
I have insulated 2 trucks(56s) this summer and will install 2 headliners before Christmas.
Bill

 

you can always upload to photobucket (free) and put links in your notes to those pics..

avoids all the FTE limitations and hassles..

Sam

 

Here's a pic of the screw-up from the other day. Weird, the picture makes it look a 100 times better then it is. There are some big crack around the light. I wish it really looked this good. [/IMG]

 

This tip may be too late... and you may know this already, but I have been told to avoid creases on the fiberboard while bending, spray the backside with a mixture of 80% household ammonia and 20% water. Try to apply using some type of spray bottle. Don't get it soaking wet, just damp. The damp headliner will bend easier.

I will be installing my stock fiberboard headliner in about 2 weeks for my '52 F-1. Let me know what you learned so far. If you want send me a PM. I would be very interested in hearing how this turns out!!!

As always, best of luck - Fred

 

Fred its a bit to late, good info for the next one. Thanks.

 

You can see pics of my two different styles in my galleries. The first ones were my attempt at making my own. It was going to work, but was going to take alot more time than I wanted to dedicate. The second one, shown upholstered, is the rod doors one. I don't have any pics of the install process, but heres what i remember:
It didn't fit quite right out of the box. The front corners (above the windshield) were a bit short, which required me to add on some tabs. I used abs cement and some scrap abs for this. I wish it had been cut larger in these areas so i could have cut away meterial here instead of adding. I had the same issue with the short sections that made the bend behind the passenger & drivers heads. I added material here too. This ended up not really being necessary since the corner panels covered this area when all was said and done.
As far as installing, I'd put it in the cab, sit it on my lap, and then push it up so the tab above the drivers door locked in. Then I'd bend it a little in the center to get the tab over the passenger to lock in. In the end i cut these tabs shorter so i wouldn't have to bend it so much. Then i worked each side above the windshield. These were a pain in the ***. At this point the headliner doesn't want to bend so much or 'float' around, so you basically just push above the area of the tab so the headliner bends enough for the tab to clear the lip and snap in. You can kind of pull it back towards the rear to give you some clearance, but it was difficult. Once all 4 of those tabs are locked onto the lip, I'd push it as far forward as possible and then slowly peeled back the lip of the rear window seal and pushed the headliner beneath it.

I know its tough to describe, but if you have any questions I can try to answer them.

The completed pics of the headliner are in my gallery.

 

I really like your interior and thanks.

 

I ordered the replacement headliner and was relieved to hear it was only $40 bucks, thou it was a good thing I was sitting down 60 buck to ship it. Holy mother of all cows!!!

 

I've done the old 3-piece abs headliner from RodDoors. RodDoors was very serious about making sure the middle unit was absolutely in the middle before putting on the two side pieces.

For the final piece I made myself a tool to pull the middle piece as far in the opposite direction as possible. This gave me the max amount of room to get that third piece in. It was a piece of thin gauge metal bent to form over the edge of the middle piece. I attached a 12" loop of baling wire to it and a piece of round stock in the other end of the loop. I pulled it tight as the third piece was wedged into position. Once it was installed, I cut off the wire and stuffed the remainder into the seam. Jag

 

What's the difference with Flat Stock , Smooth Style ABS Interior Headliner?
Which is better, or they are just for look, haven't seen any, New to the Truck collecting.

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Are you going for the stock look or something else? If your going for the stock look there are plenty of vendors out there. ABS type would allow you to add fabric to your interior, just like Jeg Red 51 did.

 

Can you even still get ABS? It seems to me that I remember reading that Rod Doors was the only manufacturer and they went out of business.

 

LeBaron Bonney page 58.