The old truck doesn't get much use but one of these days I was going to drive it and have the headliner was going to fall down around my ears. Being motivated from watching a few videos, I thought I'd give it a go and worse case, no headliner would be better than what I started with.

I pulled the trim and cleaned up the rust as best I could thinking I'd reuse it, just a few screws to pull it off and after the trim was pulled it's easy to extract the old headliner (which fractured a little more than it already had). Between the headliner and the roof was some old insulation, looked like ancient carpet padding that had de-evolved into padding and dust.

I had a piece of quality thin plywood stuffed away, that actually came off a shipping crate 25+ years ago which turned out to be just big enough to use. It's thin, mic'd out at .17 inches thick, it came from an overseas crate, so probably metric. I cut out the new headliner using the original as a template, well that was the great idea anyway. The old liner was well warped and the new liner didn't have the flexibility to bend at the corners to accommodate the curves down of the cab at the back corners. After a number of trimmings and refits, it became obvious to make it work I would have to shim the back of the cab trim mounting lip to avoid most of the bending need. I cut a reasonable piece of wood for the shim and started fitting it. It turned out to be a serious pain to trim the wood to reasonably it the curves of the cab and ultimately the wood needed to be tapered so much at the edges I had to add a second piece onto the first,

FF a day and I never ended up with a perfect fit for the wood but I got something that worked and I also added a piece of wood to the existing center support make it easier to screw to. I wanted to try to re-use at least 3 of the front sheet metal screw holes (that the original trim used), no wood shim for the front.

The original insulation was in no conduction to reuse, off to Home Depot to buy the aluminized bubble wrap foil, which is rated to 160 degF. I bough the 10' x 24' roll and pieced it in, buying a second roll before I was done. It's pretty thin and I ended up putting in 3 layers using U-line S-15802 Heavy Duty Spray Adhesive to attach it. I had the adhesive on hand already and it worked quite well. At least before curing, it was strong enough to hold the foil in place but not so strong that I could reposition it before firmly pressing in place.

I coated all the wood with Polyurethane before installing, so condensate wouldn't be an issue. it was an annoyance to locate the locate the front attachment screw holes with the panel in place (blind) and all the time a person needs to be mindful that some of the attachment points are closer to the roof than others making screw length a real concern. After attaching, I didn't like the hollow sound, so added enough spots of foam padding between the new foil insulation and the plywood panel to put a little tension on the panel and dampen the sound.

In the end, it took about 3x longer than I ever thought it would, it's not perfect but it's not going to fall down (while I'm driving) and it has a MUCH higher insulation value for the roof than it ever had. It's no more difficult to remove than the original headliner (should I ever want to) and while I did lose about 2 1/2 inched of head room, I'm 6' and there still is plenty.

Would I do it again, maybe but after seeing it with just the aluminized foil in place, I'm not sure I would be happy with just that (if it's just a chore truck). An another couple layers of foil and there would be a surface that came far enough down to glue fabric to. A person could probably reuse the original trim if it the foil.











fitting was planned out for that. Since I had the panel cut and coated, I finished installing it. I'm certainly not saying it's ideal or perfect but it's serviceable, safe and If I don't like it, no problem to take it out.

 

Came out pretty good. I think all the insulation mine had was the cardboard head liner. I hatted driving it in the rain, due to the noise. I think straight exhaust off header was quieter. Want be that way when I put it back together. Would be nice to have it sprayed with foam like I did my 80's van.

 

It would probably benefit from more noise mitigation but since this is just an occasional chore truck, I'll leave it as is (for now). I'm only out about $30-$35 for the screws, insulation and Polyurethane. I just didn't feel like spending a couple of hundred for a "pegboard" replacement, though that cost seemed more reasonable after the time spent.