I have a little experience with the Dennis Carpenter headliner. I also have an original headliner I salvaged from the junkyard years ago. I can tell you that the DC headliner is made from thinner stock. I made the mistake of installing mine last Fall when my cab was on its back, on the ground prior to reinstalling the cab onto the powder coated frame. I knew I was taking a huge risk by installing it before the winter rains with no way to keep the air moisture away. The original headliner had a thin strip of fiberboard attached to the leading edge about 14 inches long by 1/2 inch wide centered along the upper windshield location. It is possible this strip was a homemade fix (but it looked professional). The original headliner is made of conventional fiberboard with a crosshatched texture on the backside. The DC headliner is both thinner and lacks the crosshatched texture on the back side. I added ammonia and water to a spray bottle as mentioned in other posts on this site and it did help with bending. The hardest part for me to install was the final back strip above the rear window. I did this installation on my own with no help. With the cab on its back I felt that was the best option I had at the time. I should have waited and asked for help, but the thought of having to work above my head really discouraged me at the time. Now my headliner sags in spots and I don't blame DC for that. This is just a cautionary tale to not be in a hurry and don't install a headliner until the cab can be buttoned up properly.

 

I have read in more than one post, or maybe the same post several times, strapping the rear side pieces to a 5 gallon bucket helps bring them into shape. Thus, I actually was't kidding about considering the vacuum press, I too had read that adding watered down wood blue will help soften the headliner to make it more pliable and the glue will seal the cardboard to make it more resistant to moisture, which should be true (I aways seal my endcuts with exterior wood glue especially when doing exterior trim).

Anyway, sorry to read that your experience was frustrating, but I suspect that you are not alone. Now, let's see some photo's of your trucks, by my count you have at least two. And if you post them with some of your 02's in the background, I would appreciate it.

 

I wonder if DC has changed it since you bought one. Left is new DC headliner corner piece and right is the original. Except for the one corner where the old one is curled back on itself some, I'd call the DC one thicker. Neither has what I'd called a crosshatch on the back, and the front pattern looks spot on.

 

I have not installed this type of headliner before so I may be all wet. I can see wetting the cab corner pieces and wrapping around a bucket since those are some major curves but for the rest I'd think leave them as dry as possible except for the outer portions where to roof turns downward. Saturating the main middle portion of the overhead and rear seems like it would be asking for trouble. Anyone else done it that can add what they did with good results we'd like to hear from you.

 

I did not find it necessary to prebend the corner pieces around a 5 gallon bucket using the water+ammonia spray. They conformed without fuss. It was a sunny day and I let the pieces soak in the sun for a bit. Fortunately, the cardboard packaging of the headliner allowed me to trace the pieces so I have that at my disposal. I would recommend that to anyone, for cheap insurance. Additionally, I used blue tape applied outbound of the headliner to locate the screw holes. I marked the direction to the screw hole with a straight edge and then measured to the centerline of the screw hole, then wrote that distance on the tape with a reference mark as the origin. Did this for each and every screw hole. The center hole above on the cross brace is done similarly; just takes a fair bit of layout prior.

As I recall, yours is the perforated headliner. Mine is not. The thought of thousands of crack initiation sites scares me. Vacuum forming your bits would be badass. I tried the Rodoors ABS version but it was near impossible to install. I discussed with them over the phone and with photos what they could do to improve their product. Although it's not original, I consider it potentially more hardy method and I wish them the best of luck. If you have a truck with the trim pieces to hold it in place it would probably make more sense.

 

Tear at perforations?

Sun? What’s that? If it’s that big orange ball in the sky I haven’t seen it in years. That’s why humidity isn’t a problem here. Not enough heat to make moisture evaporate quickly so it just soaks in.

One dude on here used a laser secured to the floor pointing up at the center screw hole while they did the install. Knew exactly where it was. Sounded like a Slick way.

 

I did remember at least one place I had read about the glue. One of the first things I downloaded when I realised I really wanted to keep my truck. 1965/1966 F100/F250 Restoration Guide by Larry Reyna.

'65/'66 Restoration guide by Larry Reyna (page 19)

 

For whatever reason, Post #644 by thread starter @TA455HO was auto moderated, meaning that it disappeared off the face of the forum for a while.

I found the post quivering in a quarantined corner all by itself, and brought it back here where it was intended to be posted by the author, and am now bumping this thread to bring followers up to speed who might have missed Post # 644 (up thread) earlier, during its absence from the forum.

It is quite an interesting travel blog, and I suspect some words within it triggered FTE's ever vigilant spam filters.

We do what we gotta do. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience. Carry on as you were!

 

Thank you. I image there is a lot of hard work behind the scenes keeping this site going, so again, thank you.

That , and it was a great write up well worth reading.

It might have been confusing to the filters as FTE also could stand for "French Travel Enthusiasts"...

 

If you didn't read about what happened to Larry's @66v8baby truck it was quite sad.

Disaster strikes! - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

I sold him an NOS passengers' side white interior door trim panel that is seen in the second picture. Doesn't look like it was damaged but has some soot on it. Maybe @ibuzzard should contact Larry and see if he wants to sell it. It would be interesting to hear if he's cleaned it up and replaced things that were damaged or what the status is. He has not posted since October 24, 2023, in that thread but in looking he did log in as recently as March 2, 2026, and he didn't write anything then. Nice guy, I hope all is well with him.

 

Thanks for the tip,I will ask him about the door panel.

I talk with Larry from time to time, and no, the truck is on the back burner - the BACK, back burner. He has other automotive interests and is presently distracted. I think by an old Mustang??

 

Found some caliper brackets and dust shields. Once they arrive, I'll blast them and get them coated in prep for the install. I don't need too much else now other than a master cylinder and some brake tubing to complete this upgrade.

 

So is this 100% bolt on disc brakes from a ‘68 using original spindles?

 

That's correct it is. Everything from spindles inward stays the same as original 1966 F250. But it has to have started life with these 12" x 2 1/2" Heavy Duty Bendix (BX) brakes which were not necessarily rare as many 1966 F250 Camper Special would have come with them and as it says any with the H/D brakes. I have run across 1966 F250 trucks whose fenders badges say Camper Special and were 7,500 GVWR that did not have these brakes, but they may have standardized on them at some point in the model year. - I'm not sure on that point.



Another reason I think not all 1966 F250 Camper Specials got these brakes either - is they were not mentioned as part of any of the 3 Camper Special packages.


They are simply listed as optional along with the vacuum booster as a separate option.



1966 Salesman's Facts Book shows an extra $22.90 for the option if you ordered it. The vacuum booster was $46.90 extra. Those are Oct. 29th, 1965, prices so tariffs didn't apply.


Most places sell the rotor with the hub and lug bolts as a unit (all of 1102 in the drawing). Ones I bought from Napa had the inner and outer bearing races already installed like shown so just need bearings. The outer is the same bearing as the 1966 F250 with said brakes. Only the inner bearing is different.

The calipers I bought from Napa are the exact Kelsey Hayes dual-piston ones they used - just rebuilt. They still have the Kelsey Hayes cross-reference casting number on them.
Rebuild kits for the calipers are available both NOS and aftermarket. Same with the small parts for the caliper brackets. The calipers included everything except the brake pads and the bolt ★43186-S where the five-point star indicates - Not Serviced - must be improvised or procured locally. Which is really just a recommendation as I've shown this to not be the case with other parts as well.



Here's the drawing showing for 1968-1972 but it was the same setup for 1973-1975 F250 and F350 2WD as well, this drawing is just from the 1964-1972 Master Parts Catalog so nothing later in this one.

 

Additional bits of info to what I said above. @NumberDummy does seem to think that all 1966 F250 Camper Specials came standard with the 12" x 2 1/2" front/rear drum brakes but I've seen at least one example on here that seemed compelling that it wasn't originally equipped that way. But otherwise, a somewhat easier conversion but not a whole lot of difference compared to swapping everything from a later one.

1966 F250 Camper Special front disc conversion help - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums