| I have heard a
lot of people
praise the quality and affordability of the ready-made headliners from
Kanter. I've even seen a '41 Cadillac with one installed and looking
perfect.
It was done in maroon fabric. I inquired from Kanter if it was possible
to make a headliner for my '46 Buick out of vinyl instead of the
original
fabric, and they were happy to send me material samples. I picked a
non-perforated
white vinyl and placed my order about a year ago. A few weeks
later
it was at my door - great service. There was also extra material to do
the sunvisors or alike. I put it aside for the winter, waiting for the
rigth time.
Finally the time came, as I could not get forward with the fun stuff anymore. I had to install the headliner before the windows. But before headliner, I had to run all the wires to the trunk, and I also installed the rear quarter windows with the outer chrome moldings and new run channels. The windows are also new, made of tinted glass. The original window sash channels were so rotten that I made new ones out of stainless. My principle is, now that you where the car likes to rust over 50 years, replace those parts with stainless. When disassembling the body for blasting, I was stupid enough to remove the tacking strips around window apertures. Now I had to make new ones out of strips of hardboard which I then fixed with screws and polyurethane adhesive. The original windlace has an outer lip that conceals the tacks used to fasten the headliner around door apertures. As far as I know, this type of windlace is not available anywhere. Instead, I used another method. First I made some new windlace by glueing some vinyl around a sponge rubber core, then stapling it in place. My friend Kartsa suggested using the serrated plates used in his 1949 Buick, which he didn't need anymore. So I did. I just had to tweak them a little to match the curve of the 1946 Buick door aperture, and screw them on top of the windlace. In this method, you tuck the headliner between the serrated plate and windlace with a putty knife, until the material catches the hooks or serrations. The drawback is that it is damned difficult to disassemble if you get it wrong! |
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| Well, I don't
know if it's
only me whose to blame, but I cannot seem to get the headliner right. I
tried all the tricks told in the automotive upholstery books, including
cutting back the listings to some 1 inch or more shorter than the bow,
to no avail. No matter how tight I pulled the listing, I got wrinkles.
I have spent countless hours (days actually) trying to get the wrinkles
out, removing the headliner several times and trying again. Finally I
came
to a conclusion that the non-stretching vinyl is not going to work
here,
ever. I think the material should stretch to some degree. I'm at a
total
loss here. Heat gun doesn't work either. This photo is taken from the
better
side which I finally got satisfactory, the other side remains
worse.
|
 I
really don't like rust repairs, and it took me one and half years to
repair
the doors. Once again, I made the patch panels out of stainless. The
whole
bottom portion of the door is new. I even duplicated the factory method
of door panel attachment, and spot-welded a stainless strip on the
lower
face to catch the bottom edge of door panel. I also painted the jamb
areas
with final paint. |
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