Top rebuild; new ribs, insulation & headliner

Here's my first attempt at adding pic's..hope it works!

Welded in some new ribs, clean & paint, 1/2" semi-ridgid insulation board, 1/4" bubble insulation, fit lightweight panel board for new headliner, glue headliner fabric to new panels. Should be much quieter, and sure looks better!

Looks great! What is "lightweight panel board"?

did you build the ribs or buy them?

can sagging ones be straightened out?

You have done a great job...my only question is....When will mine be done?

The lightweight panel board is as the name implies, panneling bought at my local home depot. I couldn't easily find any other material that was water/moisture/mildew/rot resistent, and I didn't want to use the old fashion "cardboard" again, and didn't have the tools or ability to make some complex headliners w/ multiple bends/break's. So my headliner is now mutli-piece, but it fits nicely and is very well insulated

This all started as a weekend afternoon project to fix a modest leak in the outside top channel. After digging into that issue more I discovered my top was in very poor condition. I filled the outside channel complety full of seam sealer and actually brought it to a crown so water can never sit & pool in there again. Next of course was fixing the damage on the inside.

To start with I welded all of the old holes shut, then fixed (welded) cracks and structural weak area's around the corners of the top by welding in small gussets and/or plating over.

Sorry my pictures are not in order...it was my first time adding pic's to the site.

I added 2 additional ribs, plus 2 sets of extra support ribs next to the exsisting ribs. Ultimatley I used these as backing plates for the screws for the new headliner. In one of the pic's, after its' cleaned and painted, you'll notice 1 new in a forward location, and 1 rib in a rear location, plus a new ribs on either side of the exsiting ribs/bows.
I made the new ribs from 3/4" x 3/4" x .068 square tubing. And it was actually very simple. I cut a piece the lenght of the top width (a little over 50"), then put a slight bend in it to make it fit the convex profile of the top.
For my "bender" I just made marks at the center and one-quarter lenght, shoved the end into the open frame-end of the bronco w/ the bumber off and gave a little pull, rinse and repeat a few times until I had a perfect fitting bow to the exact contour of the top. The ol' trial-n-error method. Then I cut some short piece for the sides, after everything was fitting nice I welded it it together.
For installing the new ribs, I marked the top in the location of the new rib, then applied some construction adhesive (liquid nails), smushed the new rib in place, then welded just the edge where it met the top rim.
I did have to add two small formers to each side of the front on either side of where the wiper cover would be re-installed later. For this I just welded on some 1" x 1/8" flat bar...just something to screw to later.
While I had my caulking gun handy I squrited liquid nails adhesive into any and all little gaps between the exsiting ribs. I want this top to be quite! No oil canning, no poping, or sqeaking, no rattles, ect....Everything is secured proper, insulated and tight.

Between the ribs I used 1/2" semi-rigid foam insulation board, glued this to the top w/ liquid nails. Then I put 1/4" bubble wrap looking insulation on top of that layer giving me a net of 3/4" of total insulation. More than anything I wanted a smooth transition between the ribs so the new headliner would fit nice. Of course as a by product of using 2 layers of insulation I got it to fit perfect and fit to the contour of the top w/o using much glue or forcing it into place and taking a chance of tweaking the top -which could be seen form the outside.

Next, I fitting all of the pannels in place. Once they were generally fitted in place I pre dilled all of the pannels, and then drilled through to the new ribs. Instead of using sheet metal screw I took the time to actually drill a nice hole of the proper size and then ran a tap through the holes. So now I have threaded ribs to put a real bolt/screw into -working as a nut plate, versus a sheetmetal screw that will fail at some point in the future. I used #8 x 32 threaded machine screws to attach everything. My thought here was 1) I didn't want this falling apart latter 2) At some point in the future I want to have the ability to remove this headliner and then re-install it w/o a big production..such as having a sheet metal screw strip out in one of the holes, and/or waller-out over time from vibration.

Next I bought some actual headliner materail from the local fabric store. And boys let me tell you...this was the BEST part of this whole top rebuild! I spent some time in a store where mainly women shop for making blankets, dress's and stuff...my wife wasn't w/ me and all of these girls looked prettier than ever I might get some beer's and go shop there again!
I used some spray adhesive to the field of the pannels and fabric and attach the headliner fabric. As a word of caution, real headliner material is about 1/8" thick and mainly made from lightweight foam w/ a very thin layer of colored fabric. If you write on it w/ a sharpie marker it will show through to the other side and you have ruined your piece. After getting the field section glued to the pannels w/ the spray adhesive, I wrapped all of the edges around w/ about 1-2" overlap and attached this part w/ hot glue.

I was able to assemble the back 2/3 of the headliner while it was still upside-down on the saw horses. Then I re-instaleld the top on the bronco. Now I just had to finish fitting the forward headliner piece around the wiper cover, and cut out a little insulation to clear the wiper motor. I ended up scripe fitting and cutting the "top" of the wiper motor cover to now allow for the "lower" headerliner. Once I had cut about 1/2" around the top of the wiper cover it fit perfect and I used all of the same factory screw holes to re-install.

A great project. It did take some time and tought, but very rewarding. I had the attitude that "I'm doing this myself" without buying store-bought pre-made parts. I'm not a fast fabricator, so I prolly spent 40-60 hours on this whole project, but doubt I spent $200 bucks total.

Man what an outstanding job you did there. I like it.

I'm sorry my pic's are not in order, I'm still trying to get better at that.

In the back corners there were originally stake pockets and large stakes that slip in these pocket and then bolt & align the top to the body. My top is a little teaked and I couldn't get my rear upper door to properly align because I didn't have any side-to-side adjustment. So I removed the original stakes and made a nut plate retainer by using some 1" flat bar w/ holes drilled and then welded some nuts to it. I oblonged the original holes in the top of the bed & bottom flange of the top to allow for some adjustment. Now when I re-installed the top I can adjust the rear of the top where it meets the body to get a perfect fit for my upper rear door. And using the new style shock closures for the rear upper door are wonderful compared to the old rattle trap slides. And these new shock cylinders are kinda snap the door closed when shutting it, making an excellent fit aginst the rubber seal...no more noise, no more exhaust fumes, no more rattles, no more waiting for the top to fall on your head when its open...

so you free this weekend to come do that to mine too???

Nice work! Nice truck too! Post some more pics of your truck.

Thank you for the compliments everyone. And ty for the kind words Mr. Hammer. I'm new to this site and don't wanna get off on a bad foot w/ the administrator, I wanna play by the rules. I think I read somewhere that you're suppose to only post pic'c of work in the tech section.

Hopefully my topper project has helped others, maybe get some idea's and choose to rebuild your own. If there is anything I can do to help some else w/ thier top kindly let me know....mine was tweaked, cracked, and bent more than I showed in the pic's-you guys just got to see the highlight reel. I put a gob of work into it...lots of patients, LOL. That said, I'm just a guy who likes Bronco's and certainly don't consider myself an mechanic, or really knowedlgeable about many aspects of taking on a project like this, I just learned as I went. And I have waited 25+ years to have the opportunity to restore some old car. So if I can do it you can too!
And of course I'm always opening to learning and checking out other neat Bronco's, this is SUCH a valuable site for us, ty.

Interestingly enough this one was built in 7/77. I have been wondering if there is any significance to the manufactuer date? I'll post some pic's of it in the chat section.

Most impressive work sir. What method did you use to determine where to drill the holes through the headliner material?
Thank you
Art

stagecoach said:

Most impressive work sir. What method did you use to determine where to drill the holes through the headliner material?
Thank you
Art

Click to expand...

Great question.

I took a long hard look at what I thought would hold best BEFORE adding the new ribs. Specifically I didn't want any long free-spans that might cause the head liner to sag latter. So I choose to add one more rib in the front area, and another new rib near the back, and then just for good measure -and to make sure I had something to screw to later I added new ribs on both sides of the exisiting ribs. Along the way I welded all of the old holes shut so I had a clean slate to start with.

What I did was pre-fit all of the panels "about" where they were suppose to go before adding the headliner material to them. Once the pre-fit looked good, I lay out a pattern for the screw holes and pre drilled all of the panels, and then actually screwed the new headliner panels in place to make *sure* everything fit before final assembly.
The next step was to wrap the panel boards w/ the headliner material, spray adhesive for the field and hot glue around the edges.

With the screw holes already in place, from the back side I poked holes through the headliner fabric w/ the tip of a hot soldering iron. This made clean and perfect fitting holes with a crisp edge that won't tear or run the fabric later.

For added good measure, I used polished stainless steel upolstery washers to seat aginst the fabric and more evenly distribute the pressure along w/ the polished sst screw's

Nicely done Whoaa. Even though it's all good, my favorite bit is the new ribs and reinforcements. My top has never tin-canned luckily, but I insulated it for temperature sound long ago because I thought it should just be quiet and just plain more comfortable to live in. Been waiting patiently for someone to reproduce the stock ribs and sell them separately for years, but just making your own is probably better.
Always wanted a way to sit or stand on my top at events and not destroy it!

One other thing you might want to consider, since you're all about sound right now, is insulating the wiper cover. It's not for outside sound in this case, but for the wiper motor/linkage instead. It's not super obnoxious, but it's very noticeable and would be one more thing to quiet down the driving experience in your Bronco.
If that's something you're thinking of doing, love see pics of what you do and how you like the results. If it's just not something that bothers you, no worries. You've got yourself a nice quiet Bronco already.

Paul

THIS is why I love this site! Innovation, creativity, clever ideas.

whoa, Thank you for your answer to my question, now that you esplaned it it sounds simple. Took some good thought. One more Question if I may. How did you weld the new ribs to the top? the top is very thin is it not?
Thank you
Art

stagecoach said:

whoa, Thank you for your answer to my question, now that you esplaned it it sounds simple. Took some good thought. One more Question if I may. How did you weld the new ribs to the top? the top is very thin is it not?
Thank you
Art

Click to expand...

Great question! And you're right, the top skin itself is very thin. I thought about tig welding directly to the top skin, but that'd take forever and would still run a high risk of warping the top skin.

After making the the new ribs, I got them to fit nicely and have the proper radius to match the top, then ONLY welded the ribs to the inside flange of the top. The actual weld on each rib is only a 1/2" of total weld to the top on each side, the width of the square stock I made the ribs from. The inside flange on the top is plenty thick to weld to, I used a common wire feed welder (MIG) w/ the setting's for 1/8" material. The MAGIC is glueing the main part of the ribs the whole lenght to the top skin with construction adhesive -liquid nails. Plus the new ribs are crowned to match the radius of the top, and sit "inside" the flange...so when when it's fliped right-side-up and installed on the Bronco there is NO actual weight on the top skin, all of the weight is load bearing on the factory flange -the strongest place. I'm not sure welding them was even needed, once the liquid nails adhesive dried well the ribs were secured very well to the top.
Look close in the pic's and you'll see a yellow/brown-ish looking glue squezzing out from under the new ribs.

I'm sorry my pic's are not in order, which makes it harder to look through and find what you want. I'm trying to get better at adding pic's on the internet, but honestly I'm more at home in my shop working on things.

Whoaa, thank you for the great post. You inspired me to make a headliner, I didn't have to weld new supports in, but I did add the insulation and Thermo ply. I made mine out of black material to match my seats....thanks again for the tips.

And this reminds me that we forgot to give you a couple of hips and a hooray for your 1-year anniversary!
I remember this thread because of the nice work on the top.

A lot has changed with your rig in the last year, and from the pics we see, all good.
Carry on!

Paul