Hardtop Custom Headliner Done

[Torkman66]

The top has been waaaayyyy more work than I ever wanted it to be. Started by stripping to bare metal, epoxy paint, replacing all of the rusty metal edges, filling the rain gutter with resin, seam sealing all the joints, then epoxy again. Then high build, blocked for an eternity, then base coat clear coat. Cut then buff. Then insulated the inside roof and began building the foundation for the headliner and dome lights front and back. Built foundation for lining around the side windows. Used faux white suede with foam backing on all of the foundation surfaces. Added ground activated switches to each door and the light switch to turn on doom lights. Added handle straps for ease of getting up in the seat. Came out nice but so much work. Next one gets a soft top

 

[widowmaker77]

Looks really nice! What type of material did you use?

 

[Torkman66]

Found it on Amazon. It is a faux suede with a foam backing. It is made for headliners.

 

[widowmaker77]

Looks good! I’m wanting to do something like that on my hardtop I rebuilt

 

[gnsteam]

I must have missed it somewhere. What did you use for the base materials? Great work!

 

[Torkman66]

I used 1/8" hardboard for the base. 3m adhesive glue, then headliner material. Actually pretty easy, just time consuming.

 

[gnsteam]

Thanks.

 

[widowmaker77]

So I’ve been thinking over different ideas about what base and headliner material I need to use and I’m kinda hung up on this. How did you attach the base material to the hard top? If you don’t mind telling.

 

[Torkman66]

Its very straight forward. The roof section is made up of 2 large panels. I had the luxury of having the top off Bronco, turned upside down on a dolly setup. However, it could be done in the rig as well...but would be harder. You have to decide if you want to have one smaller front roof panel, and one larger rear roof panel as the original ones or if you prefer to have two exactly the same size panels with seam in the middle of the roof. I wanted the same size panels and seam in middle. To do that you need to weld in a center section brace of some type that you can screw into. However, if you are OK with the front panel being smaller than the rear panel (as the original headliners are) then you just use the front support brace as the seam location to hold screws.

I started by using large pieces of cardboard and made the two panels exactly fit so that they curve slightly with the curvature of the roof and go slightly under the edges on each side. I transferred that to the foundation. You can use hardwood, plastic panels, or even 1/4" plywood as the foundation. You attach the panels using screws that go into the cross braces roof which hold up the entire center sections of the headliner. The edges are then tightly held up into place by making side strips that screw into the side of the top exactly where the original headliner screws went. The key is to make the plywood strips butt up tight against the headliner roof panel edges in order to hold the edges up nice and tight in place.

The very far back (where the liftgate hinges are located) is a separate piece that you do the same thing with. Start with cardboard then plywood (or whatever foundation you are using) and make it tight up against panel and screw into back section just as the original headliner did. Finally, the same for the two pieces on each side of the front visors.

So, the center screws hold up the middle of the large roof panels, and the sides and front and back vertical panels hold up all the edges.

The I used a 1.5" wide piece that covered the seam where the two roof panels meet and used several screws at that point.

I then removed all the pieces, covered them with headliner of choice using 3m adhesive and 1/4" staples (on back side), then mounted using previous screw holes and screw caps to make it look finished. You can see the places where there are screws using the white finishing caps.

Not sure if your doing anything aound windows, but those are super easy. If you are going to do those I can explain how I did mine with no screws.

 

[Hallboss]

That looks awesome! Great info. Still searching for a hardtop and will probably do this for sure.

 

[Shimmy]

turned out amazing and nice work!!! makes me want to reinstall my hardtop too. lol.

 

[hyghlndr]

Nice work, I just bought an abs sheet to try this. Any idea on rough dimensions, it is looking like a 4x8 ft sheet won't be enough.

 

[Torkman66]

I had to get two 4x8 sheets. The issue is that the inside width of the top is almost 60" x 72" so you have to cut each of the two top panels out of a full sheet. You then have plenty left for the long sides, front and rear. I used the white abs 4x8 sheets from Big Box store for top panels and then 1/4" plywood for sides. If I made it again, I would do the entire thing in 1/4" plywood. The ABS is too flimsy and hard to work with. It has a tendency to droop in areas not tightly secured. The 1/4" plywood is what nearly all custom headliner shops use when they build custom hot rod headliners. It is thin enough to curve where needed, light enough, but rigid enough to not allow any droop. It also nicely takes 1/4" staples when attaching material (on backside).

 

[AZ73]

Stunning work. I'm doing mine similarly but in preparation I welded the nuts on the top above the windshield to the inside (you can use revnuts too but I had the top down to metal already). That way I don't need to get a wrench up there to hold the nut. All the bolts for the top undo from the windshield frame side. I also left the top side lips "open" and ran LED light ribbon on the inside of the lip facing up for whole top interior indirect lighting. I have a quick-disconnect for the wiring behind the wiper cover. I ran 12 gauge wire with a relay for the lights and a switch on the dash so when I take the top off, I can add a light bar to the top of the windshield frame and plug it in to the same connection.

 

[Torkman66]

@AZ73 Pictures please if you have any.

 

[gnsteam]

@AZ73 Pictures please if you have any.

X2 on the pictures.

 

[AZ73]

It's currently disassembled to have the insulation installed, but when I get a chance I'll take pictures of the components and dig around to see if I took pictures of the testing of the lights when they were installed.

 

[AZ73]

Apologies, but I can't seem to find the photos of the test fits. Originally I was just going to use raw LED ribbon lights, but the test was just a little too bright a point pattern of the individual lights against the headliner so I encased them in a sleeve and used a diffusing cover over them. This softened the light and spread it out more evenly. There's one sleeve on the left and right in the lip above the rear side windows and one along the front lip above the windshield. The sleeve has the added benefit of protecting them now. The wires run along the lip. There's also one on the underside of the dash in the drivers and passenger's footwell. My headliner isn't as completely covering everything like Torkman's beautiful work so it leaves the lip exposed to place the sleeves. I debated using a door switch, but decided on the dash switch (first switch when you open the driver's door) so I could use a bar light when the top was off. When it's back together I'll post the finished product.

The ribbon lights I used were from Amazon and the sleeves came from SuperbrightLED.com.

 

[Mikes79Bronco]

Looks really good. One of these days I need to start working on my top, yours surly is an inspiration.

 

[papy]

great work!