Slick 60's

My 66 has the original perforated cardboard headliner with the permanent droops and splits. I cant afford the $160 cardboard re pops that will probably do it again in a few years. I checked out the thread on here about using the FRP panel. I got to thinkin, I have a leftover sheet of 20 ga. aluminum from a construction job. I pulled out the old headliner and found a mouse nest that would fill up a gallon milk jug. YUCK! I laid out all four of the headliner sections on the aluminum, flattened them out, and traced them with a sharpie. Got them cut out last night. You guys think this will work OK?

Here is the old headliner in the back of my truck, and the aluminum pieces in the back of my Dodge.



My plan is to bend the aluminum to fit and apply a coating of truck bedliner to them before doing the final installation.
I will update with progress pictures as the job progresses if anyone is interested.

Nice job. Absolutely no reason it won't work. To bad you didn't put some tabs on the back piece where it joins the top so you could have pop riveted them together. My only thought is that it might be to thin and rumble if you don't insulate the roof. Leaving it aluminum would look cool too.

In my way of thinking the use what you have method ALWAYS works.. I wouldn't see why it wouldn't. are you going to re-install with the old clips?? I used them with my Slick but really not a fan of them.. I got some snaps and screwed the headliner in my econoline in with the base then put the snap covers over them... turned out pretty nice... I like that way much better... I used a piece of diamond plate in my slick for a center section/radio box.. I like the looks of it.



Make sure and post up some finished pics... I am excited to see what this is going to look like!!! many possibilities.. you could paint to match the truck, paint to accent the interior, leave it and polish it, or even put the brush swirly marks on it..... I am amazed at the ideas this site puts out...

When i made my headliner i considered using aluminum as well. Just remember depending on the gauge, it won't spring back into it's orginal shape as you form it into place, so it could bend(bad) or kink. Skips suggestion of insulation would be a must too. I think you are on to something, though. Go slow. Mine was a bear to form into place and it is pretty pliable, pvc. Now it has the infamous droops, the other pieces look perfect so it might be that i would consider just the problem area of the biggest top piece.

I used sheetmetal from a HVAC company. works like a champ. Used insulation between the headliner and the roof of the cab. Also, found headliner material at a local store for cloth and spray glued it to the sheetmetal. The store is JoAnns, I think. Looks good and has been servicable.

Uncle Skip wrote:Nice job. Absolutely no reason it won't work. To bad you didn't put some tabs on the back piece where it joins the top so you could have pop riveted them together. My only thought is that it might be to thin and rumble if you don't insulate the roof. Leaving it aluminum would look cool too.

See the tabs on the top section? I plan to test fit everything and bend and trim them to retain the top and back together where they overlap. I only had one of the original clips, so am making my own out of the same aluminum.
I thought about the aluminum look, but this sheet has been exposed to weather so it has some of the white corrosion crap on it. I am going to sand it clean prior to painting.

bird55 wrote:When i made my headliner i considered using aluminum as well. Just remember depending on the gauge, it won't spring back into it's orginal shape as you form it into place, so it could bend(bad) or kink. Skips suggestion of insulation would be a must too. I think you are on to something, though. Go slow. Mine was a bear to form into place and it is pretty pliable, pvc. Now it has the infamous droops, the other pieces look perfect so it might be that i would consider just the problem area of the biggest top piece.

What gauge aluminum did you use? This 20 ga. is heavier than the coil stock used to trim houses, etc.

BigBadDad wrote:

bird55 wrote:When i made my headliner i considered using aluminum as well. Just remember depending on the gauge, it won't spring back into it's orginal shape as you form it into place, so it could bend(bad) or kink. Skips suggestion of insulation would be a must too. I think you are on to something, though. Go slow. Mine was a bear to form into place and it is pretty pliable, pvc. Now it has the infamous droops, the other pieces look perfect so it might be that i would consider just the problem area of the biggest top piece.

What gauge aluminum did you use? This 20 ga. is heavier than the coil stock used to trim houses, etc.

If you'll re-read, I didn't use aluminum. I used PVC sheet. I was just thinking of using aluminum. Good luck, and post some pics of how it looks when you get it in.

I went the aluminum route, as I have ample access to sheet aluminum. I made mine from .080", but in hindsight wish I'd have used .058". We don't use anything thinner on our boxes (I work for a truck toolbox mfgr.). I annealed the edges of the sheet after I cut the profile, and bend the side curvature over a plastic garbage tote, and also a fire extinguisher. I finished mine with black spray can undercoating, to give it texture. Tested a lot of different brands to find one that hardened properly when dry. I like the way it turned out, but since it was so stiff (even after annealing it), I had to put it in and take it out a bunch of times. Scratched the hell out of the inside of the cab. At some point, I'll remove it and insulate for sound. I've found that it rattles just a bit, but only when really cold out.


Jerry

I used 23 gauge sheet metal from the local body shop supply.

My pattern wasnt all there (old headliner) so it isnt a perfect fit as I had to flip the one good side (passenger) , in over in reverse to make the drivers side pattern, but its close.

I will give this another try if I can find/buy a decent full size set of templates

I just painted mine, so it looks like the rest of the painted cab.

I like it.

I too would like to find some headliner templates out there so i could try this out. My slick came with no headliner and I am not about to try and measure and cut to fit. Not enough patience for that kind of stuff

there are some templates here

http://fordtruk.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... =headliner

Well here it is test fitted into place. It went easier than expected, especially since I did it alone. The rear of the top section fits tight against the top of the cab sheet metal, so I plan to add some weatherstripping for padding to keep the two metals from rubbing. Next week, will take it back out and decide on what paint or bedliner to use for the finish coating. Anybody have recommendations on what product to use? (So far I have found the Rustoleum brand bedliner at Lowes. Advance Auto has two different grades of the Duplicolor brand as well as Herculiner. ) Also trying to decide on whether to use rattle cans or roll it on.




Notice it has some small buckles at the front. Its trying to do the same thing as the original cardboard already. I spread the spacing of the original front clips out further to minimize this. I don't think it will be noticeable once the sunvisors are reinstalled.

if you were good with fiberglass you could make a sweet one piece headliner that wont buckle.

I suspect the buckling is due the piece being too long, or not quite shaped correctly. Probably the former, since you transferred the flattened dimensions of the sagged and deformed piece, which likely swelled from being exposed to moisture. So the aluminum pieces are probably slightly larger than a mint-condition original headliner, and as such need to be adjusted to get a better fit. Just a theory though, I may be wrong.

Something else you may want to consider is having some beads rolled into the aluminum to give it some rigidity and prevent it from resonating from cab vibrations, although it'll probably gain some rigidity from applying the bedliner. Even hand-forming a bead down the centre of the main piece (front to back, i.e. parallel to the doors) would help, and may even shorten up the overall dimensions enough to eliminate the buckling.

Not bad at all for the first try!, be a good time to do a scribe fit mark around the edges, and you may have to paint it in position!, looks great tho!

Wouldn't rinoline be kinda heavy?

I test drove it last week. No rattles at all! I have it out now and applying the Rustoluem bedliner coating. I'll post more pics soon.

Nice!!!! can't wait for the finished pics!!

the buckling is likely to be the piece growing in the heat.

Given the piece was likely cut and fit at a different temperature than when the pieces were installed and With the sides fixed, the expansion has to show up somewhere, which is somewhere between the two fixed points.

Mine also almost touches the inner roof and did vibrate and rattle until i pushed some rags between the two.

I dont think it is because it is cut too big.

To lower the back away from the inner roof would require about 3/4" to nothing tapered from back to front, to be removed from each side and my old headliner used as a pattern wasnt out that much.