The road to Phoenix (Updated 5.15.09 - Massive Brake work)

[H_Krix]

Holy piss, I never want to do another one of these for a looooooong time. My fingers hurt from all the damn clips... I think i used over 600 of them.

Major thanks to my friend Natalie, who helped me every step of the way. This was the first headliner of this type I've ever done (done plenty of cardboard ones, but thats kids stuff compared to this) I like to think we did a pretty damn good job of it.

Total time start-to-finish was about 16 hours. I used Wurth Spray headliner adhesive, which explains the tape (to protect overspray)

Pix: The intro, it all looks so simple when you're just hanging the silly thing on the bars for the first time

I started in the back, got everything hung loosely, then just kept tightening up the slack around each side as I went along. I think this is key to getting all those pesky wrinkles out. My friend Joe is also in these shots; his house is where I work on my car, and I cant thank him enough for putting up with me squatting in his basement for the past year and a half. Thanks dude, I owe you HUGE!

Then we started glue-ing:

Move from the top of the back window, down the back of the C-pillars, to the front of the pillars, then up top to the B-pillars...

After that, we tightened up the front and pulled things as taught as possible to avoid any wrinkling:

Feathered corners (thanks to CD for that video on YouTube! it was a HUGE help.)

The end of day 1 wrapped up everything but the pillar trim and sunroof. Only one *tiny* wrinkle around the driver's C-pillar, which will be directly behind my head so i'll never see it!

I'll voulenteer to shove forks in my eyes before I do another sunroof again. This was an exercise in frustration...

B-pillar and A-pillar trim goes in....

And now she sits and dries for a week...

I'll never do this again.... but I'm glad it turned out as well as it did.

[BLUNT]

wow that looks great. i wish you would have told me you were doing this. i would have bought stock in little metal clips. i dont think ive ever seen that many in one place. but the results speak for themselves. when i did mine (non sunroof) i actually enjoyed it. but i used wool and had no sunroof so i suspect that made it a lot easier. you do beautiful work harrison

[ibjettin]

Looking better every post! A buddy is going to tackle his headliner soon so I'll have to have him look at your blog before he (we) begin.

BTW, how long have you been hitting up the supply closet at work

Great job!

[Guest Anonymous]

FANTASTIC WORK!!!!

I do have a question or two:

I thought there was a version of the headliner for sun roofs, did you get the standard version and cut out that area , what would be the best way to remove that portion, incrimentally or is there a standard portion that is prescribed.

Is it possible to get that YouTube segment showing the processs that you mentioned about.

If you are in the Dallas area can you help me do mine JUST KIDDING, I don't want to be responsible for your blindness.

Have you given anymore thought about the limited slip idea?

Again AWESOME WORK!!

J.E.2002

[H_Krix]

Haha, thanks for the compliments guys, I'll see if i can answer every question:

The YouTube video I mentioned earlier is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhcTSF9KVMs&feature=related

In it, they're talking about the completion of the 2002tii that Mobile Tradition made in 2006. They show a few good shots of the assembly, but I wasn't able to follow the example exactly. For one, I used spray-glue as the industrial brush-on wasn't an option for me to acquire. I think the fact that they used a specific glue made for stretch-vinyl headliners contributed to the fact that there are no clips shown...

I hadn't hit up the supply closet at work, but the thought had crossed my mind! In the end, I don't think we have this many at my office, and if I never see another one of those buggers again, I'll be more than happy. Once I yank all of these off, I'll offer the box to anyone who wants to do this to their own car. I don't see myself doing this again for a long while.

The sunroof headliners are different from non-sunroof ones. In a sunroof car, there are 2 ribs toward the back of the car and the entire rest of the headliner is held up by the seams around the windows and sunroof. In a non-sunroof car, there are 5 ribs spanning the length of the headliner and they support it over your head. Pic below is a non-sunroof headliner (powelli's car) in it, you can see the seams around the ribs toward the front where a sunroof car would have none:

I went with one of the Ebay headliners from goliners.com. It was a very nice quality, but there were some very slight alignment issues. Most notably, the material did not like to turn the corner around the sunroof, which is why that particular part was so frustrating for me. For the price, you can't beat it though. You just have to use a little heat on the corners around the sunroof and you're set!

I'm exaggerating about the frustration, really. The first part (before sunroof) was cake and actually a pretty good time. It was only once I had to start wrestling with the material around the corners of the sunroof that I really started getting pissed. All in all, it turned out well I think. I'll be putting in the sunroof and engine in coming weeks, so I hope my newfound progress and good fortune continues.

[H_Krix]

Oh, and as far as removing the sunroof section, I traced the line of the sunroof hole on the inside of the headliner with pencil, then scribed another line about 3" in from that one.

I cut along the 3" line, then feathered the corners where the material would need to stretch around the edges of the sunroof. It's not 100% perfect (the last corner I did was a remarkable improvement over the first one) but they all look good with no wrinkles.

Best advice I can give is cut SLOWLY and always cut less then you think you need to.

[deutchfiend]

all i can say is dam.

[brad_c-ville_VA]

nicely done, man!

[H_Krix]

Pictures to soon follow, but suffice to say that this weekend went... poorly.

To anyone looking to replace their old sunvisors with units out an e28 528e or similar car, DO NOT USE THE SAME SCREWS THAT CAME IN THE E28. THEY ARE TOO LONG BY ABOUT 1/8"

I know this because I shot two of them straight through my roof yesterday. The only thing that really kept me from totally losing my mind is the fact that I got the engine in.... but I really feel like a fucking amateur moron right now.

[carrosene]

Oh man that sucks to hear that. I was thinking about replacing my visors soon so I am glad you gave the warning. Glad to hear you got the engine in though. I still wanna come by sometime but I need work to ease up some. Being a designer at times sucks. Im sure you know what I mean.

Eric

Pictures to soon follow, but suffice to say that this weekend went... poorly.

To anyone looking to replace their old sunvisors with units out an e28 528e or similar car, DO NOT USE THE SAME SCREWS THAT CAME IN THE E28. THEY ARE TOO LONG BY ABOUT 1/8"

I know this because I shot two of them straight through my roof yesterday. The only thing that really kept me from totally losing my mind is the fact that I got the engine in.... but I really feel like a fucking amateur moron right now.

[H_Krix]

Engine went in this past weekend... more pics to follow....

[carrosene]

The engine in your car looks so badass and I love the colors. Good job man. I am very jealous.

Eric

[ibjettin]

That's a great idea to blow up the wiring diagram and hang it on the wall like you did! One that size could save a lot of time.

[Kidasters]

Harrison,

Did you have the intake manifold powdercoated? Looks great!

Sorry to hear about the sunvisor screws. I almost got in trouble with loc-tite red and exhaust studs, so I know how you feel.

Later,

Ken

[H_Krix]

Did you have the intake manifold powdercoated? Looks great!

Its actually Krylon Krinkle red. I have a spare valve cover I'm going to be trying it on, was just worried it would be too much bling for under the hood... We'll see.

Ordered some wire for my MSII today, hopefully going to be running that this weekend.