Headliner question

[borna428]

Hi all,
I found this beautiful tweed material at a fabric store that I’d like to use as the headliner for my ’66 VW Beetle. I’m currently restoring the car, and it doesn’t have a headliner yet. I’m wondering what’s the best way to use this material as a headliner. Do I need an actual headliner to use as a template to cut my custom material, or is there a template available that I can follow?

Besides cutting the material to size, are there any other tips or tricks I should know about that could make it difficult to make my own headliner?

[cew]

I would buy a new headliner, disassemble it, and use the pieces as templates for your new material.

[Schnitzelfuss]

You could call TMI. They will make a headliner for your car with material you supply, provided they deem it automotive grade. I’m only speculating but be advised that may include if it self-extinguishes when ignited. You should check for that anyway regardless as to how you proceed.
If you have time and are willing to tackle it, you could buy some cheap fabric (old bed sheets etc.) from a thrift store or yard sale, some chalk, and a bunch of clips, and create a template. It would be very time consuming, but you’d also learn much.

[Rome]

I've never installed a headliner, but have seen a few in progress when I stopped in at Classic VW Bugs' shop here in the county over the years. Also had to work on an already installed replacement cloth headliner 35 years ago in my '56 Beetle on which some of the edges along the main roof section had pulled out of their retention corners. So: the headliner main roof section should have a stiff cardboard or thin plastic insert along the front and rear ends which you push into the roof frame to hold in place. At the front, that insert goes into the roof edge above the sun visors which are attached to the painted portion of the windshield header. Those inserts have to be held firmly in place onto the headliner material; the exact method I don't know but could either be in a full-width headliner material "sleeve" or possibly stapled or edge-sewn on.

The main ceiling portion of the headliner is held up by 3 or 4 metal rod "bows" that go across the roof. Those bows slide into sleeves which are sewn into the top side of the headliner. Those sleeves will need to be perfectly positioned along the roof edge, and also perpendicular to the side edges. Precision work with measuring and sewing.

You may want to view a few DIY Beetle headliner installation videos. Classic VW Bugs' Chris Vallone became proficient with the installations, and I'm sure issued some videos on that. He also utilized the tweed material premade kits from Sewfine. IMO they looked very good, though I never saw one in the "ivory" color.

[Jimone]

i installed a headliner kit in mine a bit a ago. pics of the kit on page 7 and install on page 9 of my beetle thread in my sig.

it took me a lot longer than i expected. i think i ended up around 60 hours. im an amature and i like to mosey so im sure it can be done faster. the difficulty really comes from having to be clean and precise across a lot of area and time. there are parts that tuck and fold. parts that are under tension. everything has to be super clean. stuff like that.

if i were going to make a custom one i think i would want to have something to template off of. there are a lot of parts that need to be in precise places.

i second chris vallones videos. i found them very helpful for the install methodology.
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november 1954 single cab