headliner

[mikeeee]

can someone describe how the headliner support rods are anchored to the roof underside and what they look like.I've never seen any and need to get them.BTW,could I make them?

[rlutterb]

They are not physically attached to the underside of the roof. They are 'wedged' into the slots above the doors/rear windows. My 73SB had a plastic fitting that the end of each rod plugged into, then that 1 inch wide fitting was wedged into the slot. With or without that plastic fitting, the rods are held in place by the tension of the rod as it bows to follow the curved contour of the roof, and then the pockets in the headliner hold the rod in place, forcing it to bow with the roof contour and not allowing it to move front to back. It's all about tension. I guess you could make them, but i'd find a junker and just use those.
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1973 Super Beetle
1978 Ford F-250
2020 GMC Sierra

[robclark63]

you might be able to go to lowes and buy some small guage flexible rods. if you have a new headliner you will see how big of a diameter you will need. If I had any extras I would measure, but some one here might know.
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"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I will remember. Involve me and I learn." Benjamin Franklin

1972 SB
2011 Ram 1500 Sportsman
04 Corolla

[Travis Doll]

The rods are 3.5mm in diameter and measure 1125mm in length. These came out of my 74 Super.
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59 Kombi
74 Super Beetle
79 Westfalia

[jwold]

My friend and I recently replaced the headliner in my 70. My bows were for some reason a bit short, though correct. They did not have the little plactic caps (fire). The just didn't seem long enough to stay snug.

We improvised with some little black rubber vacuum caps, a bit of dowel and some shrink wrap to lengthen the rods.
I thought about alternates, but went with the originals.

Some pics:

padding adhesibe

bows in place, test fit...

I ended up putting a little bit of extra padding under there as the stuff I got from jbugs seemed a little thin. It seems like the headliner just stretches and there's no padding directly behind it.
I cut it into 6 or 7" strips and fed it through after the headliner was being held up by just the bows.
Here's a pic of the extra padding, I got it at the fabric store, I think it was about 1/4" thick and very light.

I bought the padding kit from jbugs, it had lots of extra foam peices that didn't seem to have a function, and I think was more of universal padding for the more than 1 piece headliner kits.

I used a 1 piece headliner that I picked up from a guy off of craigslist.

The glue from jbugs is great however, and I'd strongly recommend that. Their video is helpful too, though it's for a 67 and earlier bugs.

Here's about halfway through, I don't have any finished shots at this point, but it came out looking very professional looking...very tight.
Use a heat gun, take your time, don't settle for any wrinkles, they can and should all be pulled out tight, even down by the rear seat area...it can be done.

[rlutterb]