Headliner Replacement

Unknown

Does anyone have any personal experience with replacing a headliner in a stepdown? I'm considering doing it myself with a replacement unit from Kanter. I've heard that the older the car, the more difficult it is to replace the headliner, but I think it's still within my capabilities. Are there any special tools, adhesives required?

Thanks for the help.

Unknown

You might also want to get a competitive price from Acme Auto Headlining Co., 550 West 16th St., Long Beach, CA 90813; 800/288-6078 before buying yours. I don't believe there are any special tools (you would want to have some sort of steamer when you're done, it stretches the fabric and gives a good tight appearance). The process is rather tedious and you'll want to make sure your rear window doesn't leak before you begin, since water can ultimately stain the headliner in that area. You might want to ask around the fellow H-E-T chapter members in your area to see if anyone has attempted headliner replacement before, to see if he could offer any pointers or even give you a hand.

Unknown

Yup, done that with Kanter's headliner. I'll send pics if you send me an email at HETcramergm@frontiernet.net (drop the HET)
er, I followed the procedure in the Hudson Body Manual, available at the club store. There were no instructions with the headliner per se.

The windshields and rear glass need to be out. This is also covered in the body manual.

In short, there are loops on the upper side of the headliner thru which the bows go. (don't get them mixed up) Hang all the bows with liner with the curve down. The 3rd one from the back (I think) has a latch so that
when it is swung up it stays there. Successively work forward swinging each bow back and up and temporarily hook the liner near the center post of the windshield.

Then begin at the latched one and work back, swinging the rear ones forward and up, and fasten the center of the liner in the top of the back window temporarily.

Then start at the latched bow at the sides and snip the excess liner off, leaving a couple of inches, and pull and tuck the liner up under the metal strips with the triangular barbs. A plastic putty knife works pretty good.
Adjust forward and back as necessary. Take your time until the wrinkles are out as good as you can get them. Tack around the edge of the back shelf,
and around the rear window and the windshields until you're satisfied, using carpet tacks in pre-drilled holes. When you're satisfied, remove a tack or two at a time and cement the liner to the front and rear window frames.
Carefully cut out for the dome light and the antenna. Good luck. Yer Uncle
Josh

Unknown

Another thing to watch for is that the bows must stick out of the muslin loops completely so that the headliner can
be streched. The loops can be cut so that about 1 to 1.5 inches of bow sticks out on each side. There is also good instructions for replacing a head liner at [url="Http://www.hotrod.com/howto/76318/."]Http://www.hotrod.com/howto/76318/.[/url]

Unknown

We used Kanter as a supplier for our '54 Hornet Special and we replaced the headliner WITHOUT removing the rear window or the windshield and it looks very nice. What we did at the back was, just above the window we installed a curved (to match the inside roof line) piece of light weight metal (I believe it was a modern day side molding type piece) with about 7-10 recessed phillips screws, and painted the piece to match the inside garnish moldings. It's hardly even noticeable and only a Hudson guru would even know it wasn't "authentic." But, hey, it kept us from having to take the back window out. And we did not remove the windshield either. We did this a couple years ago and all is holding fine. I was determined NOT to have to remove the rear window.