Books on restoring/installing carpet and headliners.

[ThomasM]

I am close to buying my first Studebaker, a 1952 Champion and I am trying to find some good reference books on how to install floor carpet and put up a headliner. Any suggestions?

[Corvanti]

welcome to the forum!

might want to start looking at these selections: https://www.google.com/search?q=car+...utf-8&oe=utf-8

[rockne10]

Best advice I can give for your first headliner install is patience and observation, then more of the same. Oh and...clean hands; did I mention clean hands?
The first thing you don't want to hear is the headliner in the '52 is almost necessarily installed with the front and rear glass removed, as it is tacked to the tack strip that is under the rubber glass seal. Restoration supply vendors offer a modern polymer tack strip far superior to the tarboard strips used half a century ago.
Clean all rust from your headliner bows and paint them. You will see they are numbered on one end so they go back in the appropriate sequence.
Scrape all vestiges of the roof insulation pads away (dirty, nasty job); then course sand and paint the roof interior. Apply a modern sound/heat insulation that is not very thick.
Insert your bows in the headliner and install them loosely in the appropriate sequence. Yep! That headliner is going to be hanging all over your anxious brain! Did I mention clean hands?
Starting with front center and rear center, stretch and tack the headliner so it is taut, centered and the bows evenly tensioned. Then go to left and right center. Some trimming will be required, as the headliner SHOULD have been produced wider than the bows or the finished product. Keep working from the center, front to back, left to right.
There's also a simple tool that makes inserting the cloth in to the toothed side retainers pretty easy. Just remember, once it's pushed in to those retainers it's there to stay.



Did I mention patience, observation and clean hands?
Just pretend you're stretching a canvas on a frame to paint your Mona Lisa; except the frame is full of compound curves.

[T-CAB]

What restoration place has the polymer tack strips? I can use some for my '64 Daytona.

Thanks

T-cab

[52-fan]

There are some good videos of headliner installs on You Tube. The trick is to watch the ones with the same kind of headliner as our cars. I learned that it would be possible to do with lots of patience. The wrinkles have to be carefully worked out as you go.

[ThomasM]

Thank you all for your timely responses. The headliner may be a job for a professional ( we have one in Terre Haute) especially since the patience part may not be my strongest suit. I just called him and it is anywhere from $600 to $800. It may be worth the headache. I do have one question on the carpet install: What and where can I get sound barrier to put under it?

[rockne10]

What restoration place has the polymer tack strips? I can use some for my '64 Daytona.

Sold by the foot at Restoration Specialties in Windber, PA. and available in a two different sizes. They also have the original laminated cardboard type in eight sizes. On page 117 of their catalog. http://www.restorationspecialties.co...g/page_117.pdf

http://www.restorationspecialties.com/