The Camaro Club (UK)

Hi all,

I bought an ABS plastic headliner from NPD and in a nutshell can't install the bloody thing. 3 hours, a backache, a cut finger and much swearing later i'm not impressed. Has anyone done one and has any tips advice? the problem i'm having is that where the sunvisors screw in and hold it in place, just don't line up. i can install the driver side but then the pass side is too close to the inside of the car and after much leveraging etc i can't get the pass side visor to match up. it also throws the tabs that run along the door out of alignment. as there is nothing in the car, i built a mini cardboard box fortress so the headliner could rest an inch or so from the roof to make it easy to make adjustments but it's being a stubborn SOB. Cheers in advance!

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I nearly bough the ABS one when I did my headliner, but my original board looked OK so I re-used it with a new material cover.. Still didn't fit great though..

Is it possible that it's not seated in the middle so the edges are bowing (if that makes sense) as mine seemed quite sensitive to how it was fixed in the centre (under the light)

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Cheers Stu,

It has the middle cut out actually as it's got a sunroof and the main part of the middle section is held up by cardbaord boxes so it's practically touching the roof. i will try and check for any bowing tonight. The ABS headliner doesn't really match up with the original card headliner, unfortunately that headliner is way outa shape so i can't reuse it. have given NPD a shout now, will let you know wha they say, but still welcome to ideas

Thanks,

Ray

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Halfway through the evening and same ole crap. i got some advice from NPD who said to start from the back and move forwards, not using the visor holes as a guide, but annoyingly they're the only things that give you a clue if it's right or not. they said you may need to redrill the holes so fair enough did that, even cut away a bit of the sides around the tabs to make sure they were sat comfortably. i then put in the sunroof as it has an inside trim which holds up the area around the cut out part. so its definately sat high up on the roof but the warping is still there. at the front its warped downwards by at least 3 inches and there's the warp on the passenger side above the door which is about the same. somethings not right!!

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

How to post youtube vids: Click on the 'youtubeHD' button at the top of the message box and in the middle of the ][ brackets that just appeared, copy and paste everything from the youtube web address that appears after the = sign i.e if this is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0 just copy "K2cNqaPSHv0").

Halfway through the evening and same ole crap. i got some advice from NPD who said to start from the back and move forwards, not using the visor holes as a guide, but annoyingly they're the only things that give you a clue if it's right or not. they said you may need to redrill the holes so fair enough did that, even cut away a bit of the sides around the tabs to make sure they were sat comfortably. i then put in the sunroof as it has an inside trim which holds up the area around the cut out part. so its definately sat high up on the roof but the warping is still there. at the front its warped downwards by at least 3 inches and there's the warp on the passenger side above the door which is about the same. somethings not right!!

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So basically it's the wrong shape/size and the holes are cut in the wrong place..

I know it's not unusual on these old cars for a few things to move over the years, but only a few millimetres and not the roof .. !!!

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Right?! lol i guess it's something you have to expect with the aftermarket nature of things. It's far worse when it comes to replacement sheet metal i hear, often needing much modifying. I remember Nige on his build had steel that was way out of proportion on the arches.

Think i've sussed the headliner now, it doesnt go all the way up to roof, its about 2-3 inches away, so when i was installing the sunroof trim, it was lifting it too high up and causing a pinch effect, hence the waves appearing. What i'm in the process of doing now is creating a 90 degree bend in the sunroof cut out area, as otherwise there is a 3 inch gap between the roof and the headliner which will look odd even with vinyl covering it. looking at the original headliner, it has an S bend around the sunroof area to create a flush finish. easy to do with carboard, but not so much with plastic, so i've been (don't own a heat gun) using a blowtorch on low setting to heat the plastic just enough to create a 2 inch flange. It's made the whole thing a lot stronger and it doesnt wobble which is kind of a bonus. didn't get a chance to trial refit it as its way too late, so will try tomorrow eve will see if it works.

Cheers for now!

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You're using a blow torch!!!??!! use a hairdryer it's far safer & will do just as good a job on full power, other wise you might find a load of dripping plastic in your car . Glad to see you've got it sussed now though. I hate repro shit.........

cheers...Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

haha!! To be fair to them it did fit as it was supposed to after the first couple of mods and as there are so few of these out there with sunroofs i can kind of see how they missed this. Funnily enough the blow torch worked well, the plastic is a reasonable thickness to i didnt think a hair dryer would work. it's out of the car too so it's easier to work with. i keep moving the flame so it gets that plastic soft enough to bend, so far so good! gonna try and fit last nights work in about half an hour from now, and ill probably need a couple of more adjustments so i'll post up some pics tonight.

kind if wish i welded up the roof now!

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ok was too cold last night. tonight for sure!

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How to post pics: When writing a message, scroll down and use the "attach file" option. Where possible, a photo sharing service can be used such as Flickr, Imgur etc. The image location (usually ending in .jpg) can be copy and pasted between the ][ brackets that appear when you click the 'Img' button (you can find this button at the top of the message box).

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