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Headlining the second act

Posted on July 2, 2020March 19, 2023 by David

This second part of the headliner repair was actually completed six months after I first got the car. The repaired liner went right back into the car and looked fine but it was brown and I knew I wanted to change the interior colors and the texture. I thought adding some fabric would improve noise levels as well as appearance.

I found some really nice foam-backed black headliner fabric on RochfordSupply.com at a good price. They also carry other interior supplies such as door card material.

It was at this time I did my next modification. I noticed it was kind of dark inside the car. The Marlin has three light points, the two under-dash open bulbs and the rear seat fixture. My rear seat light was deformed and broken with a missing lens. I ordered a reproduction Mustang dome light off eBay that looked kind of close to the original and when it arrived, I realized would be perfect to add to the interior lighting overhead so I ordered another and set about measuring and positioning the new light in the headliner.

Locating the center of the liner making sure the light didn’t land right on one of the roof braces.

I ran two wires with plugs back to the back seat light wiring. That way it was tapped into the correct circuit for the door and dash switches.

I needed to create some mounting points so I glued washers to both sides of the liner. Otherwise the bolts and nuts would have pulled right through when tightened.

I scuffed up the liner to help the glue hold. The liner vinyl was pretty clean but I went over it again with clean/degreaser then with mineral spirits. I even vacuumed it to get all the dust.

Ready to spray
Allowing the fabric to un-wrinkle and relax before gluing

I followed the instructions on the spray adhesive can. Just a word of caution-you’ll have one shot at getting the fabric down right. A second set of hands is very helpful After waiting for about five minutes, with help, I stretched the fabric over the liner the slowly lowered it onto the liner. The outside grabbed first then the center so I using a plastic bondo squeegee, I worked the fabric carefully watching for wrinkles. I was able to lift some areas a little to smooth it out but in less than a minute the fabric was stuck permanently.

All done and ready to go back in the car

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