Finding an intact headliner was a real bonus for the Marlin. Usually, headliners in old cars are ripped or have become a mouse-house. Or they are just plain gone. This one was sagging on the sides, the plastic retaining type beading was long turned to dust. On the test drive I had to duck while getting into the car and the liner rode on the top of my head around the parking lot.
So my first restoration project was to fix the liner. The liner is made of formed fiberglass/paper fibers then covered with a vinyl. The rigidity of the form liner had long since vanished so I need to stiffen it up to hold it’s form.
After cleaning up the underside of all the loose fibers, I thought it would be best to seal the edges first. I taped up the edges to protect the vinyl then used spray adhesive to glue the edges together.
Once that dried laid 6oz fiberglass cloth down and used polyester resin to glue the cloth to the underside. My thinking was this would stiffen up the liner so it wouldn’t sag in the middle where it was fastened. It sort of worked.
Thinking back now, I should have put a couple of metal strips under the glass to help maintain the shape. Once the epoxy cured and I lifted it without support, the fiberglass cloth tended to separate from the liner. The layers liked to peal away. You can see that in the last picture where there are white air pockets. But overall, I think the repair theory was sound and worked ok. Putting the liner back into the car will be in a later post.
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