I Feel Better About Myself Now

[Bruzilla]

I was just watching Overhaulin, and they were delivering a car to the guy they did the overhaul for, and they were taping Chip Foose sitting inside with the owner. What I couldn't miss was the headliner was loaded with wrinkles near the windshield!

I had been fretting for two years over a couple of small wrinkles on the passenger side of the headliner, but the job I did, my first headliner by the way, was a lot better than what the pros on Overhaulin did.

I feel much better now.

 

[Photon440]

Kudos to you! Going to do mine this summer, and if you were successful then maybe mine will turn out okay too.:sSig_goodjob:

 

[kiwigtx]

I did my own headliner many years ago - it's actually quite easy.

The trick is not to leave the headliner all folded up in the packet when you get it. Unpack it and flatten it out if it is going be a while before installation . otherwise the creases will stay for ever.

 

[69redrunner]

Was it the silver and blue Chevelle? I noticed that too!

 

[Bruzilla]

Yep, that was the one!

 

[69redrunner]

At least the guys at gas monkey have it figured out. ....they don't even put headliners in most of the cars they build.

 

[Bruzilla]

They don't put any headliners in themselves. Sue over at ASM Upholstery does that.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Congrads Bruzilla!
I have heard the Headliner can be a tough project requiring time and determination.

PS: Yup, "Sue" does that stuff...

 

[67 coronet]

sadly,most of the overhaulin cars were not finished at the end of the shows.my buddy mats car,done for the last show at sema,didnt run and had no rear suspention.took almost a year to get the car finished and back to him.he had to contact foose directly 3 times to find out where the car was through that year.

 

[67GTX440]

You have to cut a lot of corners to restore a car in less than a week. I know someone who had a TV 3 day kitchen renovation. At the end of the three days it looked good for the camera but was missing plumbing wiring etc. The crew moved on and they were left to figure out how to get it done. On the plus side, they did get about 25K in free cabinets, flooring, appliances, granite etc. They were still pretty happy about doing it.

 

[Cranky]

I leave interior work to the pros and try to swap out work that I know how to do. Like most things, some are a natural at it and some aren't and when it comes to interior work, I'm not a natural lol

 

[Budnicks]

I was just watching Overhaulin, and they were delivering a car to the guy they did the overhaul for, and they were taping Chip Foose sitting inside with the owner. What I couldn't miss was the headliner was loaded with wrinkles near the windshield!

I had been fretting for two years over a couple of small wrinkles on the passenger side of the headliner, but the job I did, my first headliner by the way, was a lot better than what the pros on Overhaulin did.

I feel much better now.

Maybe you should have your own show

 

[Darius]

Nearing completion of a complicated build I fell completely comfortable in saying " It is a COMPLETE IMMPOSSIBILITY to do the things shown on these shows, cars or houses, in the time they would like us to believe they are done in"! I don't care WHO it is or what company is doing it or how many people they have working on it. These shows are as far from "reality" as you can possibly get!

 

[kiwigtx]

Nearing completion of a complicated build I fell completely comfortable in saying " It is a COMPLETE IMMPOSSIBILITY to do the things shown on these shows, cars or houses, in the time they would like us to believe they are done in"! I don't care WHO it is or what company is doing it or how many people they have working on it. These shows are as far from "reality" as you can possibly get!

That's pretty much the reason I hate watching these shows, and try to avoid them. All the fluff is for the camera, and if you look at how some of the work is done, you can see the end result will be far from satisfactory. Been in the trades too long to realise there is no such thing as a 5-minute job.
If you ever saw the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Charger being "restored", you know exactly what I mean. That thing is troweled up worse than a mud-brick house in the Ugandan jungle. Pop-riveted new panels over old steel with the rust still there.....sad really.

 

[67Satty]

I like the Roadkill show on Youtube that Freiburger does. They will work on something for awhile, run into a snag like we all do, give up for anywhere from a few days to a few months, come back to it...Much more realistic. Here's a link to a rat '68 Charger they did - took a '68 Charger shell and swapped in a motorhome 440, did the minimal to get it running and beat on it and it still took months:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JXDcJQqZrA

 

[Stewsta]

I saw Lance Armstrongs GTO years ago and it was nice but once you got close it didn't take a keen eye to spot flaws. Bad gaps, fisheyes, wavey bodywork, crooked seams in seats. I'd be happy with it but it's exactly what you'd expect from a so called one week build.

 

[Budnicks]

They don't put any headliners in themselves. Sue over at ASM Upholstery does that.

if they GMG even put one in, many of them don't have headliners when they are sold... not really sure what's up with that crap... But there's a whole lot more to building a car, frame up & doing all the work than just a headliner too... even if it's fake TV crap....

 

[Photon440]

Not everything on TV is real?

 

[Bruzilla]

Congrads Bruzilla!
I have heard the Headliner can be a tough project requiring time and determination.

PS: Yup, "Sue" does that stuff...

I thought it was going to be tough, but I kept hearing that from professional guys who wanted my money.

My prep was limited to laying the headliner out on the roof of the car for a day and a half to let the sun warm it up and get it more flexible, and going to an Officemax store to get a bunch of those little 1/2" alligator paper clips.

What I found to be the most important thing was getting the amount of material from the sleeves the bows run through cut away on the ends. I saw a YouTube video that said to cut away about 6" from each end, but when I was doing the install I found I hadn't cut away enough material on three of the bows, which caused the fabric to wrinkle on the sides. The fix was simple enough. Rather than drop the whole assembly, cut a little more, and try again, I would just pull the fabric to the left or right and then pull it down and tear the sleeve until I got it right and the wrinkles were pulled out. The only other part that was tricky was I didn't remove the windshield, which makes it harder to get the material at the front over the pieces of metal that are punched out to hold the fabric in place. I ended up jagging my fingers a couple of
times on those points, but in the end it went on and I just had one small wrinkle right at the leading edge of the rear window on the passenger side that just wouldn't come out for love or money.

 

[747mopar]

When you do things yourself you tend to over analyze them, enjoy it. I never really doubted that they could do a car in a week just because of the shear number of people they have working on it. 20 guys X 100 hrs ea = 2000 man hrs and they have experts in each area but it's still allot to get done. I personally love watching Overhaulin just because it's one of the only car show that spends just as much time on the actual build as it does the BS. When are we going to get a show that's "all build no BS"????????????