Headliner 1946 BC12D

[Ray]

Ok guys I'm now placing the headliner in and I have the bows in, but it appears to be a difficult job. I cant get the slack out of it. I was wondering if anyone has done this and can someone send me some pictures. My old headliner was made of some material that was not as good as the one I'm replacing . I bought the new headliner from Airtex so it should work, just a little scarey cutting that new material, also the zipper is different, my old one had a T zipper in the rear and this one has one long zipper in the back.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

I have lots of photos of my headliner going in but most are just of plumbers cleavage through the door of a Taylorcaft! Pretty disgusting stuff (I need to talk to the photographer). There isn't much you can gather from the photographs, we just spent hours trying to pull everything at the edges and slowly get everything smooth. Getting the headliner section width between the seams/bows was most critical. I will try next time to put in the headliner in BEFORE I cover the fuselage so I can reach all sides.
One thing that WILL help a lot is if you have access to a nice hot tub after each day working. You are going to have sore muscles you didn't even know existed.
Hank

[Ray]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

That helped except my old headliner covers the complete D window then you cut and glue.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

I filtered out all of the "cleavage" and here are a few of the finished product. Note this is a custom headliner, not a kit. I have a friend who does upholstery and he cut and sewed it for me.
Hank:

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

Hank,

Two questions:
First, it appears that the headliner was passed out through the D window and glued on the outboard face of the D window - is that correct?
Second, do you have details/photos of how the hat shelf is formed?

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

Yes to all. I think I have a drawing for the hat shelf frame and I know I have a pattern for the shelf itself. The headliner wraps around the "D" window frame and is stapled with the covering wrapped under it. If I put in the headliner first I would just staple or tack it with strips to hold it, then pull it back to cover the exterior and put it back over the fabric after the covering was wrapped around the wood. Easier to do than say.
Hank

[crispy critter]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

Hank,
Please understand I do not mean anything negitive by my reply to this but I don't think its a good idea trying to install the headliner before covering. I can tell ya from expirence that it is almost impossible to keep overspray & drip off the headliner during the covering process....if your using an all fabric headliner such as what is standard in a J3 it's not an issue because you can blend everything as you go and if you finish the interior in a different color you only have to mask off for the final color,but using a cloth,leather,or ?? is almost impossible to keep it looking show quality or anything close to decent during the covering process. I just don't see how it could be done. Not saying that it can't,but I just don't think it would be worth all the extra work involved in even attempting to keep the headliner protected just to save some trouble installing the headliner after completing the cover job. Maybe there's something some of you folks know that I don't about doing this and if that's the case then i guess my opinion is based on inexpereince rather then what I mentioned above.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

Keven,
Not negative at all. That's the same thing the upholsterer said. He couldn't see how we would keep the chemicals from the cover job off the headliner.
I had two ideas, first was to cover the whole exposed surface of the headliner with plastic after it was in and before the covering went on. After the fuselage was covered you just reach through the zippered holes and pull the plastic out (can't leave it in or he said moisture would be trapped).
The second idea was to put in the headliner and tack the edges, getting everything fitted and sewn, then remove the headliner for the cover job. When you put it back in it is already fitted and will go in much easier.
We did a lot of nips and tucks to get everything to fit well on mine and it was just a royal pain to do it from inside the cockpit while the fuselage was covered. Kind of like building a ship in a bottle. I am just glad he was a LOT smaller than I am. His pictures of me in there look like a Hippo in a tea cup.
We will see what works on the next plane. Either way when the 41 gets recovered I won't be doing it the way I did this one.
Hank

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Headliner 1946 BC12D

I installed this headliner before covering this Champ. It is really difficult to install a Champ after the exterior is covered. At any rate, I masked directly onto the headliner and then double masked by masking over the window/door openings. I was very careful to keep the masking in place while shooting dope - and I got a good headliner with no paint on it.

Doable, but certainly not easy.