bows r up with head liner hanging,did not trim,didnt have old 1.Do i stretch because it seems to stop at the bow.Maby,i dont know,i just dont get it.It bunches up at bow,do i just keep pulling or do i have the hl even with the ends of the bows over hanging evenly and put bows in holes through the hl sleeve? I hope someone understands this ,help!

the bows should go in one spot either leaning forward or leaning backwards which will snug it up between the bows when you start to stretch it. if you look at the bow holes if i remember correctly the go in and the metal is formed so the bows will lean one way or the other. hope this helps.

also the ends should go past the end of the bows and stretch it and glue it.

Also, you do need to trim it. It is also very important that the bows went back in the correct order. Clip it to the headliner brackets using small binder clips and keep pulling it tight until you are satisfied with it, then remove a few clips at a time and glue.

You hang it up with the bows but your sleeves are to long on the headliner to let it make the corners so you sneak back in with a razor blade and slit the sleeves back to where the rods are bent and turn down. The headliner only hangs from the straight part of the bows. The sleeves are cut to let it pull straight to the edge you glue it to and not follow the rods around the corner. I hope I didn't confuse you.

Another good tip shared here earlier by other member is to use lots of binder clips to hold the headliner in place as your strech it. As stated above, the sleeves are made full length and need to be cut open as you stretch the headliner material so it passes over and past the bow mounting mounting points. I measured my headliner first to find the center point on the sleeves and starting in the front, with the headliner itself pretty much centered, snapped in the first bow, strectched it at each side and placed the recommended binder clips, then did the next bow the same way, then the next etc. By finding something close to the center point you'll have nearly equal amounts of excess material on each side as you stretch it and clamp it. It takes some fussing, but work slow and steady and it will turn out okay. Once all the bows are up and things look right, take a break, come back another time to trim a little if needed then glue and stuff in around the trim piece and reclamping, keeping it pulled tight. I did the project solo and had my doubts about getting good results but first time it turned out really good with no wrinkles. Only problem was a few quality issues with the headliner itself where the material was sewn to form the bow sleeves, but nothing you can do about that. I haven't been able to finish glueing it all down, simply to hot outside here in TX right now, over 100+ daytime and 90+ night time, and I work outside on a hot concrete patio, so that will have to wait until the weather breaks a little.

Jeff
68SS in TX

You hang it up with the bows but your sleeves are to long on the headliner to let it make the corners so you sneak back in with a razor blade and slit the sleeves back to where the rods are bent and turn down. The headliner only hangs from the straight part of the bows. The sleeves are cut to let it pull straight to the edge you glue it to and not follow the rods around the corner. I hope I didn't confuse you.


If I understand what you've said correctly, I have to disagree a little. The sleeves are very important to allow the headlinet to follow the gentle curve of the rods to the point above the windows where they are glued.

That said, the headliner "pockets" do need to be trimmed, because they are usually too long and that's what causes your "bunching" problem, but they should only be trimmed back to a point where they don't bunch up. Otherwise you end up with a headliner that goes in a straight line from the top of the roof to where they're glued above the side windows.

My wife and I did our '68 ourselves in one afternoon, and frankly I thought the process was much easier than recovering the rear seat.

Do get plenty of the binder clips; you will be amazed how well they hold the headliner in place, even after stretching. You will find you need to "tweak" the stretch in places, so use plenty of these clips and eyeball everything before gluing. You will also be amazed how well the material stretches- - -

Good Luck!