Has anybody had an experience with installing the front headliner retainer molding on early Chevelles? I bought one from Year One, and it is made of such brittle plastic, that the legs of it just snap off when you try and slip it over the headliner and the retainer. I trimmed it off clean and tried to slip it over the retainer and it broke a leg off three times in row!

There has to be a vendor that has a strip that is not as brittle, so I am looking for some people who have had good experiences with other vendors.
All input would be appreciated.

My original is pretty deteriorated, and I really don't want to have to re-use it, if possible.

Regards, John McGraw

I ordered the trim for my 65 Corvair from Clarks and it was very flexable. It is the same type of trim......maybe order the front upper windshield piece from them. I can't get to my Corvair to measure the length, but I'm guessing it will work for you.

Year One has sent me another one, so I will see what it looks like when I get here. They tell me that it a Trim Parts item, and that they had not heard complaints about it. Maybe it was just a bad part.

Regards, John McGraw

I suspect you got a defective, or really old one that sat on a shelf way too long.

I recently did the headliner in my 67 and replaced the old plastic trim, front and back.
I bought it from Muscle Factory. It was sold loose, not boxed, so I don't know who manufactured it. Probably Trim Parts if I had to guess.
It was not brittle at all, but it wasn't the easiest part to push over the headliner and steel retainer lip. It isn't going to fall off, that's for sure!

I am not an upholstery expert or trim installer, so a pro might snap it on in five minutes, I had a little more difficulty as this was my first try putting on that type of trim.

Here are a few things I learned during the install:

-The binder clips that you used to hold the headliner in place while the glue dried; leave them in place and remove them just a few inches at a time as you work the plastic trim on.

- Use a blow dryer to gently warm up the end of the plastic trim that you intend to start with to 100 degrees or so; that helped me get it started. Getting the first 1" of the trim over the headliner was the hardest part.

-Use a small tool to gently pry the lips apart on the trim so it's 1/8" open and capable of starting to slide over the headliner/lip. Just do the 1/2" section that you are pushing on at the moment. I used a 90* L-shaped pick tool; I tried a butterknife and a flat screwdriver first, not much luck.

-Trim it to length before installing. I figured I would get it most of the way on them trim the excess as I approached the end, NOPE. My Knipex dykes that cut right through -4 braided hose didn't want to cut it as much as they wanted to slide off it; I had to remove it then cut it with a hacksaw and debur that end.

-That's when I realized that if you pull off the trim after pushing it on, even just a little bit; expect it to detach the headliner from the metal lip. Then you gotta reglue the headliner, clip it, and wait til the next day to finish the project that you thought would take 10 minutes. Well, I had to do that and it was disappointing.

I suspect you got a defective, or really old one that sat on a shelf way too long.

I recently did the headliner in my 67 and replaced the old plastic trim, front and back.
I bought it from Muscle Factory. It was sold loose, not boxed, so I don't know who manufactured it. Probably Trim Parts if I had to guess.
It was not brittle at all, but it wasn't the easiest part to push over the headliner and steel retainer lip. It isn't going to fall off, that's for sure!

I am not an upholstery expert or trim installer, so a pro might snap it on in five minutes, I had a little more difficulty as this was my first try putting on that type of trim.

Here are a few things I learned during the install:

-The binder clips that you used to hold the headliner in place while the glue dried; leave them in place and remove them just a few inches at a time as you work the plastic trim on.

- Use a blow dryer to gently warm up the end of the plastic trim that you intend to start with to 100 degrees or so; that helped me get it started. Getting the first 1" of the trim over the headliner was the hardest part.

-Use a small tool to gently pry the lips apart on the trim so it's 1/8" open and capable of starting to slide over the headliner/lip. Just do the 1/2" section that you are pushing on at the moment. I used a 90* L-shaped pick tool; I tried a butterknife and a flat screwdriver first, not much luck.

-Trim it to length before installing. I figured I would get it most of the way on them trim the excess as I approached the end, NOPE. My Knipex dykes that cut right through -4 braided hose didn't want to cut it as much as they wanted to slide off it; I had to remove it then cut it with a hacksaw and debur that end.

-That's when I realized that if you pull off the trim after pushing it on, even just a little bit; expect it to detach the headliner from the metal lip. Then you gotta reglue the headliner, clip it, and wait til the next day to finish the project that you thought would take 10 minutes. Well, I had to do that and it was disappointing. Thanks for the 1st hand experience as we are going to install our headliner and trim in about a week. Excellent forum with very good help!!!!