Report on (slow) S2 Coupe rebuild progress

[fay66]

Looking real good Norman, and with your attention to detail, I think it will be well worth all your efforts to make sure everything fits, and that you know how it goes together.
Brian
8227 

[DavidLaver]

Its a job where all those words really were necessary to describe it.  A tricky thing to do... 

I particularly liked the photo with just the rods in place.

[nthomas1]

Good progress today.  I prepared the new headliner by cutting the stitched rod pockets at their sides leaving an approximately 94 centimetre central portion uncut.  This was to allow the headliner to be pulled down at the sides to meet the top of the door openings.  I then slid the five rods into the pockets, longest rods at the ends, and then started the installation by putting the rearmost rod into its sockets and rotating it clockwise (as viewed from the side of the car with the rear of the car to the left) until it popped into the notch on the retaining bracket fastened to the top edge of the rear window opening. The second, third and fourth rods were then slotted into their sockets, rotating each until the fabric between each and the preceding one was taut.  Finally, the fifth rod was slotted into position and rotated clockwise until it notched into the indentations in the two retaining brackets screwed into the top of the windscreen opening.

Starting with the central portion of the passenger side of the car I started pulling the fabric taut and fastening fold-back clips to hold it in place, working from the centre outwards.  After about 80% of the side was clipped in place I started on the front of the car, at the centre of the windscreen opening, pulling the fabric taut and clipping it in place, then working to the left and right one clip at a time until about 80% of the windscreen width was done.  I repeated the process in a similar manner in the rear window opening, and then along the driver side of the car. All the time I was doing this I was continually removing and adjusting clips as I spotted folds or creases in the fabric.

As I clipped the fabric in place I was careful to spread out the cut sections of the pockets - see sixth photo - so that there was no bunching up of the fabric before clipping it in place.

At this stage I felt through the fabric surface to find the three holes for the attachment of the rear view mirror and made a small paper template to indicate the hole position for the two wires to the interior lamp.  Using the template I marked the headliner and then made a small x-shaped incision to feed the wires through. I then undid the clips on the passenger side of the windscreen opening and fed the interior lamp wires up the A pillar and across the roof, taping them in place at intervals, and feeding them through the hole that I’d made in the headliner.

On completion of the above I was left with the corners of the headliner to stretch into position.  That’s tomorrow’s job.

One issue that had been vexing me was how to handle the junction between the main headliner panel and the A and C pillar covers.  I considered laying the old headliner on top of the new one to mark the positions for stitching the covers in place.  I decided that this would be difficult to do given the condition of the old headliner, and I figured that it would then require a lot of precision in positioning the stitched assembly.  I decided instead on a compromise: that I would fit the main headliner without stitching the pillar covers.  I would then fold the tops of the pillar covers and iron them flat, and then overlap and glue them on top of the projecting pieces of main headliner fabric.  More on that in subsequent reports.

One final thing; I found that putting a couple of thick cushions on the floor of the car made getting in and out and moving around while installing the headliner much easier - at lease for these old bones!

[DavidLaver]

Inspiring. 

Interesting just how many clips.

[fay66]

Looking good Norman, and very professional as it can't be an easy job working upside down, even with cushions for your knees!
What are your thoughts on injecting steam afterwards, that was used to tighten it up? the factory method at the time to remove any wrinkles and tighten everything up.
Brian
8227 

[nthomas1]

Looking good Norman, and very professional as it can't be an easy job working upside down, even with cushions for your knees!
What are your thoughts on injecting steam afterwards, that was used to tighten it up? the factory method at the time to remove any wrinkles and tighten everything up.
Brian
8227 

Well Brian, I think I'll see how the headliner looks when finished before making a decision.  I'm not sure how I would apply the steam.  Someone else has suggested trying a hair dryer on a hot setting.

[tzf60]

Very impressive results, Norman! Excellent finish to the lining, and an excellent write-up of the proceedure. Really enjoying your journey!
 
Keep her lit!
Tim

[fay66]

Looking good Norman, and very professional as it can't be an easy job working upside down, even with cushions for your knees!
What are your thoughts on injecting steam afterwards, that was used to tighten it up? the factory method at the time to remove any wrinkles and tighten everything up.
Brian
8227 

Well Brian, I think I'll see how the headliner looks when finished before making a decision.  I'm not sure how I would apply the steam.  Someone else has suggested trying a hair dryer on a hot setting.

Norman, the steam used to be injected with a wand about 2 foot long, although I think the hair drier sounds more practical.
Brian

[jimbo64]

Hi chaps nice work norm , re hair dryer would it not loosen the material, what about a clothes steamer there quite cheap or hire one just a thought

[nthomas1]

Thanks for the tips on the headliner.  I guess I need to better understand the physics of using steam, or dry heat!

It was too wet today to roll the car out of the garage to work on the headliner so I started refurbishing the rear-view mirror assembly, cleaning the door seals, and reassembling the seats.

As with many things during the rebuild I didn't take enough photographs during disassembly, so part of today was spent reading through the TAV and looking up reference pictures in order to figure out how the seat sliding mechanism works.  Figured it out as you can see below.  I found I was missing one of the four small white plastic clips that keep the linkage rods in place (see last two pictures).  The mechanism seems to work alright without it but I'll always know it's missing! So, if anybody has one by any chance I'd be very grateful.

[peteracs]

Hi

My trimmer when he gave me the fabric for the headlining suggested a hair dryer to tighten it up if needed. He had trimmed the seats and door cards, but did not have the car itself so he could install the headlining hence the advice.

I have yet to put it to the test.....

Peter

[simonandjuliet]

I've never come across the connector-link on the front seats - what year is your car - late S2 ??

Looking good !

[Jaydub]

Fantastic job Norm and very well documented. Ref clips: unfortunately I don`t have any to hand but they look like those used in doors for locks/ levers etc.

[nthomas1]

I've never come across the connector-link on the front seats - what year is your car - late S2 ??

Looking good !

Simon, it's a 1973 S2. I think the part is what shows as a "retainer" on TAV page 82A, item 32, part number 2289476

[nthomas1]

Back working on the headliner today.  It is every bit as tricky as I suspected it would be.  I spent the day adjusting the clips and pulling the fabric in different directions to try to eliminate bunching and ridges, and get smooth surfaces.  It was necessary to very carefully snip the pockets that hold the rods in order to get the right curvature on the headliner as it meets the sides of the car (picture 1). I had left about 94 centimetres of each pocket uncut when I prepared the headliner before installing it but this resulted in far too sharp a radius  Typically I made additional cuts to the pockets to about 5 or 6 centimetres away from the edges of the car. 

It was also important to make sure that the portions of the cut pockets at the edge of the car were pulled in opposite directions to avoid triple fabric thickness (picture 2).  Making cuts in the surplus fabric overlapping the edges of the roof also seemed to help the fitting process.

The trickiest part of the whole task so far has been tensioning the fabric at the corners of the roof.  If you imagine laying a piece of fabric in a deep baking tray with rounded corners you can see that there will be surplus fabric in those corners.  The easiest way to eliminate the surplus fabric, which shows up as buckling or ridges in the surface, would be to overlap the fabric but that would be a last resort.

After much adjusting I’m still not happy with the tautness of the headliner.

This takes me back to the suggestions to use hot air or steam.  As I can’t find anyone who has done the job before who I could ask about the merits of the two approaches I think I’ll have to make up a jig with some buckled fabric and try out both to see what effect they each have on the vinyl. I suspect that neither will reduce buckling once the headliner is tensioned, but they may help in stretching the fabric before fixing it in place, and the fabric may then shrink as it cools - but I’m not sure what impact that would have on the adhesive and I’m sceptical of any approach that actually increases the amount of fabric!