OK

i've been searching all the forums here about e-body headliner installs and everything that shows up is related to 70 & 71. not much on 72-74.

i know cudas and challengers are different so my question is directed to challengers.

my car is a 72 challenger with the 4 bow headliner. i got one of these repo headliners and tried to install it myself with disastrous results. and here is what happened.

first i installed the insulation. then i laid the headliner out on a piece on cardboard and inserted the bows. trimmed back the ends so the dog leg tabs were sticking out of the sleeves. put each bow into the holes in the roof of car and let them hang down. then i centered the headliner and proceeded to move the bows up against the roof. this is where the problem starts.

in the posts that i've read, it shows the early model e-bodys with these clips that hold the headliner bows up. plus the bows don't have the dog leg tab. well guess what, there is no place for these clips to go on my car so nothing holds the bows up. they just flop back and forth (yes, they are the correct bows). when i start to stretch the headliner over the teeth that hold the front and back of the headliner, the bows just flop forward or backward.

am i missing something i don't get it.

i basically followed the directions that i found posted here, and nice pics by restorations by rick may i add, but nothing is going right. after i stretch it out it liiks like the stuff you pickup after taking you're dog for a walk.

any tips would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

Greg

Consider this a bump........but on my dart there are 2 wires at the back that hook on the last bow.Hope to be putting mine back in in a couple months.......seems like you start from the back and the wires only let the material come forward so far.

Hi Greg,
It sounds like you have the wrong bows.
70 uses the "pocket clips" you mentioned, but yes, your car will have no square cutouts in the roof rails to attach them.

The correct bows should have a bend in the ends that poke into one of three holes in the roof rails on each side.

Can you post a pic of your bow ends?

Rick

Dart67, yes the wires are on the back and i connected them to the back bow.




here are the pixs of my bows. Rick, i think maybe my wording wasn't right, my bows do have the dogleg tabs.

any suggestions?

thanks, Greg

another pix

With the small wires attached to the rear bow, you should be pulling forward towards the windshield which keeps the bows in tension to prevent them from flopping over. As the side-to-side slack is tightened up, that helps keep them in place as well.
Almost sounds like the headliner isn't fully taught yet. You don't want to be hooking onto the teeth until it is.

Another thought.. did you put some type of padding on the roof skin? The bows should be in the side holes such that they are touching the pad, but not pushing up the roof skin. That'll help keep them in position as you draw up tension on the headliner material.

Do the sewing lines seem to be spaced correctly?


Rick

i did glue some padding to the roof. i've seen people use that filler padding that you get at the craft stores, the white stuff that comes in a roll. maybe that was the problem or maybe i got a bad headliner.

i did work from the back to the front. the 4th was fine and the 3 seemed to be ok. the biggest problem was with the 1st and 2nd bow. those were the two that kept falling forward. i would place the bow vertical against the padding and the headliner would sag between the 2nd and 3rd bow. the only way to make it taut was to pull the 2nd bow forward and it would go so far then fall. the same would happen for the 1st and 2nd bow. thats why i said maybe i got a bad headliner.