1970 DUSTER 440 4spd 8 3/4 posi

Where to start...

First off, June 1 st I received an early birthday present. The birth of my son Paxton. We are now a family of 4 with one boy and one girl. Now I have to try and get the duster ready for the fathers day car show.

I have removed my grill and will soon put on my shark tooth grill.

As for the headliner. I still do not see why this is going to be difficult. I have spent some extra time with the removal of it. Paying close attention to how it was installed.

I also used a marker and wrote on all side windows and windshield, prior to headliner removal, where screws should go and how far away from window edge they are located. Prior to removal I also felt with my finders how easy it would be to find the screw holes, and it seams pretty easy. Especially with the assistance of my notes on the windows.

Once the headliner was removed, I layed the old one on the ground with the rods still in them. for those who dont know, The headliner has cloth tubes on the back side that the rods slide into. But the cloth tubes have small holes that the installer cut in them where the rods come out of the tubes. In other words, the rods do not go through the whole tube end to end.

Because of this I used a piece of paper and noted down the distance between each hole for each rod. I also noticed that each rod is color coded, but with different colors at each end. So I also noted which rod had what colors and if the color was drivers or passenger side.

it is calling for a lot of rain so I dont know when i will do my next step. what i plan to do is find the center of the new headliner from center of whidshield to center of rear window. I will then devide the measurements of the rod holes in two and measure each way from the center of the headliner out to the edges of each tube. and I will mark where holes should be cut.

I will try and upload pics.

So far, total time involved is about 2.5 hours. But I took my time being very carfull to notice every bit of detail during removal. I am sure I could have ripped the headliner out in half an hour if i wanted to.

As for the clips, I managed to break 2 of them. Lucky for me, I have a 1967 new yorker demo derby car that I am building. And I practiced the removal on that car first. Low and behold, it has the same headliner bow clips, so I have a bunch of spares.

the rear wood cover that goes below the rear window is toast. Pretty sure i will use it as a template to make a new one.

Phil