Lifted from a friends site...Continuing with the one-piece headliner design needed to construct a one- piece substrate for attaching the foam and leather.
The Coupe’s roof exterior served as the mold to build the substrate. A patio door storm window kit supplied the plastic to cover the entire roof and protect the primer and car. Masking tape was applied at the edges and the doubled sided tape from the window kit was stuck to that. A heat gun was then used to shrink the plastic and smooth out most of the wrinkles.
Layers of fiberglass cloth were cut roughly to size and layered accordingly. The yellow band you see is actually a layer of Kevlar, ( wanted to experiment with some different materials). Epoxy resin was used instead of fiberglass resin for its strength and much longer pot life. The dry layers were then pulled back and resin was applied and spread fully wetting the cloth. In all 4 layers of medium and heavy weight cloth were laid up. After curing it was removed from the car and the edges rough trimmed. The lay-up was then repositioned on the roof to mark a chalk line down the center for cutting it in half. The windshield and rear window were used to determine center.
To help the corners keep their shape some sheet metal angles were formed to fit and welded to the body.
To make it easier to handle and shorten it in width and length the lay-up was cut into quarters. Each quarter was then trimmed to fit inside the car and temporarily held in place with some sheet metal screws. The sections were then taped together to form one piece again. Filler pieces were added around the rear quarter windows and also taped in place.
The entire lay-up was then removed and the pieces bonded back together using more epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth on the back side. After curing, a skim coat of body filler was applied and sanded to smooth out the seams. Here you can see the entire substrate ready to go back in the car for any final trimming.
To fill in the areas around the quarter windows and blend in the back templates were laid out. They were transferred to some thin Luan plywood; the templates were oriented on the plywood sheet so that the grain allowed the easiest bends. The wife’s clothes steamer was also used to help shape the plywood and form the curves. The areas around the door and window were reinforced on the back side with epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth. After re-installing them in the car a coat of epoxy resin was brushed on to help hold their shape. Kitchen plastic wrap was used to protect areas where you don’t want resin.
