Rollcages and headliners

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72BBSwinger

72BBSwinger

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My car needs a new headliner and I'm also gonna cage it. With a good tight fitting cage can you still install the headliner or should a new headliner be put in first? Obviously it would be easier to get cage done with no headliner if its doable. I've never put a headliner in anything.
 
HI if you have a one pice cardbord headliner you can slide it in after you put in cage thanks steve
 
I take the headliner out so I have a little more room for welding and I don't like the burn marks and the dirty hand prints on a light colored headliner. I also cover all the glass with pieces of acrylic and duct tape so no sparks will hit the glass and cause it to break. But it's just me. Good Luck with your project
 
Ok maybe I should of specified, either way I do it, I'm not gonna allow burn marks in the headliner. My original headliner needs replaced already. SO the SMART way to do this would be to rip out old headliner, install cage then put in New headliner. Yes?
 
A shop put my cage in with the headliner in. I don't know how they got it all welded up because it's right against the headliner. I would think headliner out would be the way to go.
 
Im fine taking headliner out and doing the cage right, and making it easier for me. I have no experience putting in a headliner and do not know the difficulty level of it with or without a cage, so that is why I ask. The headliner is coming out no matter what, just didnt know if was smarter to wait to install the new one before of after cage install. What would be the lesser of the 2 evils? I can protect the headliner with welding blanket, aluminum sheet, card board, acrylic etc. if necessary but maybe it would be just as easy to install headliner afterwards.
 
Fabric headliners are difficult to install correctly, you can spot an amateur install a mile away.

A cage will make it even harder.
 
Well its definitely a fabric one with bows and all. I will get the old one out and go from there I guess.
 
It might be better to mock up the cage before pulling the headliner so you can get the clearances you want. You can tack it all together then pull the headliner.
 
clinteg said:
A shop put my cage in with the headliner in. I don't know how they got it all welded up because it's right against the headliner. I would think headliner out would be the way to go.
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What they do is cut holes in the floor, slip the bars down, weld the upper part of the cage, then bring it up to height, and weld the bottoms. It's the way to go here since, dude wants a headliner and a cage.
 
Headliner and a cage is no problem and looks very nice. Use shields to keep the heat off the headliner if you put the headliner in first. Your choice seems to be decided which is more difficult. Welding a cage in with the headliner in place or placing the headliner with a cage in the way. It would probably be best to get your headliner supplies and see how hard it will be to place it after the fact. Welding with the headliner in place is tedious but doable.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
What they do is cut holes in the floor, slip the bars down, weld the upper part of the cage, then bring it up to height, and weld the bottoms. It's the way to go here since, dude wants a headliner and a cage.
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That's what I would have thought but I haven't noticed anywhere where they did that. I'll have to look again to see.
 
When you rip out headliner be sure to mark the bows so you put them back in the right place.
 
Replacing a cloth headliner in an A-body is hardest part on the whole car to replace. I have done a few and still would pay $700 for someone else to do it.
 
Ok, mark bows, pay attention to wtf im doing and get the cage sorted first. Then save some coin to pay somebody for the headache! That is probably the best advice yet lol..
 
It might be prudent to get an ABS headliner. Just a thought from my dirty mind. :violent1:
 
The bows are color coded and if you take old one out in one piece and keep the bows in there original locations just transfer them to the new headliner and everything is as it was. Save the old clips and when you put the new one in and mist it with water and use a hair drier to shrink the new headliner to get the wrinkles out. Maybe this is a little help ?
 
im jumping on band wagon take out old head liner install cage making sure to leave room on sides close to windows with halo . mark all bows. don't loose clips on sides keep the card board sale panels in good condition to reuse are use to make new ones . im not sure on this part but I think you have to take front and rear windshield out . to get to the metal tabs that the head liner clips to make sure you get everything lined up before clipping the headliner to the front and rear im going to call them the shark tooth metal clips front and back
 
hemi446 said:
The bows are color coded and if you take old one out in one piece and keep the bows in there original locations just transfer them to the new headliner and everything is as it was. Save the old clips and when you put the new one in and mist it with water and use a hair drier to shrink the new headliner to get the wrinkles out. Maybe this is a little help ?
Click to expand...
Yes, it is very helpful and appreciated. I just bought a new heat gun that may be handy for the wrinkle removal trick.

moparisbest said:
im jumping on band wagon take out old head liner install cage making sure to leave room on sides close to windows with halo . mark all bows. don't loose clips on sides keep the card board sale panels in good condition to reuse are use to make new ones . im not sure on this part but I think you have to take front and rear windshield out . to get to the metal tabs that the head liner clips to make sure you get everything lined up before clipping the headliner to the front and rear im going to call them the shark tooth metal clips front and back
Click to expand...
I already have windshield out and know exactly what clips you're refering to. Not thrilled about having to remove rear glass but it did occur to me that the same clips are probably holding the rear of the headliner as well. The rear window does have a screwed on trim piece around the perimeter though so might get lucky.
 
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