Headlining - I've started

[Tanz]

I have made a start on my head lining now. Following Chris Wrights extremely useful 'how to' I got all the sections out within an hour. At this point, I was really happy with myself thinking it was easier than expected.
The two large pieces of material on the actual roof fell of when the other sections were removed. Then I realised that the backing with rotton foam were still glued to the roof. This has taken hours to remove. A bit like trying to remove wall paper without water or steam. I have scraped it off bit by bit and it is now two thirds done.
The silver foil is knackered. Can this be replaced with ordinary kitchen foil I guess it just has to make a good earth with the arial


Head lining waiting to fall off



Sun visor material also need replacing




Rear Head lining



Front head lining that used to polish my head!

These are the before pics. I will post the after pics when it is done

Cheers Phil

[chrisw2811]

Hi Phil, Getting the backing fabric off the roof is the hardest bit. Any conducting foil (e.g. aluminium) should do the job. Thicker stuff should be more robust, but the main thing is to make sure you get a good earth connection to it. I look forward to the 'after' pictures. Your car will look great. Cheers, Chris

[Tanz]

What better way to spend a holiday afternoon - working on your Lotus trim with a pint of beer and football on the telly OK a gorgeous blonde cutting out the trim for me would be an improvement



Cheers,

Phil

[barker_001]

Very festive Phil, what more could you want?

[GARY1958]

Mine's nearly finished too. Pictures soon. Having put the front u section back so i could drive it i now find the sunvisors slowly drop down! No real problems so far but the B pillars look like being fun - not. Car cetainly looks so much better now.

Very good instructions from Chris 2811. My glue, from Woolies, seemed to dry very quickly even at 5c!

[AndyC]

A little cheat I used to combat the sunroof (aftermarket type) being too deep for the roof, was to cover the roof in 1/2 inch thick foam first, that way the sunroof inner edge is flush with the roof lining material.

I'm well over 6 feet tall, so should be OK for head room for most drivers as well.

Andy

[Tanz]

What is the best way to tackle the sun visors

It seems you have to cut the material very accurately with perfect edges. Or can you cut it over size and trim of the excess after gluing

How did you do yours DPR59 - they look really good,

Cheers,

Phil

[dpr59]

How did you do yours DPR59 - they look really good,

I used some cushion floor to make the shape.
It's firm enough to hold the shape without being hard to touch.
Two pieces, one either side of the frame, cussion side out.

Covered with headlining material on the visible side and a third of the way over. Then stitch some black fabric in place of the plastic originally used.


The chap at the local carpet land asked why I wanted 1m of the cheapest cussion floor. Then looked very confused when I told him...

[Tanz]

Thanks for the help dpr59. I take it you had to replace the insides of your sun visors. Mine are OK. I have removed the material and black backing from one and re covered the material side overlapping the back. I now have to re glue the black backing which will overlap the material hopefully giving a nice clean edge. If it works I will post a picture,

Cheers,

Phil

[Tanz]

When will we have a dry weekend so I can finish off this head lining

I put the the foil back in during the Christmas hols



All the bits are covered except the B posts the two rectagles that go on the roof and the Sun Visors



I did the header rail in 3 pieces overlapping under the sun visors. This produced a line at each end which looked Ok to start with but started to bug me. So I ripped it all off and did it again but with one piece of material so no joins.



The sun visors have been the biggest problem. 1st I replaced the old material and re used the black plastic backing but the glue reacted with the plastic and distorted it. I then got some black material from Woolies and re glued it and it looked a lot better but I am still not 100% happy. As I type this, Lynne (SHMBO) is sewing a 'pillow case' to fit over the sun visor - hope it works !!

Cheers,

Phil

[dpr59]

Looking very nice.

How's the head after a couple of hours of sovent abuse

[bash]

Have you seen this stuff, www.dynamat.com . Anybody who watches American Hot Rod or Overhaulin on Discovery turbo will have seen them lining the inside of thier cars with it. The downside is its a bit on the expensive side.

Bash

[AndyC]

It's also very heavy.

I guess it weighs about the same per m2 as steel plate approx 3mm thick.
i could go and weigh some if somebody wants.

Andy

[Dr_G]

It's also very heavy.

I guess it weighs about the same per m2 as steel plate approx 3mm thick.
i could go and weigh some if somebody wants.

Andy

Andy you're absolutely right. Dynamat is fantastic for 'ICE' vehicles/cars built for excellent sound quality, or for vehicles where quietness and refinement is the only concern. I'd be reluctant to use it on an Excel as you could quickly add 30-40kg or more if you did the job thoroughly.

[AndyC]

It was when I had a series of big ICE installations that I used Dynamat, and the stuff I have now is what was planned to be used in the next before I got involved in Lotus cars.
I have had several installations, but putting 8k of stereo into a normal hatchback is probably excessive in hind sight.

If people want to deaden sound in a light car I recommend the use of light felt, it will not deaden it as much as the tick heavy layers of Dynamat, but it will have more effect per Kg than such items.

Dynamat works by making the surface so heavy sound waves struggle to move it and make it resonate and absorbing some of the energy, whereas felt is designed to absorb some of the sound energy.