True Connections

This month we thought we’d go over headliners and their installation. There are five different headliner patterns for 1964-1972 Chevelles and El Caminos. 1964 and 1965 headliners have a pattern called Regent or Basketweave, which looks like a raised crosshatching. 1966 Chevelles and El Caminos use a Tier or sometimes called Basketweave pattern which is straight crisscrossing lines, and 1967s have a pattern called Surrey or sometimes Line-dot which looks like a wavy grain with small holes everywhere. 1968-1969 headliners are a Ribbed pattern with straight horizontal lines, and 1970-1972 use a Perforated or Snake Bite pattern which looks like a horizontal grain with pairs of small holes. Headliner colors are available to match your interior color although with white interiors, colors can sometimes get confusing. For the most part if the interior was white, the headliner was black along with the dash, package tray, and carpet. Although some early Chevelles and El Caminos came with a white headliner when the interiors are red or blue. Headliners are held in place by trim around the edges and bows running from side to side. Some 1964 El Caminos had only 2 bows, but usually 1964-1972 El Caminos had 3 bows. 1964-1972 Chevelles have 5 bows except there are a small number of 1968s that came with 6 bows. As far as installing a headliner, we always recommend taking it to an upholsterer since it takes a lot of time and patience to make them look good. To see how a true professional handles a headliner we spent some time with Henry at the Upholsterers in Riverside. Begin by laying out the headliner on a flat surface and slide the bows into position making sure you get them in the right order. Then snap the bows into place in the roof working from back to front. Next you stretch the headliner to the left rear corner, hold in place with contact adhesive, and tuck it up under the retainers. Then stretch the headliner diagonally to the right front corner, apply adhesive, and tuck. Continue the same procedure in the right rear corner and left front corner. After the corners are in place you can finish gluing and tucking along the front windshield, rear window, then the sides. Be sure to smooth out any wrinkles as you go, if one is particularly troublesome you can dampen with warm water and use a heat gun to help smooth it out. Next you can replace the front windshield trim and side headliner trim, then you can install the sail panels on the rear pillars and on hardtops you can put your package tray back in. If you have a 1964-1967 hardtop, don’t forget the plastic package tray ends, a new reproduction from Trim Parts, as they will help keep everything in place. Finish off by installing the rear window trim and you’re done. Next month we’ll discuss some small pieces in and around the interior that we constantly see installed incorrectly.