Fiberglassing a headliner

[2GenTeggy]

I'm in the process of converting the interior my 1985 Nissan 720 pick-em-up truck from smurf skeet blue to black. At the same time, I'm gonna be sound deadening the whole truck, fiberglassing door panels for 2x AQ PA-6.5's and 2x AQ super tweets in each door, and getting it ready for a blow through system with 2x AQ HDC310'S. But first I'm focusing on my mids and highs and electrical, before jumping into subs (the way it should be)... But as I'm doing projects here and there, I'm slowly converting the interior to black.

Anywho, with that said;I was thinking about making a fiberglass headliner, then just wrapping it in black 4-way stretch vinyl. One, because the stock headliner in the 720's don't just come down and go back up like most vehicles, it's all glues to the pillars and crap... second, it's smurf skeet blue... third, I want to put another set of AQ PA-6.5's and super tweets in the rear corners of the headliner. Plus I'm wanting to sound deaden the holy hell out of the roof.

I guess i'm posting this topic to get some thoughts, or if anyone has done this before... But since the headliner is weird in the 720, I won't have a mold to go off of... So What I was thinking might work, is; take the stock headliner down, to the bare metal, then put all my sound deadening up as smooth as possible, then cover the whole roof sections with blue painters tape and wax, then make a base molding with resin and fiberglass, peal it off, and work it from there... I figured this way would let me shape the headliner the way I want, and allow me to get those mids and tweets up there. I guess my question is this.... Has anyone attempted this, or know of someone who has had to do a headliner like this? And/or, based on you're experience, does this technique seem like it could work in this situation? I have been around car audio for a LONG time, so I'm no noob, so you don't have to lower the knowledge level of conversation. I just haven't worked a whole lot with fiberglass... But I'm not afraid to try something till I get it right. I was reading where people used this technique with boxes flush mounted on rear interior 1/4 panels and stuff... so I figured it my work with this. Just wanted to pick ya'lls brains.... sorry this shit was so long, damn... Thanks again peeps. Cheers.

[Rell]

So there is no headliner board at all? Just foam or foam backed material glued to the roof?

Making a fiberglass mold of your roof sounds good, however I would find it next to impossible/extremely difficult to apply fiberglass at a 90° angle. Suppose its possible but be hard to get a good layup of a few layers of glass. You would need enough layers on there so that when it has fully cured and you pop it off the roof it wont warp.

Now if you were stripping the truck down until it was bare and tossing it on a car rotisserie to flip the truck upside down then there would be no problems with doing it.

Is there anywhere else you could place those tweeters?

You could trying making a mold off the top part of your roof on the truck. Then popping the mold off and get it inside the truck and figure out where you need to trim it down to get it to fit inside.

That or just get a big enough sheet of Foam PVC aka low temp plastic aka sintra etc. etc. And place it inside the truck, maybe try double stick tape to hold it up in the middle area of the roof then use a heat gun and give the foam pvc board a little heat to form the sides of the headliner to take the curve of the roof. Now you have a headliner board.

[2GenTeggy]

So there is no headliner board at all? Just foam or foam backed material glued to the roof?

Making a fiberglass mold of your roof sounds good, however I would find it next to impossible/extremely difficult to apply fiberglass at a 90° angle. Suppose its possible but be hard to get a good layup of a few layers of glass. You would need enough layers on there so that when it has fully cured and you pop it off the roof it wont warp.

Now if you were stripping the truck down until it was bare and tossing it on a car rotisserie to flip the truck upside down then there would be no problems with doing it.

Is there anywhere else you could place those tweeters?

You could trying making a mold off the top part of your roof on the truck. Then popping the mold off and get it inside the truck and figure out where you need to trim it down to get it to fit inside.

That or just get a big enough sheet of Foam PVC aka low temp plastic aka sintra etc. etc. And place it inside the truck, maybe try double stick tape to hold it up in the middle area of the roof then use a heat gun and give the foam pvc board a little heat to form the sides of the headliner to take the curve of the roof. Now you have a headliner board.

Yeah, that's what I was kind of afraid of; trying to work it from inside the truck, upside down in a way. There is no headliner board at all really... it's more or less the 80's wires running from driver to passanger, forming a bow, and the vinyl is attached to it... it's not like your typical foam headliner (although I wish it was). But I was also thinking, even if the resin and glass didn't come out perfect, it should be fine. I just need it as a rough molding, so I can work it from there. I really don't have room anywhere else for rear mids and tweets... plus I'm wanting to cover the headliner in black vinyl as well, and the way the headliner is in the 720, it don't look like I'll be able to take it off, cover it, and put it back up... 2 sets of AQ mids and 2 sets of AQ tweets will be here thursday, and I'm putting those in the front doors... I kinda wanted another set for the rear (headliner). I guess I just need to get in there and rip out the headliner, and see what I'm working with exactly. I'm kinda feeling your idea with the foam board... That may work just enough to get a good enough base to work with. I guess I could try the resin and glass first on painters tape, and see if I can work it enough to atleast get a decent mold. Hell, even if it warps a LITTLE bit, I can prolly get it to work.. if not, the try the pvc board idea.. hell, worse case with the resin and glass; it won't work, lol... I appreciate your response too.

[2GenTeggy]

I may even be able to spray som adhesive to the painters tape to lay out the fiberglass sheets before adding resin to it, as the first coat, then try adding little 4 inch sheets and resin from there...?? might work

[skyhighcaraudio]

i am tryingto figure out what to do with my headliner as we speak and if you wanted to do it the way it sounds the best way (its probably not possible but you never know) if take the cab off put it on a rotator and do it with the cab upside down. doing what you want with the cab on the frame i dont see that working.

the best way i see it is to take the stock liner out and work off the stock liner by first making the fame off the liner where you want, cutting out what you dont want etc then stretching felt of whatever you thinks best over the frame you have made then throw some resin on it then matte the shit out of it then sand bondo paint or whatever you see it ending up looking like with fabric or whatever.

i hope this helps

[BOndoCustomz]

use chip board works good cut ur template once u get it fiberglass it

[mbdblue]

you could do it a few different ways....there are a couple guys who have glassed upside down, but its not fun and you pretty much gonna need a lot of drop cloths and a full painter's suit.

couple things to consider though, how heavy is it gonna be? (with the speakers in) How will it be attached/held up? Decent amount of brainstorming would be beneficial man.

Heres an idea though, you could glass the upper corners where they meet the roof, such as the pillars in all 4 corners. This could possibly be where you fabricate some mounts so you can bolt it up when finished. then build a jig to keep the glassed corners in the same position. Take out the whole thing and make a skeleton of what you want the headliner to look like; constantly double checking the vehicle for clearance and fitment issues.

this is just a very rough draft of what you could do but its another idea

[2GenTeggy]

you could do it a few different ways....there are a couple guys who have glassed upside down, but its not fun and you pretty much gonna need a lot of drop cloths and a full painter's suit.

couple things to consider though, how heavy is it gonna be? (with the speakers in) How will it be attached/held up? Decent amount of brainstorming would be beneficial man.

Heres an idea though, you could glass the upper corners where they meet the roof, such as the pillars in all 4 corners. This could possibly be where you fabricate some mounts so you can bolt it up when finished. then build a jig to keep the glassed corners in the same position. Take out the whole thing and make a skeleton of what you want the headliner to look like; constantly double checking the vehicle for clearance and fitment issues.

this is just a very rough draft of what you could do but its another idea

yeah, that is exactly why I wanted a mold of the top/inner roof of my truck, so I can bolt or screw it to the support beams through the holes for the mids and tweets, then front will be held on via sunvisors and rear view mirror, then the sides via door seals.... kinda like today's headliners would mount... but like you said, brainstorming is beneficial, and that's pretty much what I do all day, haha.... that's kinda why i'm reaching out to other brains; hoping to decide;and it's been proven on several build threads on here, that almost anything in fab world is possible with a solid technique. Another thing I was gonna do, that'll prolly help the mounting... I was gonna fill the air gap of the final headliner and the roof with expandable foam... cause i'm pretty sure, once i get it wrapped in vinyl and have it mounted, it's pretty much staying up there for good... By no means, do I want it to look ghetto... but I don't mind gluing, foaming, sealing, or whatever, to make it work. This IS an '85 720... Not a piece of shit, but it's not a $50,000 vehicle... it's a good "project" vehicle for me... If I do have to do it upside down, I can do it when I rip my whole interior out to sound deaden the whole vehicle...lay down plastic, put a mask on, shitty clothes, and roll with it... I just want a mold of the roof, so I can rip it out, then build off that.... once I get the mold, i'm golden... Putting my chassis on a rotisserie is kinda irrelevant in my situation... by all means, please, keep the suggestions coming... I'm soaking all ideas in...seriously. thanks guys!

[2GenTeggy]

use chip board works good cut ur template once u get it fiberglass it

that is definitely something to consider... I might just have to get just a tad bit more crafty on this.=)

[Mtnbikecrazy55]

Just make sure you can fit it out the door, lol