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Post by PICTUP on Mar 8, 2022 22:21:39 GMT -8
After all the bows were slid in place in the headliner listings, with their ends in their proper holes(equal side to side), and centered, the tensioning process began. To start, the headliner had to be secured at the back window with a few binder clips. Then the material is pulled forward with some force, but not too much, and then clipping to the windshield top lip. The goal is to not pull the headliner out of alignment, nor have the listings get pulled out of their perpendicular orientation to the roof. At this point Darren started to test at how pulling to the side looks. A few clip were put either side Then it was on to working towards the corners. To relieve some of the stress in the fabric while Darren tries to get it to assume a curved shape rather than flat, he makes relief cuts towards the window lips, but not too close Examining how things are looking in the corner More relief cuts at the rear corner Keeping tabs on how the material is lying Working around all corners Testing how the material can be worked to lay flat(eventually) And this is how the evening ended. It was looking like it might just work! I was happy that I hadn't made my crude relief cuts too deep. Darren is now well on the way to making Russ's headliner a reality. More to come potentially even later in the week, but only at Darren's absolute convenience. We are already in his debt!
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Post by Volktales on Mar 8, 2022 22:38:05 GMT -8
I sadly have no further info or pictures to add to this tonight, as the evil reclining chair sucked the life out of me once again to the point of unconsciousness...
Darren intends to make a reappearance on Thursday, and I am looking forward to see how the glue-procedure progresses. Don and I found out how much you can learn from the Internet. And how much you DON'T learn from the Internet...
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Post by Volktales on Mar 13, 2022 19:52:42 GMT -8
So back at it again... Darren came back and and now it is time to stretch and glue! What he does is stretches the material into the position he likes, than clamps things in place. Although not shown here, he favours using a door edge molding material to pinch the material into position at the window frames. These moldings hold tighter and more precisely than the pinch clamps. The regular pinch clamps were used here for positioning purposes, but were later removed one by one when the gluing procedure commenced. I was amazed at how hard Darren needed to pull the material in some areas to get it to sit right... He kept working his way around the car until he was satisfied with the fit. Then the clamps were released one or two at a time, glue applied, then a short waiting period, then reclamped once the glue was ready. Then once everything was glued, it was left along until the glue completely sets up. The glue used was 3M Black weatherstrip adhesive. Darren said the yellow version was the industry standard in the past, but seems to not currently be available. The Black stuff seemed to work well. It was interesting to watch Darren carefully stretch and secure the material in position, and get it nice and wrinkle free without resorting to heat or steam... Gotta give Darren a huge thanks for doing this, and a thanks to Don to for having the initial go. We both learned a LOT from watching Darren work! Now a couple of days later, it is up to me to start trimming away the excess material. The glue is nice and dry and is very effective. I am going very slowly, as I REALLY don't want to eff anything up!!! Did a test fit of the side trim, and it seems things are going to be ok. Have to also test fit the replacement side pop-out window frame, and find the necessary seals... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Mar 13, 2022 20:03:25 GMT -8
It took awhile to dig them out, but these are the chrome frames to support the side pop-out windows. The originals were badly damaged, but Brian managed to pick these up for me from House of Ghia down in Oregon when they used to sell parts. Finally time to bolt them on! I was wondering what to do about the missing seals, then realized the exact ones I needed happened to be there after-all. Funny because I know for a fact I never actually ordered these parts, or even know what they looked like. I think they may have come from Reagh when I first got this car, and I had totally forgotten about them. That worked out quite well... These were another item in the same stash. These are the proper hood bump stops and I have needed them for some time. Produced by West Coast Metric, they have been out of stock for over a year now... The rubber was quite hard and they were tough to install. But got there in the end. One more small thing crossed of the list... Going to keep picking away at it, but the excitement level is starting to build...
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Post by CrazyBrit on Mar 14, 2022 19:02:43 GMT -8
Looking great Russ. Really looking forward to seeing your Ghia on the road this year.
Mine won't be joining it on the road this year. I need to update my thread.
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Post by owdlvr on Mar 15, 2022 9:27:24 GMT -8
...and the VW world collectively goes "wait, Darren does headliners!?!" Poor guy is never going to get a day off
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Post by Volktales on Mar 20, 2022 20:10:31 GMT -8
Sooo, a long awaited package arrived on Friday... Straight out of the UK! Newton Commercial is a very well known carpet producer for many vintage cars. VWs are just one of the lines they produce. And they make some pretty cool stuff... Opening the box up revealed two sets for Ghias. Mark ordered a set for his as well, although it may be a bit before he fits them up... Laid out on the old bed, the vibrant red carpets look quite nice. This is a product called "narrow weave" which looks similar to German square weave, but is much cheaper. This product also comes in many colours, whereas the square weave is limited to grey or oatmeal. Newton Commercial does carry square weave too, if you want some... These carpets a supposedly made from original patterns, with original type protective matting. I have never seen original Ghia carpets, so cannot comment. I would have thought the material around the heater outlet would have been red however. One thing that could be better with the Newton Commercial website, is more accurate pictures of what their product looks like... This is the gear shifter hole. Note it can accommodate shifters mounted above or below the carpeting. The location for the park brake handle also has the grey trim. Nicely done, but I would have preferred red. I am sure it will look nice once installed. And given I chose grey seatbelts, it should look pretty good... This piece is not part of the standard carpet set. I just wanted the section below the back window to be trimmed like this. They happily made this for me, using a pattern they already had that was supplied by Marks' Dad for his 1960 Ghia... Apparently the one Mark's Dad received fit very well. This one could be better. Note that the front of the trim "bumps out" a bit in the middle, and this is interfering with the fit. Ghias are semi hand built, so is it possible that his car was a bit different then mine in this area? Hmmm, I am not sure about that. I would have thought all Ghias would be flat behind the back seat. Anyway we will deal with this problem a bit later... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Mar 20, 2022 20:20:30 GMT -8
So now it was time to continue on with finishing the headliner trimming on the window posts. This looked reasonably straightforward, and Don tackled this job. The front window post fit fairly easily, and Don clamped it into position without much issue... Here he is getting the back one ready for action. The rears proved to be a lot trickier, however... This one was a test attempt, to see how things could be stretched into place. Although we did not want to, a bit of heat was necessary before the material would follow the curves. A new section will be installed permanently later... While Don was doing the frustrating stuff, I spent some time carefully cleaning up the demarcation line between the two-tone finish. Careful use of a razor blade, 2000 grit sandpaper, and polish got there in the end. Things are still moving ahead...
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Post by Volktales on Mar 27, 2022 19:52:56 GMT -8
Not much to add this week for a good reason. Unfortunately my Dad is in the hospital once again, and is currently in the ICU. Heart problems, gall bladder problems, and mental fatigue are taking him down. Currently on a wait and see what happens path, but it is hard to stay positive at the moment. He was really excited to see the Ghia nearing completion, and I really hope that might still be a possibility...
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Post by CrazyBrit on Mar 27, 2022 20:45:04 GMT -8
Very sorry to hear this Russ. I hope he pulls through.
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Post by magikbus on Mar 28, 2022 7:48:15 GMT -8
Here's hoping for a good recovery Russ. I's tough I know. Stan
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Post by Rob Sannes on Mar 28, 2022 18:29:35 GMT -8
Hope Joe starts feeling better. The Ghia is looking good. Love the carpet.
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Post by alltypes on Mar 28, 2022 21:02:37 GMT -8
Very very sorry to hear about your Dad being back in the hospital. We are all hoping for a good recovery. Sending all our positive vibes to him and you and the family, from Peachland.
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Post by Volktales on Apr 3, 2022 20:35:30 GMT -8
Well as you might expect, things did not go all that well this week. Dad is still in the ICU, and his situation keeps changing. Yesterday he was doing great, and the staff felt going home early this week was likely possible. Then today his mental condition degraded once again... We really don't know why or what is going on...
Despite all this, I was able to get some things accomplished on the Ghia. It might seem like a lot, but that is only because I was on holidays for a week. Hoped to be much further along, but that is life...
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Post by Volktales on Apr 3, 2022 21:03:36 GMT -8
So here is what I did get accomplished... I was able to install the headliner material on both front windshield pillars without issue. I chose not to fold the edge of the material back onto itself because this tended to make the material too thick and bunch up in that area. In the end I just cut it off and glued it on without folding. Checking the original headliner on the Fastback, revealed this was the way the factory did it as well... A closeup reveals that it fit pretty decently in the end and looks good. Then it was time to do the dreaded rear pillars... A closer look at Don's earlier attempt at the rear reveals stretching and wrinkles. I knew I would never be able to do a better job, so chose to attempt it using multiple pieces of material, instead of just one. Hard enough to do when you are focused, even worse when your mind is not into it... First I stuck random pieces in place to make an initial pattern. Using ideas from Don after watching him make a pattern for the Ghia firewall trim some time ago... So I just started gluing offcuts of material on (based on the earlier pattern), making sure they did not have to be stretched in any direction... Note the glue oozing through the holes. This cleaned up nicely with Don's can of adhesive remover once dry. The result was made in three separate pieces, and looked OK once installed. And just realized I did not take a picture of the result. (will be shown later)... Throughout this, I was test fitting different things to see how they were. And you can see this pop-out window seal is next to useless... And that was not the only issue... How do you like that nice defect in the weatherstrip seal above the door glass??? Nice, eh. And this is why it was there. Guess what happens when the person packing the long weatherstrip bends it in half to fit a smaller box. Just plain stupidity. And of course trying to return these defective/crappy parts was the usual issue with CIP. Of course they made the usual excuse of we have sold XXX of these and nobody else has complained. And those parts were shipped to us from the manufacturer (West Coast Metric), so it is not our fault. Their employee even sent me a link to TheSamba article which outlines these parts are shitty, which implies I should have known better before I bought them. Can you imagine if other businesses operated like this? Go to a restaurant, get food poisoning, and then the restaurant tells you that it is your fault for not knowing they served crap food??? They DID offer to waive the restocking fee if I sent the crap parts back at my expense. And they would not send me an undamaged replacement explaining that all there in stock items were bent in the same way (highly unlikely as only one of the two was damaged; the other was folded in the opposite direction without damage). CIP knows that they are the only game in town, and that everyone else sells the exact same junk parts, so they don't give a damn at all. Remember the days when people actually cared about things???
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