Itinerant Air-Cooled

Yeah I did it. Had it comin', too.
Don't get all "dingy" on me and I won't attack you with scissors.

But first. After cleaning Chloe to the tens up in Atlanta, I did deep detail work on the road to Pensacola. Here, I have cleaned and waxed anew the seat pedestals:




I had no idea that this bungee cord was stock! I thought Bookwus had drilled it in there (the same day he drilled in the cupholders, I gathered). I took it out to unclutter the area behind the seat, and there were VW part numbers and logos on all parts, and the flat area on the partition that the bungee holder screws to apparently was designed just for that purpose. I had no idea:




So I polished it and put it back in. The other thing I did was to lubricate exactly every spring and tension rod in the entire seat assembly. Nothing is nastier than a seat squeak for making the car feel cheap and my lardbutt feel but lardy:




So about that horrendous attack, I dotted Chloe's headliner last September before my New Jersey call:

viewtopic.php?f=67&t=11637




If you read down towards the bottom of the post, I mentioned using "urethane reducer sauce" to keep the Sharpie going. Well, the dots all blued and ran on me over the past year. Add to that the two tears in the headliner which look soooo tatty after a summer of the BobD's pristine Fresh Snowfall-looking headliner, and the fact that I need a horrendous challenge to keep me on my A-Game, and here we are . . . panic-stricken:




It is laborious work, and I have barely started. I *need* my new headliner install to look exactly as good as the factory original. Being my very first headliner job, it will be the "horrendous challenge" I was looking for. Oh, and I have to do this solo, solely solo.




Getting the old adhesive off is a monster. The "goof off" adhesive remover can do fine with glue that is only ten years-old, but 45 year-old Death Valley-baked adhesive? Not even. I am demanding as close to perfection as I possibly can, no wrinkles, no bumps. I will take whatever time it takes.
Colin
(did I mention that I am panic-stricken?)

Why panic? You have been in this boat 1 zillion times.
It will not be perfect, every incorrect fold and sag you will obsess over until you die. It will drive you to shaking tremor-fits as you spend the evening huddled in a ball sobbing. All because of a couple tears geesh.

what is the factory bungie for?

airkooledchris wrote:what is the factory bungie for?

Stashing crap behind the front seat. Whuddathunk?

Hambone, I already spend my days huddled in a ball crying about clouds blocking the sun and too-chilly 65*days. To now be able to bawl and moan about a headliner installation-gone-wrong is growth! Diversification of focus!
Colin
(now nervous about report of perforated headliners leaking glue through the holes in the window curves)

I will do a serious write-up in the Body/Hardware forum where I exhaustively go over everything to make the neophyte feel comfortably terrified.

For example:



I measured each "listing" (the sewn-up fabric "tubes" at each seam where the support bows go) from dead center on out so I can cut each one on the new headliner to the exactly correct spot. This is critical for the slope of the "vault" as the headliner comes down to the windows. I have seen "professional" jobs make a mess of this.

The other critical step is to straighten the bows:



I have two bows that are crooked, I do not know why, maybe the contraction of the vinyl, but I could see it as I viewed from rear to front. I demand an utterly consistent ceiling.

So, I hope to

a) have a write-up and an immaculate result that I will brag about til my last breath
or
b) you will never see the write-up because I just ripped out the last pretty decent headliner ever and ruined its replacement, so went to work as a stripmall tax-preparer's Statue of Liberty sidewalk mascot waving at passing traffic as I sob to myself inside my suit " I hope you get audited you stupid people, why didn't you STOP ME??"

Blessed are the brave.

Replacing the headliner in a Ghia is much less daunting. Only four ribs.

Is the shorty up front?

neal

ruckman101 wrote: Is the shorty up front?
neal

The headliner is anchored at the rear ahead of the tailgate with a straight bar that is held by sharp little hooks, similar to seat upholstery rather than the arced bows that merely hold the headliner up. So, I guess I hook the headliner at the rear, and pull like hell forward and try to glue it to the windshield opening at the center. Then spread it out from the center towards the window and try to keep it wrinkleless.

How on Earth did the factory knock these things out?
Colin

(p.s. to all six remaining forum members, I am taking this thread to Type 2)

Amskeptic wrote: How on Earth did the factory knock these things out . . . . ?

. . . . in less than thirty days?