Georgia Fiero Club Forum

All Things Fiero => Tech Tips, Tech Questions => Topic started by: TopNotch on May 28, 2009, 07:40:46 pm

Title: How to put a Fiero Store ABS headliner in a t-top car
Post by: TopNotch on May 28, 2009, 07:40:46 pm

Any of you who have seen the headliner in my t-top coupe know it wasn't good, and was very home-made looking. Well, when I got this year's tax refund, I bought, among other things, Fiero Store ABS headlines for both cars. They don't make a t-top headliner, so I bought a no-sun-roof model to modify for the car. Basically, I installed it complete and then cut it for the t-tops. Here is the result:

I didn't take pictures while doing the job, but I took some after-the-fact pictures to explain what I did. First, I installed the headliner complete, as in a normal no-sun-roof car. After you have installed it, cut the cloth underneath where the dotted line is in this picture:

Remove the cloth in the middle, and peel it down from the foam rubber from the dotted line to a little past where it will still be after you cut the plastic. The best way to cut the plastic is to use a soldering iron or wood burning iron. I used a cheap Radio Shack 30-watt iron, but it was slow going, so a 45-watt iron might be better. Be very careful while cutting -- you don't want to burn past the plastic. You want to burn a line almost all the way though all the way around, and then tear the middle section out, like tearing paper along a perforation.
After you cut out the center part, spread contact cement along the metal part just below the weather seal. Then pull up the cloth and stick it to the metal. It should look like this:

Cut the cloth to just past the metal, and tuck the excess on the other side. Then replace the plastic edging, like this:

Note: This was done on a non-CJB car. I understand that the edging is part of the weather seal on CJB cars, and I'm  not sure how to secure the cloth on those cars.

Title: Re: How to put a Fiero Store ABS headliner in a t-top car
Post by: TopNotch on May 28, 2009, 08:08:20 pm

One thing I forgot to tell -- Re-install the dome light assembly and the cover over it before you do your cutting. This will push up the headliner to where it should be.

Title: Re: How to put a Fiero Store ABS headliner in a t-top car
Post by: TopNotch on May 29, 2009, 03:30:48 pm

Another thing I forgot to mention in this write-up. The holes in the Fiero Store headliners are generally pretty accurate, but for a t-top car, all bets are off. During the installation of your t-tops, unless the car was braced very well, dimensions probably changed. Such was the case with my car (non-CJB, so who knows who installed the t-tops). The sun visor holes were quiet a bit off, and I had to enlarge the large center hole and re-drill the screw holes. So don't assume the holes are where they should be if you put one of these in a t-top car.