After forty-two years, the interior 'headlining' was looking very sorry for itself. A large split had developed and the white vinyl material had turned yellow in parts with age..... a bit like me.
With all the glass removed for the re-spray this was a convenient time to renew. Like all the challenges that this restoration has thrown at me, I was about to attempt something I had no previous experience with. I was once again on unknown territory. In my professional life as a press photographer non of these skills had ever been required. Fitting a pre-1980,s traditional car headlining has become something akin to Zepplin building even if you are in the car trade!!!!!!!!! Cars now have pre-formed, press-fit interior roof lining which is a very easy job compared.
So..........after plenty of research on YouTube, Google, etc, also surprisingly the official 'Vauxhall Viva Service Training manual ' titled 'Body- HC Viva' that for once had a very useful few pages on this.
So ...............I first removed the old headlining. So far so good. Lining material is held in place by tensioned steel rods that are placed in sequence and it is important that you mark them somehow to enable them to return in that sequence.
New headlining was sourced from Ebay and cut from an original pattern together with the 'pockets' for the loops. Place the rods into the pockets of the new lining in the same order as they came out...........I marked No1 as the one closest to the front windscreen.
Rods are tensioned back into their nylon cups in holes on the side of the roof. I found that the considerable tension had split some of these nylon pockets and for a while progress stopped dead. I found similar nylon 'cups' on Ebay that were actually for a MK1 Ford Escort with a slightly larger (1mm) diameter and they fitted perfectly after drilling out the hole to size.
Using a tin of contact adhesive purchased from 'East Kent Trim' the edges are glued to the top window openings all around and then the waste cut off. I did this a bit at a time and found the adhesive actually very forgiving enabling me to occasionally to take the material off again and re-tension it if it seemed too slack.
Plastic clips were used to keep in place until the glue was dry.
Altogether not an easy job especially putting the interior light/rear view mirror housing and sun-visors back onto the now pristine headlining.......you have to cut into your newly fitted headlining to fit all three items. I would not like to tackle this job with the front/rear windscreens and rear side windows in !!
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| Time for a new headlining.........sorry state of the original in my HC Viva |
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| Old headlining about to be removed........holes are where the right hand sun-visor is located. |
With all the glass removed for the re-spray this was a convenient time to renew. Like all the challenges that this restoration has thrown at me, I was about to attempt something I had no previous experience with. I was once again on unknown territory. In my professional life as a press photographer non of these skills had ever been required. Fitting a pre-1980,s traditional car headlining has become something akin to Zepplin building even if you are in the car trade!!!!!!!!! Cars now have pre-formed, press-fit interior roof lining which is a very easy job compared.
So..........after plenty of research on YouTube, Google, etc, also surprisingly the official 'Vauxhall Viva Service Training manual ' titled 'Body- HC Viva' that for once had a very useful few pages on this.
So ...............I first removed the old headlining. So far so good. Lining material is held in place by tensioned steel rods that are placed in sequence and it is important that you mark them somehow to enable them to return in that sequence.
New headlining was sourced from Ebay and cut from an original pattern together with the 'pockets' for the loops. Place the rods into the pockets of the new lining in the same order as they came out...........I marked No1 as the one closest to the front windscreen.
 |
| New headlining. Viva HC Copyright Chris Hill |
Rods are tensioned back into their nylon cups in holes on the side of the roof. I found that the considerable tension had split some of these nylon pockets and for a while progress stopped dead. I found similar nylon 'cups' on Ebay that were actually for a MK1 Ford Escort with a slightly larger (1mm) diameter and they fitted perfectly after drilling out the hole to size.
Using a tin of contact adhesive purchased from 'East Kent Trim' the edges are glued to the top window openings all around and then the waste cut off. I did this a bit at a time and found the adhesive actually very forgiving enabling me to occasionally to take the material off again and re-tension it if it seemed too slack.
Plastic clips were used to keep in place until the glue was dry.
 |
| Clips used to keep headlining in position whilst the contact adhesive drys. Pictured is the front windscreen opening and the wires are for the interior light/rear view mirror assembly. Viva HC blog. Copyright Chris Hill |
Altogether not an easy job especially putting the interior light/rear view mirror housing and sun-visors back onto the now pristine headlining.......you have to cut into your newly fitted headlining to fit all three items. I would not like to tackle this job with the front/rear windscreens and rear side windows in !!
 |
| New headlining fitted and awaiting fit of sun-visors. Viva HC blog copyright Chris Hill |
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