Interior Lighting

Since I've owned the Vogue I have never had the correct dome light for the inside. Since they look pretty rubbishy anyway, and I would have had to cut a hole in our precious headlining, I had decided a couple of years ago to not have a centre dome light.

Instead I have two LED "running" lights on either side of the car mounted on the centre pillar just above the front seat belt mounting points. These are the same type as I used for the number plate light (whoops - I never posted that) except they have a chrome clip on trim instead of a black surround.

The number plate light.

It replaces the normal single bulb version that was getting very tired - the rubber was perished. I haven't shown it lit here but it puts out more light than the incandescant bulb did and lights the number plate really well. I have a few more of these LED lights - I intend to use them for engine bay and boot lighting.

I had to add a mounting point for the bottom screw (circled in blue) - that was a saga - I dropped one down into the passenger side pillar and took 45 minutes retrieving it.

They are held in place with Sikaflex and bear against the inner wall of the centre pillar panel when the light is mounted. The Sikaflex just holds them until the trim and light is installed.
The red arrows point at the mounting holes.
The LED lights have a 60mm lead on them that plugs into the connector in the centre pillar to make for easy installation.

Trimming Headlining

Since my new windscreen seal and rear 1/4 light window seals have arrived it's time to finish trimming the headling.

I didn't have scissors that fitted very well into the places I needed to cut - so I bought these on eBay. They are Medical Dressing scissors.



A vice and big pair of multigrips and they became this:

I also carefully took the point off  the "pointy" bit so it was more difficult to scrape paint.


They were then used to do bits like this.

Less useful here but still better than straight ones.

Headlining Finally Glued

I can't believe that it's been over a year since we made the headlining!
The headlining is finally glued into place. This has been a bit of a stalling point in the restoration because until the headlining and dashpad are installed, the windscreens can't go in.
I bought lots and lots (about 200) "butterfly" or fold-back clips at Officeworks to hold the headlining in while the glue was drying. The glue is contact adhesive (bought from the auto-upholstery shop) applied to only the bodywork.

Front windscreen opening.

Rear windscreen opening.

Rear drivers (right hand) side.

Passenger (left) side.

I'll buy a small pair of very sharp scissors to trim it as I have to get very close to the body of the car to make it neat.

We are delighted with the fit of the headlining. The last of the problem areas appeared to resolve itself as we glued it down. I think leaving it to stretch for such a long time before gluing was a good idea :-)

Headlining ready for Gluing

Now we are back from holidays it's time to get to work on the Vogue again. We finished clipping the headlining into place at the back of the roof and it looks great - way better than we thought it was going to be. The minor wrinkles you can see around the edge will come out when we glue it in.

I'll have a lot of butterfly clips to spare when we have finished.

Still Looking for Fabric Sealer

The product I mentioned in my previous post may well work  at stopping leaks in tent seams but it doesn't stop fabric from "wicking" - that is sucking up water, so I'm still looking. Someone on one of the camping forums mentioned mixing silicone with white spirits to thin it then spreading it on seams. That should stop wicking - I'll try it.

The re-chroming guy said that my backup boot handle was "too far gone". It's pretty easy to get off so I'll mount the one pictured earlier and keep a look out for a better one.

Sealing Headlining Edges

One of the things that has been delaying gluing the headlining in (other than lack of time) is because of a warning I got from the guy I will probably use to install the front and rear windscreens. When I incidently mentioned that we had made our own velour headlining he indicated that suspended (or bow) headlinings were usually vinyl for a reason. The reason is that where the headlinings wraps around the body seams on the upper edge of the windscreen openings you can easily get water ingress. Thats means if the headlining can soak up water (capilliary action or "wicking") then it will gradually stain inside the car - starting at the edges. In our case the headlining also runs down the inside of the rear pillars so it's a concern.

So I have been looking for a sealing product that would stop this from happening.
I found this on a dog whelping site - I have no idea why they sell it. It's also sold by lots of camping places (not in Australia though) to help seal tent seams. The whelping place was in Australia and shipping was free.

The idea is that, once the headling is glued, I run along the exterior exposed part of the fabric and carefully seal it with this.

My concern, other than it not working at all, is that it may harm the rubber seals so as soon as I get it I'll apply a little bit to a spare piece of the 1/4 light rear window rubber so at least we will get some warning if it's a quick reaction. Some sellers recommend it for rubber shoes so it should be OK.

That's unless someone out there has a better idea.

Charger Sequencer Installed and Rear Pillars Painted

The Charger Sequencer is installed. I haven't quite finished wiring (note floating earth wire) as I can not finalise the inlet wiring until the three pin plug is mounted in the fuel cap - but the eBay 16A RCD/MCB handled the load fine. I can't say the same for the temporary 0.75mm cord I used for a few minutes until it nearly cooked. The 1mm inlet lead I have put aside with exactly the correct size plug to fit in the fuel filler was fine.

Finishing the headlining was delayed when we realised that black paint on the two pillars just behind the rear doors was pretty bad. Spraying them was too difficult at this stage so Laurel thought that vinyl covering was the go (I had just enough left over from the front). I was reluctant to put vinyl on them because I thought it would complicate the 1/4 light window installation (the triangluar window just behind the pillar). 

We finally decided to give brushing them a go and if it didn't work then use the vinyl.
I sanded them back with 800 wet and dry and put a generous single coat of Black Gloss Enamel on them. The camera can't show it but it looks like they are plastic coated - no brush marks.

Headlining Fiddling

The headlining is taking a bit of time and "fiddling" to get right. It's working out well but minor things like realising that the rear pillars just behind the rear door were not painted have slowed things down.
Here is a picture of how we plan to finish the headling at the top of the front windscreen pillars. It's the same way that the vinyl headlining was finished.

We have also run some fabric along below the rear windscreen and glued it in ready for the headlining to be glued down.

Windscreen Pillar Vinyl

(This post restrospectively added on 29th Aug.)

The vinyl covering the front windscreen pillars was in pretty bad condition so we took the opportunity to replace it.
The dashpad restoration guy sent me down some spare vinyl (the same as the stuff covering the new dashpad) for exactly this purpose.

Plus a couple of boxes of foldover clips from the local office supplies.

The old piece and a new piece of vinyl cut roughly to shape 

I didn't actually use the heat gun while the clips were on but you get the idea. Heat gun on low and just enough heat to form the vinyl.










All glued and clipped up.

"Can I help? I won't steal any vinyl!". Yeah right.

Headlining Back In

One of the problems when we fitted the new headlining (see this post, and this post) was that the 15mm acoustic foam that I glued to the inside of the roof was just a bit thick. We were unable to properly get the bows into position and have the fabric (listings) drape over them without pulling to one side or the other.
So I did a bit of work this weekend with Laurel's fabric cutter and a scalpel.
First I draw chalk lines on the insulation from left to right across the roof where the bows sit.
Then the fabric cutter was used to slice about halfway through the foam.

Next some careful scalpel work...

The result is these channels.
During this time, Laurel was inside repairing the ends of the listings where we had cut them back too far the first time we installed it almost a year ago. If we ever do another suspended headlining, it will be a lot easier (if we remember what we did wrong that is).

The bows were heaps easier to get in and the listings could now be positioned to let the headlining drop correctly.
It's currently being held in by lots of these clips.

A bit grainy because the flash washed out the fabric (if I used it) but you get the idea. It needs just a tiny bit more work to get the wrinkles totally out.

I have to glue the vinyl onto the front pillars before the headling goes in. I also have to cut a piece of this same fabric for across the back between the rear windscreen and the rear parcel shelf, then the headlining can be glued in for good. The front pillar vinyl is currently on my workbench being "flattened" after being rolled up for about a year.

This Weekend To-Do List

There's a bit of despondency in the EVogue household at the moment. We're all pretty busy and the headlining is weighing down on us. So this weekend I'm hoping to get the bow loops re-sewn (about 3 of them were cut back too far), and have another go at getting the headlining in. Apparently I should not have removed it before checking more carefully if the back section was going to fit down the rear pillars. When it's ready, I'll just put the rear bow in to check the pillar fit.

I'm still messing with the controller tray layout but I think I have pretty much covered all reasonable possibilities so, if no headlining progress, I can start drilling holes in the tray.

Oh, and Jeff from Precision Balancing just rang and my drive shaft is ready. No time today so I'll pick it up Monday.

Headlining basically in

We installed the headlining (at least with clips) during the weekend.
It has to come out again as we have a problem that the roof insulation is too thick to allow the lining to hang correctly without intervention. The trouble is you can't get at the way the lining hangs off the bows once you have installed the next bow. We also may have cut one back a little bit too far. Anyway - it pretty much fits and will look good once the sides are tensioned up.

Headlining Replacement - Making the Headlining

At the start of the Vogue project we (wife and I) had decided to totally strip the Red Vinyl interior and replace it with a light grey and dark blue velour trim. The job we were (and still are) least looking forward to was replacing the headlining. The headlining is the bit of Vinyl or fabric above your head that lines the inside of the roof. Older cars have what is called a "suspended" or bowed headlining.

The headlining is held in place by bowed pieces of metal that clip to the sides of the inside of the roof.

Here the vinyl headlining is peeled back showing one of five bows.

The headlining was carefully removed and layed out.

The new headlining fabric. This isn't the same grey as we will be using for the two-tone interior. This is a little darker and was recommended for the headlining.

Marked up with dressmaking chalk ready to cut.

The other half does her bit.

The bows are threaded through a loop of fabric the runs the width of the headlining. The old lining used a kind of calico. We are using satin because we could get it in the correct width.

The headlining isn't in yet but we did find a 15mm thick acoustic foam to replace the old horsehair (or something) insulation in the roof. Here is it glued in with the bows holding it in temporarily.

Actually installing the headlining... well soon.