Wagon build

**Jeff W** · February 6th, 2011, 05:45 PM

Home-made wind lace and ceiling insulation.

I cleaned up the headliner bows in preparation for the intimidating job of installation. Boy that is a long roof.

**doghows** · February 7th, 2011, 09:39 AM

If I knew that badge was turning out so well I would have charged more for it?? Glad to see the parts are going to good use.
I think Kenny has your bag of parts from this weekend I hope I got all the stuff you wanted.
The car is looking awesome. I am sure I wll be calling on you when I put mine back together.

**Luva65wagon** · February 7th, 2011, 07:18 PM

Nice progress Jeff. Lots of great tips too! But that reminds me...

Hey Steve, one thing I was going to look at on that wagon was to drill out the screw heads to pull the door handles off that car and to see if the door locks had the flappers on them. Would be worth pulling those off -- they looked pretty good. Also was going to get the right-rear arm rest off and space that out too. And... and...

**doghows** · February 8th, 2011, 09:19 AM

I will add them to the list. I found a couple other things I need still as well. I think it might be another weekend or two before I haul away the carcasses.
Anybody else let me know and I will check the car's ?? before they become BMW's. Thanks Steve..

P.S. I have mentioned about body work right???

P.S.S. Sawzalls are fun !!!!

**Jeff W** · February 9th, 2011, 11:15 PM

Cleaned up the bows and inserted them into the new headliner. The living room floor was the only area large enough to lay it all out.

Glad I marked the bows when removing them. They all have different contours.

Now I'm letting the headliner "relax" in the basement next to my two wheeled flock. the plan is a Sunday morning installation. I'm not sure Kenny and I know what we are in for... wish us luck.

**doghows** · February 10th, 2011, 09:31 AM

I will be very interested in your results. I am going to attempt all this myself as well. Headliners scare me. I want to try and do my own door panels and so forth. Keep me (us) posted. Good luck

**Luva65wagon** · February 10th, 2011, 01:35 PM

Jeff - you have a few toys yourself there. Didn't know you were into motorcycles. And cool ones too.

And yes, please take lots of pictures when you put that in. I someday hope to do this in my wagon. And will do the Ranchero too, now. It's got a nifty headliner in it right now. Pictures to come, I'm sure, of that.

**doghows** · February 10th, 2011, 05:15 PM

Roger I thought the custom western Naugahyde headliner was the key selling point for you?? After all the visors match??

**Jeff W** · February 13th, 2011, 10:45 PM

I'm going to have a go at my own door panels as well. For $30 I bought the three yards material. Used some for my wind lace and have plenty to make some door panels. Here is a sample I was goofing around with. I found that a piece flat bar stock in a 400 F oven (I was making Pizza at the time) made a factory perfect impression in the vinyl.

The secret is covering the material with one layer of tin foil to keep the vinyl from sticking to the metal.

I'll work on some kind of falcon brand to give the panels a unique, but period look.

**Jeff W** · February 13th, 2011, 11:03 PM

Thanks to Kenny, the headliner is in!.

It wasn't any harder than anything else I have done on the car.

Just patience and common sense. It's not perfect but looks pretty good for a couple of amateurs working in an extremely small garage when it is 55 degrees outside. I will try the steam through the dome light hole to see if that tightens it up a bit. (Update 2013... the steam did not tighten it up after installation ... i think the professionals steam while stretching during install)

Tips: Windshield out (Kenny is actually sitting on my dash while stretching the front- a full size version of the dashboard Jesus). A little glue goes a long way. Binder clips. Electric heaters. Tiny scissors. Two people really helped with some of the longer stretches... that is one long roof.

It took us about five hours including prep, looking for missing parts, lunch and breaks for fresh air and to check up on Brian's engine install (two houses away).

No reservations, just go for it. A large heated garage would have cut the time down to three hours. A Ranchero would take about 15 minutes. I don't know who started the "hire a professional" rumor... probably the professionals.

**redfalken** · February 14th, 2011, 12:39 AM

Originally Posted by Jeff W

Tips: Windshield out (Kenny is actually sitting on my dash while stretching the front- a full size version of the dashboard Jesus)...

As they say, do unto other's Falcons before you do unto yours! Always good to get in some practice. More room and a warm summer day would have helped but it wasn't too bad!

**doghows** · February 14th, 2011, 09:26 AM

Looks good to me. It should tighten right up. Practice on a couple more and I wil let you know when I am ready for mine to go in...

**Luva65wagon** · February 14th, 2011, 10:41 PM

Pretty awesome. I think you could take a heat gun and slowly shrink up all those wrinkles - no problem.

I found a red headliner for the Ranchero on ebay for $40 - so you guys can come over and spend, what was it, 15 minutes, and do mine when I'm ready - since you guys are now "the professionals." I'm also toying with doing a vinyl roof too. Should I do them both at the same time?

**pbrown** · February 14th, 2011, 11:30 PM

Originally Posted by Luva65wagon

Pretty awesome. I think you could take a heat gun and slowly shrink up all those wrinkles - no problem.

I found a red headliner for the Ranchero on ebay for $40 - so you guys can come over and spend, what was it, 15 minutes, and do mine when I'm ready - since you guys are now "the professionals." I'm also toying with doing a vinyl roof too. Should I do them both at the same time?

The vinyl roof should only take another 15 minutes.