hello hello, i'm a few months away from replacing my t-top headliner. i'm thinking of buying an abs headliner from hawks. will this work with my overhead console? will i have to do a bunch of cutting?

as always, thanks for you time!

 

Yes it'll work, and yes you'll have to do some cutting.

I have a tech article that shows every step here:

http://www.iroczone.com/technical/headliner

 

is it crazy hard to cut into the plastic? i'm a total novice.

 

It's hard for me to say. For me it was a piece of cake, but this wasn't exactly my first time cutting ABS. If you take your time with your dremmel, I really don't see it being that hard even for a novice. While it may ultimately take longer, it's vitally important that you cut a little on the small side. If you cut too big you're screwed, but if you cut a little small, you can always re-cut it larger. I cut mine a tad small, then did additional trimming to make it fit.

 

thanks man! i just needed the emotional support!!

 

Is the ABS worth the cost for replacement or only if you need a new board. I can get the headliner re-done for $125... The guy already looked at it and said the board is still in decent shape. I'm in the same predicament, I can see myself buying the ABS and destroying it and still paying the guy $125!!

 

my headliner was falling apart. i would have recovered it if the headboard was in good shape.

 

the headboard is never in good shape, 20yrs of heat cold and humidity just makes fall to pieces.

 

when I re-did mine in my 88 IROC the headliner board was in terrible shape it broke in two peices upon removal. I used some 3M spray adhesive and some fiberglass cloth, and it worked fine. The fiberglass cloth stuck out a little bit under the fabric, was only noticeable by touch. If your looking to save money total cost for new fabric, spray glue and fiberglass cloth was around $30-$40 being that the new fabric costs like $10 a yard and it took 3

 

Cutting the ABS is no problem. I recently did my headliner which was pretty complicated because I have C&C t-tops. What I had to do was buy an uncovered ABS hardtop headliner, install it, mark where the t-top openings were, and cut out those sections. The cutting took me about an hour using a dremel with heavy-duty cutting discs. If you go the route of the dremel I would recommend using one of the lower (if not the lowest) speed settings because otherwise the disc will get too hot and the ABS will melt!
Also, covering the headliner is not hard, I had never done anything like it before but I was amazed at my professional-looking results. Just go slow and use brand-name (3M) adhesive. I hope that helps!