Does anyone out there actually make a CORRECT hardtop headliner kit for our cars yet?

-Not an ABS board with a retarded looking t-top bar looking thing down the middle

-Not material that is close-ish in color with wayyy to much grain in the material that won't match the visors

-Not velcro cardboard sail panels to match the new, wrong material

-Not "close but different" visors to match the new, wrong material

Does anyone have pics of repop visors/sails compared to originals?

 

Classic sells the EXACT material by the Yard.

 

www.lethalinteriors.com

haven't used them but have heard great feedback on them. They have sunvisors, sail panels, etc

RJMcEachern

 

It's WAY off - not too bad in color, but the graining is much more pronounced and wrong.

 

Interesting - thanks!

Anyone have direct experience with them?

 

These are from various suppliers, all "supposed" to be correct to original.

 

This photo shows what I mean re: grain

 

No,the graining is exactly the same as what came out of the car.

The sample pics you show are very bold,mines aren't bold,very suttle.this is a closeup shot,you can hardly notice the grain just sitting looking

 

The red material looks good; you were lucky. The visors aren't as curved as OEM t-top visors, though... I suspect they're making one "in-between" visor to use on either a t-top or a hardtop car, that "fits" but isn't accurate to either one...

The grey is way off.

 

Nobody has accurately re-done a grey hardtop headliner?

 

Kinda off-topic but I decided to try the ABS kit from Hawk's, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the sail panel inserts had metal hooks in place of the how the factory ones had molded plastic. Much better than the Velcro **** I had been hearing about!

I haven't installed any of it yet and yeah, the color/texture is not an exact match but good enough for now. I'm going to be keeping all of my original stuff to recover sooner or later depending how happy I am with the aftermarket stuff.

 

I hear you, but I'd really rather do this only once...

Amazing nobody with a grey hardtop car has any info to chime in? I guess this is why it's "ok" that all the options out there are way off...

 

92GTA, What do you think of the ABS liner.. I am thinking of getting it in black since I am re-doing my whole interior black.

 

This looks about $25 cheaper than Hawks and the same picture lol, plus cheaper on shipping than hawks too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331111576853?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

I haven't installed it yet, another 2 or 3 weeks until I do probably.

It seems ok. It was damaged by Hawk's a bit during shipping, they packed a spindle in the same box and even with bubble wrap around the spindle, there is a permanent impression in the headliner which really sucks but not worth return shipping and the hassle.

I have it laying flat on top of my car in the garage and it seems straight. I plan on using Velcro as suggested here so I don't end up with it sagging anywhere.

 

For what it's worth... After looking at the red t-top headliner photos again, the material grain runs vertically front to back, unlike the original which ran horozontally side-to-side (like the visors); attached is a picture of my original t-top headliner in my '89 GTA.

 

Oh hell no, I'll be hella pissed if the grain is the opposite direction! I'll have to check when I get home.

 

Factory CURVED t-top visor

 

Are you also saying the reproduction ones aren't even curved?! They must be, they have to be on a T-Top car.

 

...either way, hardtop cars SHOULD have bigger, flat visors. The reproduction ones are a sort-of in-between hybrid between a factory t-top and hardtop visor...

 

Well ****! I just checked the factory liner, it goes side-to-side and the Hawk's from front-to-rear The T-Top inserts match the headliner but then the sun visors goes opposite, WTF. You're totally right, crap.

I guess I will be keeping all my original stuff and getting fabric once we find some that is 100% correct.

Group buy on Medium Dark Grey? lol

 

...anyone?

 

Stuart - when I redid my charcoal colored headliner in my 82 Recaro, I wanted it to look as close to original as possible. I did not mess with that ABS headliner repop crap due to the horror stories on fit and finish. I repaired my original board with fiberglass cloth and resin and then brought it to a local upholstery shop. I also brought a piece of the original cloth for him to match. He was able to find a match that was close if not an exact color match to the original. He recovered my visors as well. If you want the closest possible match find a good local upholstery shop and have them recover your original board. They would be the ones who know where to get a color match closest to what you have now.

 

I've done that... Material is all lighter (so far).

 

Vendors...?

 

This lack of response or interest is precisely why the kits offered currently are and will remain complete crap.

 

Stuart - the kits suck, but I don't think you are seeing the big picture. The repro companies will only make so many shades to accomodate the many car models they are making fabrics for. You can't recover yours because you can't find a match. It is damn near impossible to find anything that matches exactly. I will use carpet as an example. I installed ACC carpet in my 82 TA. I ordered samples and studied those damn swatches for months and nothing was exact. In the end, I wound up getting the closest match possible. I know it is not a perfect match to the original, but i seriously doubt anyone else can tell. The kicker is that when I was trying to match to the original carpet, it was 3 different shades anyway. The rear cargo area appeared to be a different dye lot then the front. Or even worse, it might have been a different vendor. The carpet on the plastics in the cargo area was a different shade yet. So in total, GM matched my interior with 3 different shades of charcoal. In the end, I changed it all, and made sure it was the same dye lot. I think the car looks better. Not exactly original, but I was out of options. A company like ACC is making carpet for many different brands and they will only make so many shades. I am sure the same holds true for the headliner fabric companies.
I realize your car is all original, but if you are looking to change that headliner out, you are going to have to compromise on a color that is as close to original as possible or live with the saggy headliner. I have the same issue with my low mile TTA. I have looked at swatches and nothing matches exactly. Since mine is not that bad, I am still looking.
Whatever you do, don't buy that ABS headliner garbage. Your car deserves better then that. If it is not that bad, hold out and keep searching. Good luck.

 

Another stellar match! (/sarcasm)

 

Who knew there were so many greys?

 

It makes me sad that the headliners fail in the cars. I have owned my 87 Camaro since it was 4 years old. The car has been in climate controlled storage for the past 19 years, driven less than 200 miles in that time period. The headliner "was" mint. a few years back I was cleaning the car & noticed the headliner was getting spongy. Nothing lasts forever I guess, but still sad....

 

Makes me sad that vendors weigh in on other threads, but nothing on this, knowing current offerings are crap...

You can't have me believing that there is no demand for proper grey headliners... It's THE MOST COMMON COLOR they made...

 

Is it really a fair comparison between brand new material and 20+ year old material??

 

Absolutely; the car is pristine with 28k miles, always garaged. Insides of the visors are exactly the same color as the sail panels.

Even if it was faded, faded material is lighter, not darker.

Also, color aside, the new stuff is completely inaccurate.

 

Stuart,I bought some Gray Headliner material for my 33 at Joeann's Fabric center and it looks the same or is identical to the material you posted above.

Stop in at one of those stores and check it out.Just a Thought!

 

Tried that already, actually, but thanks for the suggestion! (The pic you quoted is my '89 t-top car)...

This is the Joanne's material against my '87

 

FWIW, Joeann's may get their material from different sources at different times.
Has anyone done any research into, or know where GM originally had the fabric made?

 

Might be a novel thought for the vendors who sell the wrong crap as authentic, and have still yet to weigh in

 

Vendors??

 

Your still looking????

 

Yep.

 

Apparently vendors don't care to weigh in...?

 

There are companies that have NOS seat material, surely they have headliner stuff too?

 

Done that... See swatches above lol

 

I haven't got headliner material samples from them buuuut the seat samples are 100% correct.
http://www.smsautofabrics.com/

 

Been there, done that. They were the first one I tried, actually...

 

This is why I snatched up all the reasonable condition OEM hard top liners I could get my hands on. I had 3. 1 is in my gray iroc and the other one is still unfinished but will be for my red one. I had the thing covered and the sail panels and visors done in the same material resembling stock as close as possible. The fit and finish is vastly superior to the abs POS I also have.



This is an original headliner tat I repaired and added foam to.

 

Keep checking back at Joanne's, their shipments of gray fabric always seem to vary in color. They might eventually end up with a shade that is close enough.

 

It is going to be tough to find an exact match.

 

Loving the vendor input... Knowing full well that all ABS hardtop kits offered are terrible...

 

Yes, same reason they never chime in on the "fender replacement" threads. There aren't any good ones available.