[gothrod87]

hey yall,
i got a high milage 86 grand am im fixing up for my driver and i am starting to upgrade my beat up interior .im a fan of a wide variety of customs and i was looking at a minitruck sight the other day and i saw a picture of some guys door panels and they had the 3d flames molded behind the material....so ive decided to do it with my car now and was wondering what all is involved and would it be possible to do this with grey vinyl? any help would be greatly apreciated

[WakBordr7387]

Check out this thread
Check out Dutchmans post that is stickied to the top of this forum. It will have more threads like this one to help you out. Putting flames into the doors is really simple. And you can do it in grey vinal very easily. Just do a search in this forum for it and you will finds TONS of posts on this. Currently I am doing something similar with my headliner in my truck, and have already done it with the lower door panels. I hope this helps.


Brad

[1982 SS]

I saw a headliner done that way once and thought the installer really left some large wrinkles. I had to look at it in the right frame of mind before it made sense. I would reccommend keeping it straight foreward and with plenty of definition so it doesn't look like a lot of large wrinkles. Simple is probably best for that application.

[Stinkin_V8]

Make sure you get enough glue in all the corners of the countours. It can be tough to get complete coverage from all angles. If you don't glue it all, it will sag and you'll lose the definition of your pattern. Work from the middle outwards, keep the fabric pulled snug as you glue and you should be able to avoid major wrinkles.

Here's one I did:


Procedure was to glue one layer of 1/8" closed cell foam to the original headliner. I cut the flame pattern out of a second piece of foam and glued it down as a second layer. Lots of variations here, you could cut the pattern into the first layer and skip the second layer, or use patterns in both layers. Upholstery shops use contact cement from a paint gun, but for DIY use, use 3M Super90 adhesive. I've heard of using 3M Foam Fast as well, never tried it though. Don't use Super 77 on a headliner, it will be hanging over your eyes on the first day you leave it parked in the hot sun. Then glue your fabric down over top and use a popsicle stick or your finger to press it into the corners. Don't press too hard or you'll leave depressions from your fingers. It won't hurt to lightly scuff the foam before gluing either.

When gluing, lay the fabric down and fold half of it back. Start in the middle and do one side at a time. Spray your glue down and wait for it to get tacky. Keep tension on the fabric as you're laying it down and work the corners of your pattern in with the popsicle stick. Repeat for the other side. When you're done, flip it over and glue the excess fabric to the back side or just cut it off, depending what you need.

You can buy factory-style headliner fabric with the foam already attached but that's boring. You want to use a light material up there, but there's lots of room for creativity. I used Ultra-suede. Vinyl and leather work too, just watch the weight.