TMI Headliner Coupe Mustang 1965-1968

We love receiving the video requests from our viewers. Whenever possible we try to accommodate those requests. While it’s simply not feasible to show full restoration on camera, if we get a part that people ask about enough we’re going to try to do a video on it. One request we get all the time is how to install a headliner. We’ve already shown you how to install TMI’s on piece headliner, which honestly, it’s a lot easier to install than a factory style. If you’re looking to keep your car original, today we’re going to walk you through the basis of how to install a factory style headliner using this ’68 Mustang GT Fastback.

We’re going to be using TMI’s original style headliner for our installation. As you can see it has the original texture, it looks just like a factory headliner you would find in your car when it was brand new. The headliner is a fairly involved situation. There’s a lot more parts you’re going to need besides just the material itself. You need new windshield weather stripping, new rear window weather stripping, new sealant for the glass, headliner glue. You also want to pick up some windlace. You want to get enough to replace your factory windlace, and the actually, buy an extra roll because you want to use this when you install the headliner. We’ll show you how.

Like we mentioned before, this is a very involved installation. I wouldn’t suggest it our first time installer. We start by prepping our car for the installation by removing the factory headliner. You can simply cut it and remove it, but to remove it properly and install the new one properly you have to remove your rear window, your front window, as well as your door runs. Once you remove your factory headliner you can throw it away. You want to make sure you retain these rods. It’ll also make your life a little bit easier once you remove them line them up in the order you remove them so you know where they go when you put them back in.

Before you start the installation of our new headliners, a couple of things you’ll want to do inside. If your installing the headliner insulation, which we do suggest, that just sticks simply to the roof, install that first. You want to grab all the screws that you remove, your visors, your mirrors, seat belts, anything you may have removed and put them back in the holes, that way when you put your headliner into place you can press them against the screws. You’ll know where to cut for those holes. At the same time, you actually, have different holes up here for the headliner bodes. Make a note of which ones the bodes came out. It’s best to put them back in the same holes.

You want to open up your new headliner, find enough space to lay it out flat so you can install the rods. The first think you want to do though is measure to the center and mark it. You’ll need that when you actually, install it in the car, once you have it spread out and marked you can install your headliner rods. On a coup it’s real easy to tell the back of the headliner because you’ll have a huge piece of material coming off here. The fact that it’s a little more subtle, the piece that comes out further is where the rear is. You want to know where that is when you install your rods and put them in the right place. Now, we’ll just fold it up and we’re ready to install the rods. I should have mentioned this earlier. It’s not a bad idea to get some help with this installation. Holding the rods in place and the headliner can be tough, and especially when removing the glass. The glass is quite heavy, and obviously, it can break. You want to have some help. It’ll make your job a lot easier.

Before you install the rear rod you want to make sure these two hooks are still in place. Coups and Fastbacks have the exact same thing and you put the rear rod in these hook rods should go through the material and hold it in place. Again, put it in the hole that you marked. You want to take these little hooks, and make sure you take them underneath the rod and they go through the material, now to the next hole, and again up front.

If you remember in the beginning I told you to buy an extra roll of windlace. This is where you’re going to use it. To hold your headliner in place you want to cut it in to a bunch of small pieces. It’ll make your installation a lot easier. Once you cut up the windlace it’s time to start stretching the front of your headliner. The best way to do it, come inside the car. You want to pull on it not hard, but you’ve got to get it snug. Get it over this lip here, and then use the pieces of windlace to hold it in place. You want to start from the center and work your way out. Once you have the front tight and secure you can now move to the back and do the exact same thing. Once you finish with the back the headliner should be nice and tight now. Don’t worry about these wrinkles you see. Once you pull the sides tight these are all going to go away. You just want to make sure your front-to- back is nice and tight.

Now, we’re going to start on the sides. You want to make sure you leave the front five or six inches open, that way when you pull on the sides, once you have that tight, and then you can pull that up to match it. Now that we have the sides nice and tight you can see all the wrinkles are gone from the center of our headliner. It looks exactly as it should. Now, we can move forward to the front corners. Getting this part right can be tough. You have to basically, get it stretched in the corner, but also around the windshield frame and where you’re door runs going to go. It’s easy to get a wrinkle here. You want to start from the front, just basically, pull it tight. You’re eventually, going to have to cut a slit in this, almost like a pie cut to get it to clear.

You want this to be in as tight and smooth as possible when it’s installed. At this point it’s just the windlace holding it on. You can mess with it a couple of times and get it just right. Later, we’re going to remove it, and once we glue it you’re going to be stuck with. Make sure you’re cuts and everything are smooth so it lays like it should.

Now, we’re going to do the same thing with the rear part of the headliner. Again, pull this up here, trim it and the same thing over here. In this case it doesn’t have to be quite as tight as the front. Once you put the quarter trim back in place it will cover part of the front. We’ll leave a little bit of slack so to make sure this can go back on without ripping your headliner. Again, leaving a little bit of slack here is okay because the panel that comes across will hold it down. Just make sure when you push on this corner the wrinkles go away, which they do. We’re going to move on.

Next you want to grab your headliner glue. It’s important to the right style glue for this part of the installation. You want to get something like this, it has a brush like that built in to it. What you’re going to do is start off in sections. You’re going to start with half the windshield first. What you’ll do is pull of the windlace. You’re going to pull the headliner down and put glue on the headliner as well as the metal channel on both sides. What you’re going to do is let it setup for a little bit and put it back into place by stretching it and reinstall the windlace. Make sure you get underneath and on top, and follow the crease in the headliner you made when you folded it on in order to put it there. Once you have the surfaces covered you want to two, three, even up to five minutes. Wait until it actually, gets tacky to the touch then put the headliner back into place.

Once it’s tacky, you can pull the headliner back up in to place, stretch it out just like before, and you want to repeat the process on the other side, and the rear window, and then both side windows. Once you’ve glued all four sides of headliner in place you want to reinstall the windlace to hold it, double check to see if you have any wrinkles. Let it set for 24-hours before moving on to the next step. Once your glue is dry you’re ready to install the finish windlace across the sides here. We’re going to start in the front, work our way back, and remove these whole pieces while we install our finish piece. You may want to grab a fresh razor blade and cut off the excess material on the outside of the windlace. It doesn’t have perfect because the weather strip channel will go right in here and cover it, but basically, get it right on top of the windlace and make it as clean as possible. Now, you want to repeat the process with the driver door.

Now, we’re going to do the same basic process with the front rear window. The difference here we’re going to leave the windlace in place that’s holding it, and then cut it off, remove the windlace when we go install the actual window. We’ll leave this is in place until we reinstall our factory windshield. Once we install the windshield along with the factory style weather stripping is going to hold the front edge of our headliner in place, same process with the rear window. Leave the windlace in place. We’re just going to cut, trim it, and then we’re just going to install our glass that’ll actually, hold the back of the headliner back in place. That finishes the actual installation of the headliner. Now, we’re going to reinstall our rear glass, our front glass, and our weather strip channels and our installation will be finished.

If you’re installing new glass this step isn’t going to be an issue, but if you’re reinstalling a window that’s already been installed you want to make sure you get all the old caulk off edges before you reinstall it. Once you have your glass cleaned the first step to the installation is actually, to install the weather strip. You want to get it out and spread it out on the windshield roughly, where it’s going to go, and then you can begin the installation. You just place the starters with the edge. You want to pull it up, slide it over the glass, and you just want to take your time and work your way around. This is one of those installs that’ll probably look a lot easier on camera than it actually, is. The weather strip is a tight fit. Getting it on the glass will take some time.

Once you get the weather strip stretched around the windshield and you get feeling back in your fingers, you move on to the strip caulk. What you want to do is pick up some strip caulk and just enter the weather strip right here. Once again, you’re going to pull back the edge and lay strip caulk in the bottom all the way around. Go back through and make sure you get it all the way in the bottom of the channel, grab another piece and keep on going.

In the next step you’ll need about a 14-feet of string. The string is actually, what you’re going to use to make this inner weather stripper you just installed, the strip caulk, go around the inside of your windshield frame. You want to start at the top and work your way around putting this in the exact same channel you just installed your strip caulk. Make sure you overlap here at the top, tape that side down. We’re ready to install our windshield. Before you’re ready to put the windshield in the car check all of your clips for your moldings. You want to make sure they’re all in the right position because once you get the glass in you’re not going to be able to adjust these anymore.

When you put the windshield in you want to get some help. The glass itself is on the heavier side, plus it’s large and hard to handle. Getting an extra set of hands will make it a lot easier to put it on the car. Rest it on the bottom and then just kind of push it down into place. Make sure it’s sitting flat. You want to have an even gap all the way around. Make sure your clips are visible on the bottom as well as on the sides and top. You’re ready to move inside the car. This part you’ll also want to have two people. You’ll want someone on the outside, pushing against the windshield while you remove the string from the inside. As you pull the string again, make sure the weather strip is going over the inside. The corner is the critical part. You want to make special care that the corner gets over.

Once you make it to the bottom corner, now you want to do the other side first before you go across the bottom.

Now that the windshield is in the car you’re ready to seal it. Sealant is messy. There’s just no way around it, so before we start installing it get some good body shop tape and put tape on all the body panels around the area to protect your paint. Now, we’re going to start with the sealant. You’ll need three tubes of sealant. You want to make sure you have a caulk gun, something to cut the tip of the sealant with, and again, some paper towels because like I said this is going to be a messy job. You might be wondering about this tube here. What we did is grab some scrap metal and made little brackets to hold the top of it. The reason being is you’ve got to kind of force this under the weather strip and this moves really, easily. By strengthening it, it makes it a lot under the weather stripping to get as deep as we need to get a good seal. You want to get the tip underneath the seal.

At this point you probably, understand why a lot of glass shops don’t want to touch this job. Once you’ve sealed the inside, now you do the exact same thing, except you’re going to go on the outside, so between the seal and the actual body you’re going to go all the way around the outside to get a good seal coat. Make sure you get it down in there. When it comes to the clips you want to try to get it up under the clip, and you’ll go over the top of it and on the other side. Now go back across the top, especially the corners. Make sure you get a nice thick coat up there, almost like you’re caulking a bathroom. As long as you’re down in the channel you can’t really use too much. Better to use too much than not enough or it won’t seal.

Once you have a nice thick coating sealant, you want to repeat the exact same process on the rear window. Gaskets install the same way as well as the sealant. Once you have the glass done, now we’re going to clean it up. You want to grab some sort of solvent, a Gooby Gone, Goof Off, something like that, that’s not going to damage the paint but will get this off.

Once you have the front and rear glass sealed you want to take it out and water test it. I’m going to show you how to do that soon. Before you do so you want to reinstall the weather strip panels and the doors.

Now, we’re going to install the roof rail weather stripping. It’s hung in place by two plastic clips in the bottom, and it goes in this channel here and there’s a screw in the front. Only use a light amount of weather strip adhesive to install this. You want to put the back in first, and pop the front in.

Now, we’re outside and ready water test our windshield. Just like a few other jobs in this installation, this is definitely a two-man job. You might want to think you can get the hose and just pressure wash and spray it as hard as possible. You really don’t want to do that. You want to start in the middle. Just use low pressure and move slowly. That way you can get an idea if it does leak where the leaks at and you can work on it, ready Jeff? How we lookin’, good? No leaks here. Repeat the process for the rear window. We’re ready to reinstall our moldings.

Now that the windshields’ been installed, sealed and we leak tested it the last step is going to be is put our moldings back on the car. The first thing you want to do is go around the taped part of the windshield, and everywhere there’s clip you want to make a mark, that way when you’re putting the moldings on you know where the clips are, and that’s where you going to put your pressure down and make them lock into place. You’re going to want to start with a lower piece. Three things you’re going to need for this part of the installation is going to be a mallet, a piece of wood and some patience. You want to take your time. These can very easily. They’re very simple to damage. You want to start by putting the lower one in place, and then make sure it’s centered. Check that the edges are on the exact same spot on both sides because once you get this in place you’re not going to have any side-to-side adjustment.

Once you have it in place you’re going to start with the corner and simply start pressing it into the clips. It can be a challenge getting it on the clips. Sometimes you get lucky if you’ve got to do it with your hands. Other times you’ve got to break out the wood and the mallet. You definitely feel when you get it right. You want to make sure the angled piece inside is angled under the clip. If you put it on top you’ll bend the clip, it’s not going to go into place. You want to make sure you’re pulling out, and then pushing down. You’ll actually, feel it slide into the clip. If you can’t push it up use your hammer to bump it into place.

Now, we can move on to the sides. You want to make sure once your bottoms into place the side is going to slide on the bottom, and this edge here is going to get pushed in behind your clips. Now, repeat the process with the other side.

Now, basically, we have the same process for the top. I’m going to start with the driver’s side. Honestly, you can start with either side. Just make sure the very center is not pushed all the way in to both pieces. They’re together, and you push them in as one. Now, I’m going to slide this into the other piece. Make sure the top and bottom are both in.

Once you have the moldings on, grab our solvent and clean everything up then, we can remove the tape. Once you have everything sealed up, now we’re going to reinstall the our visors and finish up the installation. When we told you earlier to put the screws in place, the reason we do that is you can actually, push against them and you’ll see the head of the screw. It makes it easy to know exactly where you’ve got to cut. Put a little slit, push it right over the screw. You have the screws make a little hole in the center. Now, repeat the process on the other side. Once you’re finished with the windshield moldings you want to repeat the process with the rear window, install interior trim panels and your installation is finished. It’s not a good install for a first-timer, but if you take your time, it’s something you can do at home. You want to make sure you have some help. Give yourself the better part of the weekend. You’ll be back on the road in no time.