With our ’66 hardtop now covered from end to end in Anniversary Gold, it’s the exhilarating part of the restoration process that begins with the reassembly of the project. Up to this point, the majority of the restoration work entailed the really grungy jobs of disassembly, organizing and cleaning parts, rust repair, sanding, and so forth. During this time of “dirty work,” we compiled our new soft trim, chrome, and other goodies that will be installed onto our project shortly.
Once the paint has cured, there are several places to start: engine compartment detailing, trunk detailing, suspension and steering rebuilds, and so on. But there’s nothing more gratifying than installing a fresh interior into your restoration project, and that’s where we’re going to start: with the installation of a new headliner from Virginia Classic Mustang on our ’66 hardtop.
Our hardtop wasn’t even painted when we called Virginia Classic Mustang for a black moonskin headliner, a headliner insulation kit, sunvisors, visor hardware, a day/night rearview mirror and bracket, pinch-on windlace, and coat hooks. These goodies waited patiently on our “new parts” shelf until after our hardtop was painted.
When we finally had a free weekend to install our headliner, we enlisted the help of the folks at Classic Creations of Central Florida since they told us how difficult it is to install a hardtop headliner (that’ll teach ’em to tell us how hard a job is). Installing a headliner definitely entails the use of at least four hands, so make sure you have a helper that can stay the entire day and give you plenty of support. Don’t hesitate to walk away and take a break from the installation occasionally when you become frustrated, because this is a job that requires patience; you’ve been warned.
Our hardtop, since it was recently painted, was a bare shell. Thus this article doesn’t have any removal steps. The use of a shop manual is strongly recommended to aid in the removal of the front and rear glass and trim, the glass-run weatherstrips and weatherstrip channels, and the rear seat/package tray areas.