Andrew Faulkner blog 22/02/10
Despite the worst winter in 100 years it’s time for all true enthusiasts to get down the garage and make like an onion - put on plenty of layers and become slightly spherical.
In my case this includes the restoration of my son’s Bond Equipe GT4S. To recap (it’s been a while), the welding is done, a new rear shelf has been installed, the respray was done last Christmas and the interior has been gutted for renovation.
Whilst son Daniel has been rubbing down the new paintwork to reveal a pleasing shine (and a few runs but we wont dwell on those), I have been concentrating on the interior. Having re-attached or replaced various pieces of felt insulation, it’s time to tackle the headlining.
Unfortunately Bond Equipes are too scarce for new headlining to be available off the shelf so it had to be made from scratch using the old headlining as a pattern. This was carefully removed like a delicate piece of parchment – which seems to be what it was – and un-picked to reveal its flat form.
No it isn't a calf skin, it's a bond Equipe skin...Unfortunately it is not easy to interpret its flat form after 45 years as a curve. Even more difficult in our case due to the installation of a sun roof with odd patches of lining glued over the bodges and bits of bamboo wedged around the edge to try and keep it in place.
They call it mellow yellowed...The best thing to do, we reasoned, was to ignore the sunroof hole until installed and cut generously around the edges. A large roll of new material was ordered from Woollies and I was off to visit my new best friend.
Lynne is one of an increasingly rare breed of women who don’t think of a thread as something to do with e-mails. She used to teach needlework and still uses her skills to create dresses and suits for family weddings. She has never done a headlining though – until now.
New headlining looks the business.She did a splendid job despite the appalling state of the original, cutting the cloth and sewing in the calico for the ‘list rails’ or rods that go across the roof and give it its curved shape. Armed with the new headlining, I started the installation.
The first job was to lightly rub down the list rails to remove corrosion and allow the cloth to slide easily through. Next, insert the correct rails into the calico hoops. They are all slightly different so it is important to put them back in the right order. If the factory colour code doesn’t survive, make your own as you dismantle it.
Hoops are sanded down to ensure they slide easily.
Andy marked the hoops to enure the correct ones went back into the correct places.The rails can then be clipped into the roof and the lining positioned centrally side to side. To get the fore and aft position correct, I measured the distance from the interior mirror fixing holes to the first rail seam and reproduced this on my new headlining.
Careful preparation went into ensuring the headlining would fit snugly.It should then be possible to tension the lining at the front and back and use bulldog clips around the edges to form the final shape. Make minor adjustments before using contact adhesive to secure the lining around the edges.
Bulldog clips came in handy...Sounds easy doesn’t it. Actually, it took me four fittings before I was reasonably satisfied with the result. The main challenge was how to get a neat fit around the sunroof which breaks the tension fore-and-aft and consequently creates creases at the edges.
All glued and ready for trimming.I eventually got a reasonable fit by anchoring the lining to the sunroof frame with a couple of screws and using a bit of curtain wire (the stretchy stuff).
Was it perfect? No – mainly at the sides of the rear windscreen where there are no list rails to give it a curve. Is it better than the original? Yes – vastly. I’ll come back to the rear screen bit in a year or two. The summer awaits!!!!
Posted: 10:10am, 22 February 2010
Words: Andy Faulkner
Images: Andrew Faulkner
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