How in the world do you get the headliner panel out of a supercab ranger?

[Fast Doc]

I still have nightmares about pulling the headliner out of my wife's old Sable. That was a memorably horrific experience. Thought I was going to break it from all the bending required to get it in a door and turned back around.

What is your motorcycle?

 

[fastpakr]

I downsized to a Honda Rebel when I got back from deployment. Had a Suzuki GS750E before I left, but gave that away to a friend that wanted to get into riding while I was gone. Found this one for $1000 with just over 3,000 miles on it, and it seemed like an obvious choice. For day to day riding (I try to use mine as much for transportation as for fun) it's a lot more practical than a sportbike or even a large CC cruiser. 65-90mpg depending on who's riding it and conditions, $10 a month for insurance, and it will carry me on the interstate just fine. Put about 180 miles on it since yesterday because I had to run about an hour and a half north on I-81 last night to meet my wife.

 

[BlackBII]

65-90mpg?

I'm lucky if I get 35mpg out of mine...but my throttle is all the way open wherever I go.

And if you guys want to complain about headliners, try an Italian car, say, a 1976 Fiat 131, then come talk to me.

 

[fastpakr]

65-90mpg?

I'm lucky if I get 35mpg out of mine...but my throttle is all the way open wherever I go.

And if you guys want to complain about headliners, try an Italian car, say, a 1976 Fiat 131, then come talk to me.

35's about what I was seeing with the GS750. What are you riding?

 

[Fast Doc]

65-90mpg?

I'm lucky if I get 35mpg out of mine...but my throttle is all the way open wherever I go.

And if you guys want to complain about headliners, try an Italian car, say, a 1976 Fiat 131, then come talk to me.

Sorry to steal the thread but I love Fiats. My first car, and first automotive true love was a 1978 Fiat 131 SuperBrava!

Nice bike the Rebel. If you fit OK on it it will do whatever you need. Also, since it's a Honda, if you take care of it it will be as reliable as the lawnmower too.

One of my current bikes is a GS 750. It's my 'buddy bike' fpr when friends from out of town visit for long tours. It gets about 45 MPG.

Main ride is a Gold Wing, also 45 MPG.

The only gas dog in my stable is the Ranger, but it's a good truck.

 

[fastpakr]

Yeah, the Rebel's ok if you're under 6', but I wouldn't want to push it past that. I'm 5'10 and do fine with it after raising the bars. Highway pegs would be nice, but I'd rather work on the seat and install cruise control than spend the money on pegs. What I really need is to get a set of bags on it so I don't have to carry everything in a bookbag. Cartwheeling down the road with anything hard in the bag just doesn't sound fun. Hopefully I've filled my quota of getoffs for a while with the deer I went through on the Blue Ridge Parkway a few years ago.

I keep looking at the old Silverwings with the factory fairing and hardbags and shaft drive V twin, 500 or 650cc depending on year. There was one listed locally a week or so ago for $1150. I promised my wife not to get anything else until I sell the old Mercedes taking up space in the driveway.

Where are you located?

 

[Fast Doc]

I'm in the desert or Northeastern Washington State. Nice area you're in.

Thanks for serving.

Silver Wings are great bikes. Classic timeless design, and just quirkey enough to be interesting.

Does Corbin make a seat for your bike? Maybe see if a local upolsterer can improve your seat, maybe significantly adding to the foam thickness. That would improve legroom and make the seat and bar relationship better for long rides.

A small windshield would also help a lot on the freeway.

I bet you can get the seat done cheap if you call around. Maybe search the web for a Rebel club for more ideas.

 

[fastpakr]

I've got a small shield and love it. As to the seat, there are a couple of options. One is opening the stock seat and removing a small plate at the rear and replacing it with high density foam. I'll probably do this in the near future. Long term, Corbin started making a seat very recently that has a good reputation. It's just a question of where to spend the money. I'm passably comfortable on the stock seat up to 150 miles, so I'm not going to put $300 into the seat any time soon. A couple of dollars into the stock seat and $100 towards a cruise system is a lot more likely.

I'm actively involved in one of the Rebel forums, rebel250.com. Not quite as busy as TRS, but a great site nevertheless.

 

[BlackBII]

35's about what I was seeing with the GS750. What are you riding?

1980 Yamaha XS1100, slightly modded. It runs an 11.6

And I love Fiat's as well!

That's why I am building an Abarth 131 Replica.

 

[Fast Doc]

PLEASE show us some pics of the Fiat, and I've got dibs if you want to sell it!

 

[BlackBII]

Ha, If I had any good pics, I would post them.

I'm getting a full fiberglass body kit from Poland, and the car will have a Ford 2.3 Turbo, around 300 horse.

Currently the car is all stripped down, awaiting the motor, I've been busy getting my BII on the road, otherwise there would be more progress.

Me sell it? Haha not a chance, it took me 4 years to find an accpetable 2 door 131 in the states, I had to drive to Texas to get it.

 

[aeraceranthony]

When I replaced mine, I took out the whole interior except the dash. Putting the new one in was a breeze because I could bend it. (The backing was a plastic mold instead of that cardboard crap.) The reason why everything was taken out was I converted it to black by painting all the moldings, replace with black carpet, replace with black molded headliner, and sparco seats.

http://www.stockinteriors.com/HeadlinerBoard.asp?Itemid=9994&MakeId=34&ModelId=217

 

[barrys]

stockinteriors.com are such nice people to deal with. If you ordered on the phone, you probably spoke with Tabatha (who could forget that name if you're over 40...). But, they have a very limited selection of fabrics and carpets. So, since I wanted to match, I had to deal with a vendor who I didn't like nearly as much, but who had stock on the original headliner fabric I needed.

How did you paint the plastic stuff? If you could be specific about what brand(s) of paints and dyes you used, that would be cool.

 

[calebrk]

i took the headliner out of my 94 SC twice in one week. No seats removed. no doors removed. I didn't find it to be very difficult. Just requires some twisting. Also, many stated to be careful to not crease it. Don't mark my word but my headliner "board" was tore to pieces and slightly creased. I covered it with a fleece material. put it back in. and it looked better than stock and no creases show!

IMO, the carpet and headliner glue Advance Auto sells is AMAZING. it was about $10 a can and was compleltely worth it.The can is orange and it says on it "carpet and headliner glue". I did this entire repair for less than $20.

 

[barrys]

I think that migh be the glue from Permatex. Others have raved about that too and that's about 1/2 the price of the 3M equivalent.