I have a hunter green 50th anniversary disco1. I am wanting to rplace the headliner but then i notice how nice the floor and roof is painted. Has anyone here just taken fown the headliner and kept the green paint as the only thing up there. When i ripped up the carpet i dont see a reason to change the carpet out. The painted steel looks great

 

It'll probably be louder with the rain. Like considerably. If you're gonna keep the carpet and headliner out you're talking about generating a lot of resonance inside that aluminum box. It'll be way louder with no deadening material. Having reupholstered a headliner my self I'd recommend you scrape it, paint it and throw it back in. Best of both worlds. Easy cheap and quieter than bare roof.
Also. If you ever plan a cb or roof lights I'd run the wires while you have the headliner out to avoid having to drop it again later

 

Lots have done it.
Many have also coated the inside of the roof with bedliner.

 

Its going to get a lot hotter in the summer!

 

I agree, hotter in the summer, colder in the winter, I had mine replaced by my insurance company.
I personally would replace it, its not that expensive to DIY, a couple hundred to have it done by a upholstery shop.

 

Hey I do not know where you guys get that idea. My headliner is totally out as is the majority of the plastic interior. And all of the carpets. The middle seats are currently removed and sitting in my basement.

The original headliner is just foam backed material mounted over that fiberglass form. Not like there are layers of acoustic material.

The interior roof however does not have a high quality paint that matches the exterior in color either unless they changed after building mine.

I do have a little minor rust by the Alpine windows I need to address. I may cover part of the interior roof but will do smaller panels rather than mess with that fiberglass thing again. It is long gone.

You can see all the sloppy original construction short cuts LR took when you remove all that stuff. Some of the interior roof ribs have good seam adhesive application, some were very poor.

The floors have multiple open holes from original assembly that were not sealed and allow corrosion to start. Also wires run between the padding and the floor disappointed me severely. Those wire bundles and the placement of the fuses and things like a CD player under the pax seat in a vehicle that they claim is capable of water crossings is just plain poor design concept and assembly execution. No wonder there are so many corroded out floor pans and shorted out CD players and intermittent electircal issues. They even have splices down there in that mess.

 

Having been an Aviation Electrician in the early 70's I think the wiring on these over priced dressed up farm vehicles is simply poor, **** poor. They could have taken much more care with the design and manufacture of these considering the original prices.

They built one basic harness that included all the possible connectors and splices and such for any possible combination of equipmet that could come in one. like the wiring for rear ACis all there, just wrapped up and maybe a piece of foam over the unused connectors and then stuffed out of the way. That makes it simple on the assembly line to have it and not need it rather than manage several different configurations.

I just wish they had put more care into building a higher quality set of subharnesses with better routing than what they did. Putting some of the things in the dumbest places possible, like the fuses on the driver's seat rail. And the CD changer under the seat.

 

Trust me Danny, they ALL do it, it keeps costs down and speeds up assembly.

 

Spike, I totally realize that having been a Manufacturing Engineer as well. It is a constant battle between IE's that want cost cut to the max and trying to build a quality vehicle.

Of course, no auto maker wants you to have a high quality trouble free car, they created planned obsolesence and change models rapidly and do not want them to last a long time for the consumer. I was just ranting I guess. But there is no reason to stay with the factory harnesses when you do have any problems with it either.

But having the headliner out does not automatically make it "a lot hotter in the summer" A lot depends on color and ambient temp as well. After rmoval, you can always improve what was there after you fix any issues that are hidden by the sagging headliner.

It is all a matter of personal choice and disposable cash as well.

I think a British Union Jack would look nice. Look at how some of the old luzury cars were done up inside. Also think back to the days of when trucks and vans had no headliner or a little piece of colored cardboard up there.

 

I took my headliner fabric out and just rhino lined and painted the actually fiberglass part...no more sagging for me