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Post by Thom Fitzpatrick on Nov 20, 2012 19:04:51 GMT -8
So I bought a headliner from Jurgen, and my '63 came with one made by "Acme Auto Headlining Company" The Acme headliner has real holes in it, vs black dots on Jurgen's What do you guys think? There's some significant differences, but I don't know enough to tell what's what. Acme is on the left, Jurgen is on the right. I've also shown the extra vinyl bits for the pillars; Acme was very generous with theirs!
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Post by Greg Skinner on Nov 20, 2012 23:23:18 GMT -8
Headliner material has a number of characteristics such as vinyl grain, color, presence and arrangement of a dot pattern, and whether the dot pattern is printed on or perforated. I'm no expert, but I have seen many original Type 14 and Type 34 interiors and there is a surprising amount of consistency in interior details and features between the two models for a given model year. What follows are details of authenticity rather than functionality, and specifically for the Type 34.
VINYL GRAIN - the surface texture of the vinyl is one called 'hair cell' used through the '64 model year, at least. I don't know if they continued its use thereafter, or how the texture of the replacement vinyl was referred to subsequent to this.
COLOR - Silver Beige headliners for all exterior car colors through the '64 model year--with the exception of Polar/Pacific/Sea Blue cars, which used a headliner made from ice blue material. For the '65 model year, all headliners went to a Cloud White material, regardless of exterior car color. The color of the vinyl used on the 'A' and 'C' pillars followed the color of the main headliner. The material to the left in the picture is a close approximation to Cloud White. The material to the right is a close approximation to Silver Beige.
DOT PATTERN - There are two dot patterns, but I am not sure when the pattern changed. The dot pattern to the left is the early pattern that would definitely have been used during the first year of production and the recent '62 on the Samba had this pattern on its original headliner. I do not know if the pattern changed to the one on the right immediately before, during or after the '63 model year. I can definitely say that Rich Mason's very early '64 had the dot pattern on the right, as did my two later '64 cars, the mid-'65 sunroof clip I have, my wife's '65 Type 14 and my former '66 Type 34. The 'A' and 'C' pillars did not have headlining material with any dot patterns, to my knowledge--at least for the '64 - '66 cars I've seen or owned.
DOTS, PRINTED OR PERFORATED - The main body of the headliner always had perforated dots, regardless of pattern. The only exception I have seen to this is on the sunroof cars, where the small piece of headlining material stretched around the sliding steel roof interior frame used headlining material with printed dots. The rest of the main headliner in a sunroof car would have perforated dots. The 'A' and 'C' pillar material was plain, without dots, perforated or printed.
DOT ORIENTATION - This refers to the way the headliner would be cut from the raw headliner material. Using the lower picture of the two headliner material types for reference, the material shown to the left in the picture--from top to bottom--would be the front edge to rear edge of the headliner. If the material to the right in the picture were oriented as shown, with the top cut as the front, this orientation would be correct for a sunroof headliner. To orient it correctly for a regular coupe, the fabric would need to shift 90 degrees in either direction. I presume this was done to allow the material to stretch correctly and maintain its shape when installed.
I'm interested in what others have seen on original an unmolested cars.
Thom--both headliners would work, but from an authenticity perspective, neither is quite right.
-Greg
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Post by Thom Fitzpatrick on Nov 26, 2012 6:14:50 GMT -8
So which one should I use?
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Post by Greg Skinner on Nov 26, 2012 11:50:43 GMT -8
If I were starting from scratch, I'd contact John Kanters (racoguy) and find out what was originally in his early '63. Then I'd base a headliner off of that.
If I were to guess, It would be the material on the left, perforated, in a silver beige.
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Olen Sturgeon
Neubie
I wish to join, and become an active member of the T-34 Forum Group
Posts: 8
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Post by Olen Sturgeon on Jul 30, 2019 7:28:41 GMT -8
Good Morning, So I am interested in purchasing a Headliner, and would like to have contact information of the Acme Headliner Company. Could someone please provide me with this info? Thanks, Olen Sturgeon
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