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MG MGA - Coupe Headliner

Dose anyone know the source Moss Motors uses for their headliners? I need to replace the trim peices over the doors as they have bent across one of the screw holes while in cold storage. Moss will not sell the trim seperatly and I'd hate to have to buy the entire headliner kit just for the trim.

Thanks,
Ken
Ken Caya

Did you ask your Moss salesperson to special-order the parts? We've done that in the past and they often will--usually takes 4-6 weeks.

--Carl
Carl Heideman

If the vynil is undamaged a good trim shop should be able to peel it and make a new base, then reglue the vynil.That way you will have matching color.Vynil is like paint,it comes in batches that have color inconsistencys.
wc wolcott

Ken,
When I did my coupe I purchased a Moss headliner. After I installed it and the windshields I just couldn't live with the terrible fit so I took everything out and sent the headliner kit back. Anyway for some reason I still have an extra set of door trim pieces and windshield trim which you are welcome to. Is your material an off white vinyl? I ask because I am wondering if they have changed vendors and the stuff I have may not match your stuff. I bought my Moss headliner in the year 2000. Let me know and have a good day!

John
John Progess

Thanks Carl, WC and John for your response. I called MOSS again as Carl suggested and talked to a helpful salesperson (Jennefer) she did some research and got back to me the next day. Her answer was that the cost to cut out the material for only the trim pieces from a full sheet would be very close to buying the full kit. she explained my situation to her manager and they offered me a very nice break on the price.

However, I'm concerned about the color fade, so the best would be to replace the headliner,NOOOOOO WAAAAY, first I had to modify it to fit struggled with it for two days and got it where it is presentable at a show, but not as good as it should be. Unless MOSS could asure me that they have improved the fit I will not be changing it until it falls off. So even with the nice discount I think I will combine WC's suggestion with John's offer. John I will E-mail you to work out the details. I Hope to buy John's left over trim pieces, see how far off the color is and use my vynl if the color matches better.


Thanks Again,
Ken
Ken Caya

Ken & Co.

I wandered in here to see what information I could get about the fit problems with the Moss kit. Then find the person, I'm trying to get information for. That's why I like MGs, and the people who own them.

Anyways. I just spent the last hour spelunking through the archives and am still very confused. One issue installers seem to have is the way the Moss kit adds a seperate cloth sleeve, rather than sleeving the material where it pleats, which some state as being original. Looking at the material, I can see how this could cause the pleat to not lay correctly. Is this the issue, or is there still a problem with the location of the tubes?
Any information would be helpful and I will work on sorting out the issues with the Moss kit.

Ken: I'm not sure if Jennifer explained that we can supply the un-covered trim panels readily, but getting them trimmed means shutting down other production to do a one off.

Moss does make the headliner kit in-house here in California, so if there is a identified problem we should be able to fix it.
KJ Dodd

Ken,
When I got my first headliner from Moss the cloth sleeves were not made correctly and you could not install the bows at all. The second kit the sleeves were fine. The problem was I was unable to get the headliner to fit properly. After installing the windshields I just couldn't live with all the puckers. I removed the windshields and headliner and sent the kit back. I think the headliner was the most difficult part of the entire car.

John
John Progess

I have the headliner fitting to look forward to on my '58 coupe, or NOT look forward to, if John's last comment is true!

Peter.
P. Tilbury

KJ Dodd, welcome to our forum, its a great place with great people.

After I talked with Jennifer I went into the archives, here are a couple of threads that help explain the issue. "Coupe/Attaching Headliner" and " Coupe Headliner Needed"

I will e-mail you a few pictures forwarded to me from John Progess, Utah, USA, John I hope you don't mind, that show puckering.

My problem was that it didn't have the tube to put the bows through and the fit between the doors and the rear window poor.

Hope all this is helpful, I for one and I'm sure many more of us appreciate all you can do to help improve our hobby.

I will send you manufacturing information off line.

Regards,
Ken Caya

Ken Caya

Ken:

Thanks, I'll look forward to the pictures. The headliner kit stays on my desk till I can figure this out.

I'm actually browsing this forum a lot, as I currently have 3 MGAs that need restoration. Sorry, no coupes.

Kelvin.
KJ Dodd

For those of you not so inclined to attempt it yourself, I would like to say that although I did everything else myself,I had the headliner done by a friends trim shop,drum tight,correct and absolutely stunning. No thanks, to the teeth grinding it would have caused me.
I figure, I dont grind my own paint,pour my own glass,mould my own tires, and I dont do headliners.


except when I,m in Vegas
wc wolcott

To follow up on WC's comments, we normally install tops and upholstery kits at our shop. However, with coupe headliners, we use our local upholstery shop--they do them very fast (1.5 hours or so) and they look perfect. They use their steamers etc and the headliners look great.

Here are some pictures of a recent install:
http://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/ccoupe03.html

I think the Moss kit is very good but requires an experienced installer.

FYI,
Carl
Carl Heideman

I finally decided to purchase a headliner kit from SF and it turned out fantistic. It is still a chore but the final product was beautiful. This all hapened in 2002 so maybe the problem with the kit from Moss is solved now. Good luck and have a good day!

John
John Progess

Mr Dodd
This spring will see me looking to purchase a headliner for my Coupe. Is it an important part of the installation process to use a steamer? We see many of the cloth type headliners being ...steamed... so they shrink tight, but are the liners in MGA's not a vinyl material. In reference to the colour...in your opinion ...is it off white ,true white or beige?

Many of my parts on my Coupe are Moss repro and for this I thank you,
Gordon
Gordon Harrison

Gordon:

The color of the material currently used in the Moss kit is somewhere between off white and beige depending on the light source. The images posted by Carl show it brighter than it looks in my office under flourescents. It does have a diamond pattern.

I'm not an expert on headliner installation, but I know that heat can be used on vinyl seat and panel upholstery to tighten it up and remove wrinkles. I think the steamers are used just to warm the material and let ease any wrinkles out.

Kelvin.
KJ Dodd

This thread was discussed between 31/01/2007 and 10/02/2007

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.