Wastelands of Suburbia

A place where the cast-off ephemera of the last four generations comes to rest, and is discussed fondly....Like junk, or the injection-molded minutiae of history? Welcome home...Junkyards, yard sales, roadside oddities, thrift stores and more-your memories are deep inside the box, so keep shaking.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Rolling Funeral Parlor.



Part Munstermobile, Part 70's flocked wallpaper, Part Steampunk Scifi fantasy-meet the new interior roofline of my Buick, Marge. Sold to me by my dad who inherited it from my late grandmother's estate, her namesake was possessed of the typical sagging cloth headliner common in 80s General Motors vehicles. You generally see these cars easily going down the road-often secured with tacks, staples, screws, etc.(all of which are poor fixes by comparison), they generally flap violently in the breeze created by a rolled down driver's window (the air conditioning usually having given up the ghost the same year). The embarrassed driver slouches down, partially to hide his identity, partially to prevent getting softly bonked in the melon by flapping cloth.

After a few weeks of such silliness, I decided to fix it. Now mind you, in this post-Christmas financial climate, I'm not exactly rolling in the Benjamins. Couple that with the relatively ridiculous price of headliner material and the task was a bit daunting at this time of year. However, my infinite abilities and resourcefulness won out-I managed to find a nice, cheap piece of embossed velour in the form of a curtain panel. From there it was just loosening the surrounding trim, prepping the headliner panel and carefully gluing down the fabric. A few hours to dry, and the whole unit is trimmed of excess fabric and reinstalled. I would say total work time was probably less than an hour total. If you do this, make sure u mark all your screw holes that will soon be covered in fabric-I had a bit of trouble trying to line up the holes that my visors screwed into. Also get the headliner fabric as free of old glue and foam as possible-the fabric will be less likely to separate in the future.

Something almost anyone can do, and very satisfying results in my opinion.