1957 Fairlane 500 Interior Headliner

[chapingo17]

Headliner is installed no problem, the only thing is that now I have bad wiring going to the dome light (broken wiring insulation) and need to replace wires. I had the headliner installed by a professional not sure how to remove part of headliner and replacing wiring. Does any one has any ideas? 

[abe_lugo]

If you have a hole in the headliner  for the wiring/dome light already and you can see the old wire.  You can tie the new to the old wire and basically fish out the old one and bring in the new one.  I would pull in two wires if possible at the same time to have a back up. 

I have custom wiring on mine that use two wires.  But I think Ford used 1 and the wiring  grounds on the body or the dome light housing to the body. 

You may need to undo the a pillar cover and if it not moving you might have to pull some of the headliner above the door. 

If you have no wiring to fish out. You may be stuck having to pull just the section above the drivers door.  It's  basically point fingers clamping down on to the headliner to make it taught.  So depending if it glued.  You would have to work it out carefully.  But it easy to reinstall if it just one section like that.

[chapingo17]

Thanks for the feedback. I will try to use the old wires and fish the new ones thru, there's a 90 degree bend that I'm worry about mine has a two wire for the dome light. So the clips holding the headliner by the door once remove they should snap back in place? Not sure what the set-up clip looks like.

[RICH MUISE]

Hey, long-time-no-talk! Good to see you posting. Trying to remember, was your name Eric?
It's possible whoever did the headliner used their own method, so hard to know for sure, but the OEM system's pieces I do believe are held in place with screws. Many of us have added wood or plastic strips that the headliner is glued or stapled to under the trim. Whichever way it's attached, do slow, and be careful not to stretch the material and you'll be ok.

[chapingo17]

Yes, is Eric I'm back. Any trips to New Mexico? I'm not exactly sure how they installed my headliner or how the clips are attached, I had an upholstery guy installed. I'm just not sure how to pull the headliner and put it back in place neatly.

[RICH MUISE]

I mispoke earlier, Eric....there is no trim piece above the door.......just the windlace. But, as I mentioned, upholstery guys have their own way of doing the attachment in most cases, so how it was done could only be answered by who did it. Like almost everything else I've done, I did mine uniquely by using long strips of wood with an aluminum strip attached for the material to tuck under. Is your upholstery guy still around?
New Mexico trips were great this year. Shows in Red River, Albuquerque, Ruidoso, plus lots of just road trips. I just turned my '57's odometer over at 54,000!

[chapingo17]

Nice to hear you are driving around. My upholstery guy is still around I will stop by his shop and ask.

[Ford Blue blood]

The wire runs down the drivers A pillar.  Removing the cover on the A pillar will yield no advantage.  Stock they were lightly taped to the roof.  All three cars I have seen the wire was "hanging loose", the head liner bows held it up.  If you can get the dome light end solder a new wire to the old one.  Use solder because pulling from the bottom may require a bit of force and you want as small a connection as possible to prevent it from hanging up.  As you work the wire it may require a sawing type action the get it fed all the way through.  This will probably require two people as the wire on the dome light end needs to be worked up against the head liner away from the A pillar to prevent tearing it.  The second person will need to be on the floor to pull from the kick panel area.
Good luck.

[RICH MUISE]

This should be a reminder to everyone to get old wires replaced before headliners, carpets, etc.

[Ford Blue blood]

You are 100% on that Rich.  I also run an extra wire to places that will become inaccessible after assembly is completed.  Mind you, in the three ground up builds that I re-wired I have never had to use the "extra".  That includes the 36 that was put on the road in 1980!

[terry_208]

The wire for the dome light on my 57 was held off the headliner by clips that attached to the roof braces/supports.  I ran two wires to the dome light area.  I also ran an extra two wires through the A-pillar.   

[chapingo17]

Definitely agree with everyone, RUN NEW WIRES WHEN INSTALLING A NEW HEADLINER. My car had two wires running to the dome light, one 12vcd constant and another controlling light by the door switches it looks stock, is this stock for the car?. Not sure if I was having a short to ground, but I end up installing fuses for protection.

[hiball3985]

Two wires is correct. One should be black with a green stripe and one should be green with a yellow stripe.
The constant 12V is the green with yellow stripe and it is already fused. It's the only fuse on the headlight switch.

[chapingo17]

Sounds good.