Anyone Installed a Headliner?

NorCal Boater

Well-Known Member
SILVER Sponsor
Jan 24, 2008
3,451
Covington, LA
Boat Info
Boatless
Engines
No boat....no engines
My Cobalt project boat has a cuddy cabin. I am reupholstering the cushions and resurfacing the hard surfaces as well as replacing the floor carpeting. The hull sides and the overhead/headliner is the original cut pile carpeting. Its clean and in good condition and the color is good, and it's not shag, but it is 30 years old in terms of style.

This boat always had the flat interior hull sides of the cockpit carpeted with the same that's on the floor of the cockpit. I could do the hull sides in the cuddy the same as the cockpit without to much effort but the overhead is pretty contoured.

Do I risk tearing it out and giving myself an overwhelming task or just leave it alone and decorate to de-emphasize it? Who's done a headliner and how hard was it? The big question is....would you do it again.

Thanks
Shawn
 
I have not replaced a glue in headliner. But my personal view is wherever you can replace carpet with a vinyl product the better for the boat. Generally it looks better too. I pulled all the wall to wall carpet out of the interior of my boat and replaced it with solid vinyl plank flooring in the main salon and vinyl Infinity flooring in the staterooms. Boat looks more modern, smells much fresher and is less humid inside, and doesn't care if it gets wet. If it were me, I'd pull the carpet off the headliner and glue on some vinyl. It's probably a good boat for the learning experience as well.

Would be nice to see a picture of your project area.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the response. If it stops raining enough today to get the cover off I'll try and get a couple of pics. I'm pretty handy but I didn't want to get into something over my head and make things worse. The overhead area has a lot of contours. I'll have to give it more thought. Thanks again
 
I've never done any work like this myself, but would say I think a vinyl or clock headliner would look better, more modern. There was an episode on Ship Shape TV awhile back where they replaced the headliner on one of their project boats. They put in tracks along the sides, then used a Sunbrella fabric layered with a battening fabric to give it some cushion. The headliner was installed by pinching it into the tracks similar to putting in a porch screen. It turned out nice. If I were doing a project like this I would look at this material / method before I went the glue in vinyl method.
 

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