Bungs, Foam and Glue - Oh My!
Thinking of taking down the headliner, eh? I did that in the head of my E35-3 – the dorade box and vent guard on deck was leaking like a sieve, and the foam inside the liner was badly molded and just plain nasty. At the time (winter 2000-01), I thought I would be putting in a smart teak headliner as a replacement…I was wrong.
Before you do the liner you have to determine what needs to be re-bedded and plan on doing it order: access, then re-bed, then demolition, then restoration. It’s pointless to spend the time restoring something if you’ve not fixed the issue that caused the problem in the first place. There are lots of books on bedding hardware – try
Don Casey's 'Hull and Deck Repair' – it’s a nice, high overview. West Systems also puts out a nice primer.
Basically, you have to ensure that the hardware is pulled off, cleaned and then the access point is sealed (i.e. – so water cannot breach the deck core – you have to back fill/pack it with epoxy – then mount the hardware through the epoxy after it cures. What you choose to bed it with is up to you – there are a few competing brands – but I chose to use good, old-fashioned Dolfinite – it’s nasty to work with – but once it on, it’s on.
To gain access to the liner itself, you have to remove the teak molding that borders it, as well as the staples beneath that secure it to the coach house roof (CHR). You do this by either (in the simple case) unscrewing it – or (in the less-than-simple case) remove the bungs that hide the screw heads and then remove the screws that way.
In the salon, you’ll also have to contend with the batons (the right term to use?) that provide support from above the liner – and have hard connections to the CHR – screws – and, if that’s not enough for you – Ericson also used glue to secure the foam to the CHR. Once you get the old vinyl, batons and staples out of the way, then you’ll get to spend time with a wire brush and thousands of little bits of moldy foam raining down on you ...
Once it’s down, and everyone is fussing at you because it looks so horrible, then you can choose what to replace it with. Take some advice – I’ve discovered that with only a few exceptions, Ericson tended to do things pretty well – so in the case of the headliner, the way they put it up provided the headroom you’ve come to enjoy, etc.
If you choose a new path (like the teak I was considering) think carefully about what it will do to the original design (headroom) as well as cable runs, hardware access, etc. Also, while you’re in there, It's also a good opportunity to look at structural aspects of the boat (tabbing, etc) to ensure that things are as they should be and there’s no damage to the CHR. When looking at colors, etc – I suggest choosing a conservative path – you’ll be glad you did when you sell the boat.
What happened in my case? Well, I ended up putting vinyl (nice, expensive, ‘like leather’ vinyl) back up – because of the slope of the deck and the headroom needed in the head (when one is in the shower, etc – I’m, 6’ 1”, so…).
Basically, I discovered that the headliner business (like furniture re-upholstering) is something of an art – and there are lots of tricks and little things that are important during installation. If I were in your shoes (assuming you’ve never done it before) I would hire someone good as a consultant to assist you (after demolition) so it looks great afterward. In my case, it turned out nice – but there was this one tiny fold I could not get rid of that just drove me crazy, and well – you know….
Good Luck!
//sse