The first panel I chose to install was located on the driver's door b-pillar, directly behind me, so that if I screwed up, at least I would never see it while driving;
Hairy moments of guessing how much heat to use, hairy moments of adhesive oozing through the perforations and making my palms stick:
The passenger side b-pillar has no window or windlace to hold it, it is just glued to the metal, so I used the contact cement here, you get exactly one chance to get it right:
Getting a little more confident here behind the sliding door:
Working through the missing vent window in the sliding door trying to get the clamps all where they need to be:
Extremely nerve-wracking wrinkles in the corners *after* the adhesive has been applied:
More contact cement for a high-wear location between the headliner and side panel:
Here is the left c-pillar, where you have to stretch the hell out of the vinyl in four directions simultaneously, heat gun, spray adhesive, brush adhesive, little clamps big clamps extension cord dangling 40 watt trouble light, it is multi-tasking mess:
Did a cleaning test. Old headliner under a swatch of new headliner, both hit with a Bic pen. I used McGuires Leather and Vinyl cleaner here. You can see very minor transfer of ink onto the cloth, and both headliners still look like hell, thus your five year-old's death sentence remains on the docket.
But wait! Goof Off, the stuff I have been using for weeks now to remove all the old adhesive, picks the ink right up:
. . . . . . and it melts the vinyl. Here you can see where the new headliner was protecting the old headliner when I dabbed the ink off. Sorry about the change in lighting, my prima donna camera decided that it had had enough of firing up the flash:
Thirteen years hard labor for the kid should do it. Tomorrow, I do those big rear panels and the window sills, and I will do the main headliner on Saturday.
Colin
