Headliner Track for Manship 34 Pilot

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Jeffg47

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2016
Messages
17
Location
USA
Hi.. I recently replaced the headliner on a friends Mainship 30 Pilot and struggled with the center track and how difficult it was to work with. I’ll be replacing my headliner on my 34 Pilot and thought new track might be easier to work with. Can anyone provide a resource to purchase new track . ?
Thanks,
Jeff
Jubilant
Mainship Pilot 34
Cape Cod
 
Jeff
Here is a link
https://acousticalwallfabric.com/tw...r-foot-1-50-price-per-five-foot-segment-7-50/

Im not sure if new track would be better / worse. Maybe ask the Mfg.
I would try "stretching" or exercising some old to see if it eases installation.
Having good tools to do it should also help but I have no first hand experience.

Steve Cyr's website has some first hand info / tips and is a great MS / Yanmar resource
Stella Blue Home
Headliner Reinstallation

See also


The track mfg has a few tools but they seem pretty $$$ and wonder if a good DIY copy wouldn't work nearly as wellhttps://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s11/replacing-headiner-mainship-400-a-56424.html

Good luck and do post results and any pics available as others have an interest in this periodically
 
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Headliner track

 

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I'm also planning to replace the headliner in my Mainship Pilot 30. I recently removed the old one and am taking care of a few housekeeping items before trying to put up the new headliner.

I'll be watching this thread with interest. Let us know if you learn of any tips to make the job easier. I suppose that the issue with the center tracks is that you had to force 4 layers of material up into the grooves? Seems pretty daunting.

In a perfect world, the headliner material would be wide enough to span across the cabin -- 10' - 12' wide like house carpet -- so that we could run a continuous piece across those center tracks so we'd only have to cram 2 layers of material up there.

Keep us updated. Or, if I get to mine first I'll share my project. Although the final step for me may be writing a check to the local marine upholstery guy!
 
Jim
I think the issues with single span is twofold
Large spans more likely to sag more
Std width of many fabrics / vinyl in the 54" +/- range
 
There is another thread with this subject, do a search for "headliner" and you'll find it. Here is my experience: Another member did this job and made it sound do-able for me but in reality, I had to hire the job out. Partly my fault, I'll get to that in a bit. I bought the material and while it was on the way, with hope and optimism, I pulled down the old headliner in my MS400. I took the old stuff home and, using the old pieces as a pattern, I cut out the shapes for the new headliner.

I headed for the boat with my rounded off putty knives, soapy water, step ladder, and my new material. My enthusiasm soon became "why did I do this" when I could not push the material into the center channels no matter what I did. I managed to get it into the side (perimeter) channels but I just kept messing up the edge in the center and basically making it even harder to stuff up into the channel.

So, I hired a guy who had done Whisper Wall before and had the official tools. The first thing he said is that I shouldn't have cut out the pieces, he would rather work with the full 54" wide piece because that makes it easier to push it up into the center slot. Also, he had the official tool for Whisper Wall which put my putty knives to shame. It looked like the blade of a scythe with a smooth radius, not just a square bladed putty knife with rounded edges.

He ended up taking about 6 hours to do the job, but he told me it would have been half that if I hadn't cut the pieces out. The right tool also made a difference.

Another thing I noticed was it is important to start in the middle and work toward the ends, not go from one end to the other, which I what I tried. When you do that the material stretches too much. Better to push in midway between fore and aft to start and work toward the ends.

I hope you have better luck than I did.https://www.fabricmate.com/shop/pro...gonomic-fabric-finishing-rocker-tool-new-3114

This is the tool, I recommend getting it.
 
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I have posted links to both of the headliner threads in the MS Parts Sticky.
Scroll down a couple posts
 
Hi .you mentioned that the installer suggested using the 54” piece rather than individual pieces. Can you elaborate on that? Is he suggesting that you put a large piece in the “ joining” track thus elimination 2 layers of extra fabric? When I did it I could only work 6” at a time without requiring a break . It was incredibly difficult to stuff all that material in the track without damaging it.
 
As best as I can figure, he would have taken the full 54" wide piece and cut it to length plus about 6". Then he would have started on the outside track next to the window about midway fore and aft, and stuffed the fabric up into that track. Then moving either fore or aft he would stuff it up until the whole length would be in the slot.

Then he would use the special tool about midway again and stuff the material into the next track over, which was about 24" inches from the outside track. Now the second track has a double thickness but it's folded up inside the track.

At this point I believe he would have sliced the material fore to aft to separate a piece about 25 inches wide to use for the next section. I don't think he was going to leave the material in the full 54" width with it material doubled in the 2nd track.

When I pulled my original headliner down, it came down in essentially 24" wide pieces, not 54"
 

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