The International Cessna 170 Association

Hello fellow Cessna geeks—

The headliner in my 170b needs replacing. It's in good shape, but someone painted it at some point (NO, god, why? ). Now every time it's touched, white particles of paint fall off everywhere making it very messy in the plane, and looks like everyone has terrible dandruff.

Suggestions or pricing on anyone who has done their headliner before?

Wash it with “Head and Shoulders” shampoo...?? (Sorry....I’m out of control...)

A wool headliner makes the prettiest headliner, in my opinion. If properly tailored, it can be installed and misted with water, dried with a blow-drier and then it will shrink and become taut. This is the technique used by several interior shops I’ve dealt with. AirTex sells wool headliners, but you might also use your present one as a pattern at a local upholstery-shop who might do this for you.

Four years ago during the rebuild, a professional interior shop attempted a wool headliner from scratch for me, and almost succeeded. To their credit, I didn’t have an old one for them to copy, and they couldn’t quite get the wrinkles out around one of the rear windows. At the time, ACS was selling Airtex headliners for significantly less than Airtex was selling them for, but couldn’t deliver, so I bought direct and had it shipped to the shop for them to install. I’m very happy with the results.

I agree with George and Miles. The wool headliner is the perfect replacement. Mine has been in since January of 1990 and still looks good. There, of course, has been quite a price increase. I paid AirTex $165 in 1990. Last time I checked they were $465

170C wrote:I agree with George and Miles. The wool headliner is the perfect replacement. Mine has been in since January of 1990 and still looks good. There, of course, has been quite a price increase. I paid AirTex $165 in 1990. Last time I checked they were $465

The Airtex headliner is not that hard to put in. I was intimidated slightly to start, but it was fairly easy and turned out great. I remember starting from the back and moving forward.

Joe