Fiber Optic Headliner Walkthrough

[insane09]

What if you look up and see starry lights, but instead of being in Westhavelland International Dark Sky Reserve Germany or in a Rolls Royce Wraith, its your own car? A few months ago I started this project with the intention of taking my time and learning as I go. I wanted to have enough stars and various sizes to fully give the effect of brighter and dimmer ones, along with a high concentration of stars. My headliner started to sag, so I thought that this would be the best time to attempt this. I pulled the headliner, along with every other panel. I reupholstered everything in black suede. Upon completion I flipped the headliner with the backside facing up; and started plotting. I noticed that having stars in certain areas would be pointless, so I planned to have the stars start strategically, starting above the heads of the rear
passengers. Then proceeding forward up to the rear of the Sunroof opening. I also installed Rear Headliner mounted Mirrors and Dome Light from an F02. So I took my marker and started marking dots and X’s





To produce the effect I mentioned earlier, I purchased 2 different diameter Fiber Optic Strands. I got a 150 strand, 6.5 foot length of .75mm, and also a 1000ft roll of .25mm. Then I strategically placed 150 dots to represent the .75mm strands. After some mathematical equations, I figured out I would have enough .25mm strands to create about 210 stars. So I scattered those as well as clustering them in a few spots.









Once I fully mapped everything out, I started to plan out how I was going to poke the holes. I purchased a few needles from Hobby Lobby and found that it was really difficult to poke 360 holes. So I grabbed a tiny eyeglass screwdriver and filed it down to a sharp point; making this much easier. I started poking the holes at one corner, fed the strand through the hole about 6-8 inches to give myself wiggle room and working my way throughout the headliner. After I would finish doing a section, I would stop poking holes so I could get the glue and put a bit into the hole. Once the glue dried I used aluminum tape and taped down the strands. Then continued until the entire headliner was complete.































What fun is a star lit ceiling if you canÂ’t make the stars twinkle? If you want to be a bit more creative, heres a little something extra to add. The engine I purchased was a Chinly Fiber Optic Engine(that has the twinkle feature). The engine is powered by a 120v household plug. To power it I purchased a power inverter and hardwired the inverter to the constant power from the Porn Lights. The engine also has a remote control that could be powered on and off with.






I have removed my rear deck long before this project so that is where I saw would be the best location for the Engine and inverter. I figured 2.5-3 feet from the Engine to the closest Fiber Optic light. Once fully wired and ready, I went back to the headliner flipped it over and took a pair of scissors to cut the Fiber Optic Strands. Which left about 3-6 inches poking out.




I took the headliner and carefully reinstalled it. Routed the fibers down the driver side C-Pillar to the Engine. Once it hooked up, it was finally done and ready to turn it on for the first time. Once every strand lit up and worked perfectly I took a nail clipper and cut the fiber up close to the headliner. Now the process is finally done.










Thanks All, I hope you enjoy

[PiotrC70]

Is there supposed to be only 1 attached pic or are we missing something here?

[racer2086]

Need. More. Pics. Sounds cool

[insane09]

Sorry guys I am having trouble with uploading the pics there should be a lot of pics I will be using my laptop and uploading them in the morning

[shanecarmaster1]

I can't wait to see this thing - I've been desperately looking for someone to do it for not an arm and a leg.

[blackknight530i]

Photobucket doesn't work on forums anymore, use another provider like flickr or smugmug.

[Mayorchuck]

Approved pics in first post.

OP, don't edit (add) anything to the first post going forward. It sends the whole thread to moderated status due to your low post count. If you include photos in a follow up post, it only blocks that post and keep the whole thread from disappearing. I usually check these twice a day but I'm preparing to move so don't catch them as often as usual.

Great work by the way.

[haynes740]

OP you did a beautiful job on this. All of the photos look great. We have many talented people on this forum and you are climbing the list quickly. Great job, now my wife want our car done now. LoL


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[insane09]

OP you did a beautiful job on this. All of the photos look great. We have many talented people on this forum and you are climbing the list quickly. Great job, now my wife want our car done now. LoL


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

haha thanks man I greatly appreciate it, hopefully you do this soon I want to see your progress.

[BillConn]

Damn that looks like a f*ck ton of work. End results looks phenomenal. As I was working my way through your post, I was seeing all this hard work and attention to detail and was getting worried that end result was going to be less than stellar (pun intended).

[racer2086]

Wow that is great work and the final result looks great. Nice job

[ibumpers]

Now that is bad a** great job

[KingDavidsCourt]

Bump from the past....

OP Fiber cant bend 90 degrees... how did you get them to cooperate in between the roof and the headliner?