My issue with headliner

[70cst10_05]

Quick story on the headliner in my Suburban and why I will be taking it out once it gets warm out.

Little backstory - I bought this suburban back in October of 2021 and put new tires on it, bought a new set of 2" springs for it because the rears were broken. Got the rears replaced, still need to do the front. Put on a new brake booster and master cylinder, new carb. Finally got it to where I feel comfortable driving it around a little bit so that brings us to last week....

I had Friday off so I decided to finally get antique tags on my burb and take the 30 mile treck into town for the inspection and to go to the courthouse. It was roughly 15 degrees outside and to my knowledge the heater worked because it had warmed up while idling. I top it off with gas and off we go. Oh, I forgot to mention the belt squeal that happens around 2000rpm (I think it may be water pump bearings). I stop to check the belts are still on a few times down the road and everything is good, trip is going fine. Heater starts blowing cold, so that makes it a little less enjoyable. I decide to take back roads in case I break down and have to be helped, I'm not stuck on the highway. I get about 5-6 miles from town and turn on the wrong road, it has frozen snow and ice on it and I hit first patch of it and it was frozen hard. I'm not sure how fast I was going but I thumped it pretty good and immediately slowed down. When I hit that chunky, frozen snow, I saw the headliner drop a nice layer of 53 year-old headliner dust down throughout the rig and on me. Here is where the fun starts....

I have some sort of allergic reaction to whatever was coming out of there (probably mouse droppings). My nasal passages clog so bad that I can't breathe out my nose, no big deal as I've dealt with seasonal allergies forever so I figure it'll go away after a while. I get to the local sheriffs office to do the VIN inspection and it doesn't go away (still fine), but I notice my eyes are starting to itch a little bit. Complete the VIN inspection and get a "well that's pretty cool" from the gal doing it, walk to the courthouse to get my tag. While I'm waiting my nose starts running and when she is doing the paperwork I ask for the restroom to wash my face as my left eye is really starting to bother me. She points me in the direction and says "yea, you're eyes are realllly red". Left eye is worse and starting to get puffy, so I rinse my face really well and it seems to help and I can start to breathe a little better. Keeping a wet paper towel on my eye made it feel better for sure.

Get tag and leave and the sense of panic has left me. I was starting to get pretty nervous, which rarely happens to me. Make a quick stop at the liquor store and am greeted with another "your vehicle is cool" and show the lady what it did to my eye. Ironically, she used to work at the local eye doctor and recommend I go there so I don't end up the in the ER. So I did.

Dr sees me and says just high level of irriation and probably allergic reaction and prescribes me some steroids. I also got some OTC allergy medicine and eye drops and took those.

By the time I got back home I was feeling much better and the eye had pretty much cleared up, but as I got closer to home I could kind of feel my nose starting to plug again and eyes getting itchy.

I think once it warms up a little, I'm going to take out the seats, cut out the headliner and power wash everything in there. It was a fun trip and it performed great. I still need to dial in the carb a bit more. Bought it off the internet (nationalcarbs.com maybe?) and tossed it on, wired up the electric choke and it's been fine. For now, I'll just cruise around town a little, but that was definitely not a fun time.

TLDR: Hit a bump, headliner dusted me and caused a massive allergic reaction and ended up at the eye DR to get checked. I am now fine.

[70cst10_05]

Pictures of burb

[HO455]

I'm guessing at this point you're not exactly feeling lucky your Burban still has a headliner.

As I was reading the lead up I was expecting to hear that it dropped down on top of you while driving.

Plus a flip for a nice Burban!

[70cst10_05]

Thanks for the flip! It's definitely a work in progress. Lots and lots of rust, will be working on it here and there. Hoping not to do a full tear down and lose it for years.