Saggy Headliner
04-01-2008, 04:41 PM
#2
Safety Car
Here's what I did a few months ago to my saggy headliner:
With a box-cutter or similar, cut the fabric at the edges. Basically, do your best to remove all the headliner without gouging into the surrounding plastic too badly.
Then, go to Jo-Ann Fabrics or anyplace like that, and get the most similar material you can find. Basically, black (or whatever color yours is) and a bit stretchy.
Clean up the disintegrated foam and adhesive from the now-bare top, and get it nice and smooth so the new headliner will stick to it. The easiest way to work on this is to put the top upside-down on a table (of course use a towel or something to prevent scratching the paint).
Get a can of 3M Spray Adhesive, and, after cutting a rectangle a little larger than your top, coat both the top and the fabric with adhesive. Then stick them together, push the fabric as far down into the corners as you can, and let it dry. Once dry, go back with a knife and cut the fabric about 1/4" - 1/2" larger than the covered area. Once you've done this all around, use a credit card, screwdriver, whatever, to jam the fabric down into the edge where it should stay put.
Long I know, but that's pretty much all I remember about doing mine. Not too bad of a job, and about $10 total is much better than what it would cost for a shop to do it.
With a box-cutter or similar, cut the fabric at the edges. Basically, do your best to remove all the headliner without gouging into the surrounding plastic too badly.
Then, go to Jo-Ann Fabrics or anyplace like that, and get the most similar material you can find. Basically, black (or whatever color yours is) and a bit stretchy.
Clean up the disintegrated foam and adhesive from the now-bare top, and get it nice and smooth so the new headliner will stick to it. The easiest way to work on this is to put the top upside-down on a table (of course use a towel or something to prevent scratching the paint).
Get a can of 3M Spray Adhesive, and, after cutting a rectangle a little larger than your top, coat both the top and the fabric with adhesive. Then stick them together, push the fabric as far down into the corners as you can, and let it dry. Once dry, go back with a knife and cut the fabric about 1/4" - 1/2" larger than the covered area. Once you've done this all around, use a credit card, screwdriver, whatever, to jam the fabric down into the edge where it should stay put.
Long I know, but that's pretty much all I remember about doing mine. Not too bad of a job, and about $10 total is much better than what it would cost for a shop to do it.
04-01-2008, 04:53 PM
#4
Safety Car
Another thing I forgot; if your headliner is still pretty stretchy, you don't have to replace it; you can just reglue it. Just cut 3 of the 4 sides, lay it over the edge, and do the cleaning and spray the adhesive, then just relay it over the top and tuck it down into the edges.
04-01-2008, 04:59 PM
#5
Team Owner
Member Since: Oct 2004
Location: Bergen County, NJ Democrats, doing for the country what they did for Michigan
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Not too expensive to just get the right material.....$13.50 A SqYd. I can't see you needing more than one SqYd....
http://www.automotiveinteriors.com/h...k_material.htm
http://www.automotiveinteriors.com/h...k_material.htm
04-02-2008, 10:32 AM
#6
3rd Gear
Member Since: Mar 2008
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The headliner is attached with velcro. If headliner material is in good condition you can reglue. What I did was remove the headliner from car, carefully peel back the material. When off use a nylon brush to remove remnants of foam backing from material and headliner board. When regluing I used 3m spray on both material and board, let sit for a minute to become 'tacky' the put on. This was for an '84, other year may be different.
