Have we had any threads on how to do headliners? I don't recall one...
Have we had any threads on how to do headliners? I don't recall one...
I hate it. I always mess it up and leave glue residue everywhere.
I cant give many pointers other than Joans Fabrics sells the foam backed material.
As Slippery mentioned, Joanns Fabrics sells headliner material. If you can't find the color you want there, WLS Headliners sells a bunch of different colors as well as the glue and glue remover.
Here's a how to on their site:
I did my own on my MKII GTI years ago.
I didn't like the off the shelf headliner material, so I bought fake suede material and thin foam backer. It made it twice as much work because I had to cut and glue the foam and the material in separate stages.
Being a 20 year old vehicle I had to repair the OEM foam shell with fiberglass too.
No it's not purple, it's grey.
I did the same with my old 318ti. I used the foam headliner material from Joanns, then after it was dried, I peeled off the fabric and glued up the "ultrasuede" material.
I did everything "wrong" if you read the internet and it both looked good and held up. Spray glue 77 (which they tell you not to use) and even rubber cement was used to get the corners tightly glued, and then the same with the fabric. After 5 years of use, all I had was some fading around the windows
Dap landau top adhesive.
If you google project living room eclb you should find a writeup i did years ago.
Edit for the link
I did my Cherokee in buffalo plaid felt a few years ago. With a helper I didn't think it was too bad, the felt was pretty forgiving to work with. We berkeleyed up keeping the pattern straight and had to go a little light on adhesive in some spots (buy WAY more than you think) where its not come off a bit, but overall I'm happy. It certainly draws a lot of comments!
How bad is the headliner you have? Stains or some colors can be changed. You can use the $5 bottles of acrylic craft paint from Walmart. Dilute in water and really rub it in good. Black covers most stains well.
I recovered mine but cracked the crap fiberglass whatever it is. The recover (which could have been just re dye) turned into glue and clamp a hundred spots, then spray glue X2 large cans 3m, then fight with the foam backed fabric total pita. The glue is letting go around some of the edges now too 
In reply to jere:
Sagging in the middle and loose all across the top of the windshield....
About a dozen years ago I propped up the sagging headliner in one of my cars with upholstery pins, AKA bedskirt pins, which are little plastic disks with a metal pin twisted into a corkscrew. They're still holding the headliner up and I've yet to get around to replacing it...
You can do it! First thing I noticed was that the failure was fabric and foam rather than the glue. Once the backing board was out (a struggle in itself) I had to lightly wire wheel to knock off crumbling foam. For material I have used the foam backed material with good results considering hot Texas will suck plastics and fabrics to dust. Have also used fleece thin blanket material...Batman logo in a Ranger, bed sheets with foam added (Ironman, polka-dots and multicolor stripes) and tried red mylar but it was a nightmare!
Just follow direction on glue and don't be stingy on coverage.
Bruce
I did it twice on the Nissan Sentra I owned.
It takes a lot of patience to get it right. I always had issues with it bubbling in corners around the map lights on hot days though.
That was probably a side effect of the JCWittney kit I used and a black car in the 100 degree heat. If I did it again I'd be looking for a different higher quality adhesive.
For the $200 or so it cost to get my Grand Caravan done, that is at least a day's effort I will leave to the pros.
First one I ever did was the Saturn, I believe the fabric was a heavy outdoor type fabric, not headliner specific. No foam added and used 3m 90 spray adhesive. There was an area where the wire brush did some damage removing the foam, added hot glue to even it out and that was that.
Came out pretty decent, I had a few wrinkles and one pocket where I couldn't get the fabric to lay onto the surface around the map light area due to how stiff the fabric was but the busy print hid my mistakes pretty well.
Second was my MX-6 Using non headliner specific fabric with no foam, more stretchable than the Saturn, 3m 90 adhesive and it came out a lot better. Still not perfect but good enough.
Both were well under $100 all in.
I have always had great success with the cheap microfiber fleece on pickem-ups. The issue is most full size trucks are wider than the 60" headliner material they sell, and longer too if its a crew cab. The fleece is 72" wide and that works great. Remember when getting material there is a curve to the headliner so if you measure straight across disappointment will be yours.
Zombie time!
The headliner on my Ridgeline is hanging down. I grabbed some 3m headliner adhesive, put my hand through the dome light opening and sprayed a bunch of it around . Waited 10 minutes for it to get tacky, and.... no luck.
The headliner is intact for now, is there any way that I can get it glued or otherwise fastened back up without going to an upholstry shop?
Timely bump since I really need to do this on a car I will likely be selling soon.
I need to redo the headliner in the Galaxie, but I can buy a new one given it has bows holding it up in place. Currently has the front section desewed away from the other panels.....
Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:I grabbed some 3m headliner adhesive, put my hand through the dome light opening and sprayed a bunch of it around . Waited 10 minutes for it to get tacky, and.... no luck.
What typically happens is the foam backing behind the fabric disintegrates into a crumbly mess. This stuff is like glue repellent (or certain politicians) - nothing sticks to it. I've never seen a re-glue in situ work.
The only reasonably viable correction is to remove the panel, scrape off all of the old foam and glue the new foam-bonded fabric to the board. Have a helper for the gluing part. No do-overs.
Getting the board out of the car is usually the hardest part - the scraping and gluing process is pretty straightforward.
The upholstery shop next door to me will do one for under $200. At that price, I'm not going to mess with them.
If you want to buy one already cut and sewn you might try http://www.acmeautoheadlining.com/
They have been around forever (70 yrs ) and have tons of headliner patterns, also Convertible Tops
In Long Beach California
It's a whole different ballgame with older classic cars, where instead of being glued to a cardboard or fiberboard liner, you have pockets or sleeves that a rod fits into, then you have to glue all the edges.....total PITA. I agree with letting the upholstery shop do it if possible.
I've done several of the foam backed headliners glued to the fiberboard backer and while messy, they're not too difficult.
What's your time worth?
I also have a feeling that a headliner redo is in my future.
Different methods of applying, per manufacturer. We did a Saab 900 in "Swedish Tartan" using the factory cardboard and a better grade of glue. It wasn't horrible just frustrating at times.
Because of the sunroof, it's not something I would attempt alone.
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