Hey guys...

has anyone ever fiberglassed a headliner? I pulled mine with intensions to recover it but its just all peeling apart, and frankly I dont want to deal with it falling back down. I want to cover it in tin foil and use it as a mold to make a whole new headliner out of fiberglass.

Just wondering if it has been done, and what type of fiberglass mat I should use.

 

well i don't know about fiberglass, but over on hawks you could buy an ABS plastic headliner, in your choice of color, for around 170 bones i believe.

I had a tan headliner i pulled out of my car to recover black, and it was sitting in my garage. my dad didn't know what it was, so he threw it away...

hope you have better luck than i did.

 

Yeah... but 170 is too much for a headliner. In addition, by making one of fiberglass I can also mold in things like tweeters or my dome light.

 

why not just use fiberglass to repair the headliner instead of making a whole new one?

I actually repaired a couple headliners with burlap soaked in glue. It worked very well, and was invisible once it was recovered with new headliner fabric.

 

How about coating the existing fiberglass backing board with resin. Will it soak it up at all. The board I have is cracked and has holes busted through it and is in general bad shape.

If I can use it to soak up the resin just to make it hard and still be able to upholster it that would be great.

Would it work? Going to fabric store tomorrow so gotta figure out where im going with it.

 

I think it should soak up the resin. It's a pretty porous fiberglass material. I'd probably try to put one light coat on the back side, and after it hardens, flip it over and lay it on a little heavier. Since you don't need the strength of normal fiberglass, you can just put some fabric over the broken areas and soak those with resin too.

 

Then once the board is nice and hardened will a regular 3m Super Trim Adhesive work for securing the new material to the resined board?

 

I"ve had good luck with the 3m crap that wal mart sells. I think it's the Super 77.

 

I have heard various opinions as to Super 77 VS Trim Adhesive.

I guess we'll see which they have in stock / cheaper. lol.

 

I bought a fiberglass T-Top backing and when it came it was broken on the top and bottom due to a bad packaging. I purchased a quart of contact cement and 3 yards of cheese cloth like fabric for $1.00. I covered the entire headliner with the adhesive and then covered it and applied another coat of the adhesive. I let it dry for 3 days and recovered it, seems to work great.

 

Oops... I meant the Trim Adhesive, not the Super 77. The Super 77 is the stuff with a much better spray pattern that tacks up much better, then loses hold of all the vinyl inside your uber-complicated ported enclosure, causing it to start separating and hanging for all the world to see through the plexiglass.

 

Actually... I just began repairing my broken up headliner with fiberglass. First I pulled off the fabric (except what was needed to hold it together), scuffed off the paper layer with 60grit, and then put on about half a quart of resin. It soaked up real good but took a while to set completely. Now I plan on using transfer film, 2x4's, clamps, fiberglass cloth, and resin to restructure the rest (so far, so good). After that, I'm planning on cleaning it up, test fitting it, smoothing it out with lightweight filler, and hopefully the fabric will go on nice and smooth.

I searched the net for a while regarding this issue, and arrived at the consensus that 3m general trim adhesive is the best (super whatever has a quick tack time and can be messy -- I'd advise only using it if you've done a headliner before).

 

i fiberglassed on top of the board, makes it nice and strong. also shaved the visor holes.. much nicer. somewhat time consuming, but worth it cause the boards are very fragile when they get old.

 

I've heard nothing but bad things about that Super 77 stuff. Although I've never used the 3m because of all the reviews on it I will be using it when I redo my headliner. On these T-Top headliners is there a hard plast underneath all that flaky yellow stuff ??

 

I"ve never used the Super 77 for headliners, but it works good with other fabrics.

3M General Trim Adhesive is what I believe they recommend for foam-backed headliners. I've done a few headliners with that, and I've never had one sag.

 

I ended up using Super Trim Adhesive. Its all the local auto supply had.

Its still hanging in there!

Looks good too (crappy pic)

 

I just finished recovering my headliner, but it started out in pretty decent condition. First I'd recommend Permatex Heavy Duty Headliner and Carpet Adhesive. I've used 3M Super Trim Adhesive and there's no comparison. The Permatex is absolutely bonded after 5 seconds of contact or less.

Also when you go to harden your headliner, be sure to support it from the center or somewhere that won't cause it to sag or twist. Even in good condition, the headliner tends to flop around

 

i repair all of mine with glass, mine was busted in 4 places, so i laid on some resin and then some matting done this on both sides and recovered it now you can't even tell it was broke and it's extremly strong

 

I was thinking of coating mine in resin, sanding it down and spraying it the same color as my car.... I dont have time to do it

 

I like that idea, no cloth at all huh just a paint job. Nice as long as nobody scratches it. I really like that idea I just might do it myself thanks..