I am frustrated with my lousy headliner, and am thinking about making my own. I have not heard great things about abs replacements. Just looking for suggestions.

 

Fiberglass? Even steel or aluminum if you don't go crazy on the thickness and covering them would be best. I'm not certain any of these ideas would be cheaper than a repro though.

Mathius

 

If the original fiberglass backer is saveable, why not recover it yourself or have an interior shop do it. DIY costs $40 or less depending on material, and its not very difficult. Do a search on my name about it

 

I am confused as to what a fiberglass backer is. Could you shed some light this?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/headlinerrepair

I bought a abs one a year or so ago haven't installed it. looks like im going to be happy with it. it looks cheap but i plan to cover it.

 

What are you gonna cover it with?

 

not sure yet

 

I've been curious about the ABS ones... I havent heard anyhing negative. What looks cheap about them?

 

My t-top headliner was literally in pieces and missing a big chunk. What I did was went to the yard and cut a few sections out of a hardtop headliner and fiberglassed them into the broken areas of mine. I then brushed the whole thing in fiberglass resin top and bottom (to make it hard) then recovered it in black felt. Turn out great and was fast , cheap and easy.

 

Are you handy with fiberglass? I am thinking of doing this, but I don't wanna botch the darn thing up. Did you use felt cloth, or something else??

 

You can use pieces of fiberglass cloth and then coat the resin on it. I actually used long strand fiberglass filler in areas then sanded with 60-80 grit to smooth it out. I used black speaker box type felt to recover it.

 

My headliner has "decayed" loose foam under the cloth. Did you use the fiberglass cloth to cover the foam, or is that where the long stran fiberglass filler comes in?

 

Mine was the same. I scrapped and used an air compressor to blow most of that off. I used the filler for broken spots and tears, I did this from the back of the headliner. The thick black felt covers most imperfections if you like the "mushy" feel to your headliner you can always buy discount felt ( whatever color they have on sale) and build up layers and then your final layer of felt. I have seen that before. I had a friend who used to use all of his felt offcuts for this purpose. One you get your new material on the headliner it holds it together much nicer.

 

Not too worried about mushy feel, just want it to look good. Did you wrap the felt around the back? Also, how did you attach the felt?

 

No I got enough felt to cover the headliner face. I used contact cement to glue the material on. Felt is really easy to stretch around corners and make look professionally done. Spray or brush both the headliner and felt well with contact cement , also brush some contact cement on the back of the headliner along the edges so you can fold the felt over and it will stick.

 

So you used contact cement. You stretched it around corners... what about the inner corners? how do you keep it from bunching up? Also, where did you stop with the material? Was there a small amount around the back so you couldn't see the edge of the material.

 

That's the purpose of putting glue along the edge of the back of the headliner , so that you can pull it tight and overlap the material on the back.



Pull it tight , if it bunches in areas simply pull up on it and stretch again.


I bought extra from a roll , layed it on the headliner itself and cut it 3/4-1" extra all the way around. This allows you to pull tight and leave all excess material glued to the back of the headliner so you see no seams. Start from the back and slowly rub the material down , into the corners ,etc. You may want to have a helper hold the material in the air while you work it with your hands into the corners ,etc. One thing don't trim the t-top area until you have layed the felt on the whole headliner. Remember no matter how long it takes the contact cement will still stick so you have time.

Yes you can overlapp as much as you want as you will never see the back , this makes for a clean seamless job.

 

Good job explaining Wraith, I'm sold on this idea. I am gonna take it down, and do it. My interior is light tan "saddle" i believe. I am gonna cover it in black speaker felt though. the same with the speaker covers also. There is plenty of black in the car to match it, including the body. You have been a great help!

 

No problem , anymore questions just ask. It's pretty easy to do.

 

I have a council to remove, and I cannot see how it comes out. I would bet there are screws holding it in from the top. If push comes to shove, I will not reinstall it.

 

Are you talking about the overhead console with the pocket and map light? It has two screws in the dome light area and four more along the length of it that it hooks onto from the back side.

If yours is a T-Top model then remove the dome light cover and remove the two screws inside there. Then the entire console should be able to slide forward towards the front windshield about an inch and it will come loose from the roof. The only screws you need to remove are the two in the dome light area, it just slides onto the other ones. You will see what I mean when you get it off. Just make sure you have ahold of it good when you move it forward so it doesnt fall off and break or rip your wiring down with it. The wiring for the console will be plugged in at the front end of the console where the buttons are for the dome/map light.

 

I see. There are no screw holding it from the back. I'll give it a shot.

 

Well, since I started this thread, I had a woman who did upholstery work cover my t top headliner with black denim. She picked out the material, and I said your the boss. Her son had it out if the car in about 10 minutes. I have a tan interior, but had the t top visors, and speaker covers done in black. I am very happy with the way it turned out. btw, the speakers were covered with speaker cloth. Denim is tough stuff!