so finally found a local store that sells headliner fabric and got to work and figured I would share my experience on how I went about this. now this was a first for me so its not a show quality job but is one hell of an improvement.

Ill start with the speaker covers

here is a before after comparison

now the original fabric was not foam backed but this worked just fine.
I started by taking a small straight edge and prying the staples out

and used the same screw driver to pry at these areas


and this is what you are left with


then I turned the stitches inside out and cut them with a scissors


then I laid it out on top of the new fabric and cut out the pattern. now make sure you note the direction of the fabric grain (I'm sure that's not the correct term but ill go with it anyways) I did one the wrong way and if I have enough left over will re do it because next the headliner it looks like a slightly different color now.


then I pinched the corners together and stitched them with some grey thread, make sure you leave a gap at the fold just like the stock ones

 

here is what you end up with

then fold over the corners

tuck the board back in

now all I had was a mini stapler and its not strong enough to staple fabric to plastic board and I didn't want to hot glue edges or spray glue on to board like a headliner so I went with masking tape for now.

then I used an exacto blade and cut out the holes for the hangers and here is the finished product

 

now the headliner was a whole different beast. now like most when I bought the bird (back in 2001) the board was already shot so I tore it out and rode around with no board for just over ten years. then last year I found one on craigslist that was in ok shape.

I will someday upgrade to a ABS board but I got this and a set of glass t tops for $80. I carefully removed the old fabric and cleaned the old foam off. now there were a couple bad spots that were cracked and wanted to let the board bend forward. I solved this by going to auto zone and buying the small can of short hair fiberglass

the board on some edges was separating

so I duct taped them

one back edge was missing a big chunk duct tape was used here to give me a guide for the fiberglass

now tearing the old fabric off tore into the board in some spot (it seamed to have a hard coating in most areas) but as said some spot tore the board up. I wanted to give the board a bit more strength and fix the bad areas so I put a thin coat of fiberglass on the whole front side of the board except around the visor holes. the only areas that needed more than a thin coat were under the sun visor area and were the big chunk was missing. I am just realizing I forgot to take pictures of this the only one I have showing how it some what looked is with half the board covered

now this is without sanding the board at all I really put as thin a coat as I could.
here is how it turned out






I should add to let the car air out and do drive with the windows down for a bit cause the bondo smell is a bit overwhelming and will make you light headed if you leave the windows up

 

I only have one t top board partly done right now here is a before and after


I did this by cutting the trim stitching and pulling the tread out as to remove in one piece then removed the fabric and cleaned the board. I painted the back side

then spray glued the fabric on and trimmed it tight to the board after it dried. Now I have been trying to find the correct trim so I can have some one sew it on for me but have had no luck so far here is what it looks like

when I finish these all I have left is to do the sun visors. and there you have my progress so far like is said its not show quality but is way better than no headliner. so as I said make sure the fabric all goes the same way. Oh and for spray glue I used a can of 3M headliner spray adhesive bought from auto zone and the fabric was $14 and some change a yard but I happen to catch it on a 50% off sale and ended up buying 4 yard. The 3M spray was around $23, fiberglass was around $14. So if you divide the cost of board and t tops and add the rest I spent roughly $64 so far.

 

WOW, that looks good !!

 

Thanks

 

Summit has an ABS liner for about $150. It is contoured differently, but I had no choice, mine was shot.

 

I did the same thing as you with the headliner. excellent write up

 

Joe: when this goes to hell I will be doing abs but had to watch money right now. So this worked for now at half the price.

Punk: glad to see another that tried this. I did the woman's 2001 Bonneville first and her board was stock with a light layer of glass so figured I'd make mine the same.

 

Yours will look much better than the abs one. The only reason to get an abs one is because you can't find an original. The abs headliners are junk because they are molded from the wrong side. They used the back of a headliner for the plug because they were too lazy to resurface the correct side. This is true of the hard top and ttop versions. Because of this they don't fit quite right or look quite right. The abs is also very flexible so the headliners sag and flop. Looks pretty bad if you don't cover them too.
My fiberglass replacement will be available soon!
Almost done with the plug: