DIY Headliner Difficulty

[JRA2000TL]

I plan on placing an order with stockinteriors.com for headliner material, carpet, and mats soon; but I'm wondering how difficult it is to recover the headliner?

I've heard some say it's not bad and others say that if you don't do it just right, it will wrinkle and look like crap. Another concern of mine is that I have a bad sunroof seal (which I'm going to replace). It has leaked and created water stains on the headliner. I'm wondering if this has ruined the board itself. I can always find a sunroof Taurus at the j/y and pull another headliner board--not a big issue.

I am going to pull the old headliner out and try to remove the existing material and then determine if the board is reusable. A guy at a trip shop quoted me $100 to re-cover it if I brought him the board out of the car. Good deal or do it myself? He doesn't work on cars with sunroofs (but he's a trip shop??? ).

As for the louvered vent shade. I will either remove all of the felt/glue and just paint it gray with the Ford titanium interior paint I have, OR I will pull a solid shade out of a later model Taurus and recover it with my headliner material.

 

[-DVP-]

Cant be that hard. A lot of people have a hard time getting the board out without bending it. I am pretty good at it, not sure why or what makes it hard for other.

 

[luigisho]

Maybe I'm out of the loop but what is a trip shop? Sounds like a place to get blacklight posters.

There should be a few local folks who do automotive upholstery work. I would shop around for price and competency. You can try and do it yourself but, if you want it done well, you might want to pay someone. Preferably someone who has done enough to experience a sunroof or 20 doing this kind of work.

 

[kevinspann]

I'd get an interior shop to do it. It shouldn't be that expensive. The board is probably OK, but you'll most likely break it in half taking it out (BTDT, and it will probably be harder to find a gen 1 moonroof car)

I'd put a solid shade in it personally, the only thing is, the earlier moonroof assemblies have a dimple in the track that the solid shade can get caught on. I just flattened mine out most of the way with pliers.

 

[luigisho]

I'd put a solid shade in it personally, the only thing is, the earlier moonroof assemblies have a dimple in the track that the solid shade can get caught on. I just flattened mine out most of the way with pliers.

Couldn't you cover a louvered shade flat with vinyl and not mess with the dimpled track, or would that not work?

 

[jelloslug]

You can recover the louvered shade with the fabric from normal headliner material. The foam will peel off the fabric. I would use carpet tape to hold the new fabric on rather than glue. The fabric is thin and the glue will soak through.

 

[Phoenix]

If you mean by the that the whole thing (not only the sunroof thing) , its not hard , the only hard thing is to get it out without "cracking" or "folding" it.

Its made with a cardboard like material , if you wrinkle it , well it may look like crap depending on where it happened.

You need to remove all the trims that touches it , including sunvisors - that basically it.

 

[jelloslug]

You will have a much easier time getting the headliner out without bending it if you remove one (or both) front seats.

 

[Vnuk1]

Just save yourself the time, pain and frustration and pay to have it done.

 

[zach44102]

Pay someone to do it

 

[kevinspann]

Couldn't you cover a louvered shade flat with vinyl and not mess with the dimpled track, or would that not work?

I would prefer a thin piece of ABS to be attached to it first, to cover the louvers, then covering it in material. It's easier to get the solid shade and recover it though.

 

[silverknight]

did mine in my non-moonroof car, pulling out front seats is indeed the way to go. gives more room to put it on an angle without bending it. i did mine in suede from jo-ann fabrics. looks great. used 3m spray glue in the orange can. no issues.

 

[firebat45]

I would prefer a thin piece of ABS to be attached to it first, to cover the louvers, then covering it in material. It's easier to get the solid shade and recover it though.

How are all you getting the old fabric off? I started stripping one that's flaking, and once I got all the easy stuff off the rest seems to be bonded insanely well. Tried acetone with no luck.

 

[sperold]

One hundred bucks is too much if you are taking the board out yourself. That is where the work is.
If you take the seats out, it is guaranteed to come out well. The seats may recline enough to get the job done, but it is risky.
When headliners get old, they seem to decompose into dust. In that state they are brittle and you can break them easily. I would try doing it on a very humid day, or put a tea kettle in the interior for awhile to get the humidiy up, they bend more before breaking that way.
Go the Jo-Anne fabrics route with spray on glue. It will work out fine.
Look it over first, and determine if you can spray it or dye it, instead of recovering it.

I did one in a 91 Tempo and got a headliner from a 93. Believe it or not, the 93 roof is longer, so I had the liner in and out a dozen times.
Everything lined up perfectly, including the grab handes at the back, but it was about 3 inches too long at the back window.

 

[SHOtime2511]

sunroof makes it more of a PITA.
Doing the headliner is the easy part,removing the backing and not distroying trim is the hard part.

 

[mooseSHO46]

Did mine myself when doing a grey interior swap. Getting the the thing out without breaking it was the hardest. I had mine recovered in about 20 mins. came out great, very simple to to do just had to have patience and concentrate.

 

[tommyturbo]

it's not hard at all, the sunroof just means a few more trim pieces to remove to get the board down. Done it on my tbird with sunroof and on my SHO with no sunroof. Take the front seats out. Use a stiff brush on the board once the old fabric is pulled off, some may be fussy about coming off. do it yourself, the shop may not be careful removing the trim to get the board down. sunroof opening surround just pops off, it has a sticky gooy glue so be careful when putting it back on.

 

[kevinspann]

I glued paint sticks to the back of my headliner board on either side of the sunroof so it didn't break when putting it back in. It was already weak from being removed.

Worked great, your results may vary.

 

[JRA2000TL]

sunroof makes it more of a PITA.
Doing the headliner is the easy part,removing the backing and not distroying trim is the hard part.

All of the A pillar trim that goes all the way to the rear coat hook is destroyed. I found good non-cracked ones out of a lt. titanium interior GL at a j/y, so I will be installing all new trim around the top including the rear quarter window trim because it's not dry rotted from the sun.

 

[JRA2000TL]

The shop quoted me $150 today to do just the headliner (and I will remove the louvered shade, remove the glue/destroyed material, sand it, and paint it with the Ford titanium paint that I used on my dash cap). I'm going to let them do the headliner for that price. I can handle doing the sunroof shade. The guy told me it'd be best to remove the material down to the plastic and just paint it. They've tried covering those louvered shades on other cars with very thin material, and he said it's a PITA and often doesn't work well/look right.