DIY Headliner build

[TheDude]

I did this a couple of years ago, but someone was just asking me about it so thought I'd share what I did in case it's useful for anyone else looking to just get something in place without pulling the glass. This ain't perfection but it's so far been a decent looking headliner that nobody really notices which is all I was after for my driver. I didn't have the bows and didn't want to pull the glass at that time for this. All in all, it was a pretty easy project and and something that could be done in a few hours for under $100.

The idea here was to take some headliner fabric and glue it to the roof. There's obviously a bunch of structure there so just gluing it would look weird. I also wanted to add some insulation so adding some insulating foam board took care of both issues.

Used 2 cans of this for everything https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072Q3SHVT/

Glued up some of this insulating foam board from Home Depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/R-Tech-...-Rigid-Foam-Board-Insulation-320810/202533656

Then used this padded headliner fabric https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07815S56J. This particular one isn't in stock anymore, but it was $25 when I ordered it and there are lots of others that are similar including things like fake suede and other colors etc.

I don't actually have any good pics of it all complete but you can get the idea below. It does actually look better than the pics show as they were taken with a flash and it sort of exaggerates imperfections. The headliner material is padded and does a nice job at filling in the gaps in the insulation and around the trim. It's also good looking and more modern looking material IMO and very tough.

There is a bit of a ridge across the middle support bar thing, but it's pretty subtle in person and looks like it belongs. I do have one spot where the fabric wrinkled a bit and wasn't really practical to fix. Probably having an extra set of hands might have prevented that from happening. So looking at it, that's the one spot that you'd look at and think it's a DIY job but even there I don't think most people will notice it unless I point it out. The rest when all tucked into trim looks pretty good and most people won't think twice about it which is all I was after.

 

[73pony]

Nice work!

 

[Mister 4x4]

Wow! Yeah, no kidding. Nice work, indeed!

 

[mach71351c]

Nice job.

 

[tony-muscle]

Nice work. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Ripper679]

Looks good! Did the fabric layer go on in one piece or was there any cutting and gluing/sewing to get the shape right? How did you get it tucked behind the front windshield (I thought either the front or rear windshield had to come out for headliner installation)?
This looks great..... I may give it a try
Any more advice?
Thanks!

 

[Fabrice]

That's very cool! Looks great!
I wonder if using plastic on the metal is the right base material for "wet" countries tho. Nonetheless, it's a great idea well executed!
Should even give 1 inch head clearance extra vs using arches!

 

[TheDude]

Looks good! Did the fabric layer go on in one piece or was there any cutting and gluing/sewing to get the shape right? How did you get it tucked behind the front windshield (I thought either the front or rear windshield had to come out for headliner installation)?
This looks great..... I may give it a try
Any more advice?
Thanks!

Thanks. The fabric is all one piece. No sewing or anything. Basically went in there and roughly measured the size I thought I'd need then cut out a much bigger piece. The fabric is cheap and I got a way bigger amount than I needed so I just made sure I had plenty. Then brought it into the car and started trimming away. In retrospect, having some big magnets to hold this up to the roof while trimming it down would have probably helped. Really though I just left it really long and trimmed after the fact.

Once I had it trimmed more or less to size, I sprayed the adhesive on the ceiling and fabric and got to it. I think I started sort of in the middle above the seats and worked forward to the windshield then back from there.

The headliner tucks under trim everywhere but at the rear window. So just made sure to extend it past the edge of the trim and it finished it off cleanly once the trip was installed. I'll try and get some pics of more of that. In the back, I trimmed then tucked it under the rubber window gasket. That was easier than I thought it would be.

The fabric was pretty tough to cut as I think it's a no rip fabric or something like that. It's very soft and feels like it should be easy to cut, but was awkward with regular scissors for me. I think I ended up using metal shears as that's just what I had around that worked, but I'm sure some heavier duty shears or maybe a utility knife would work well.

That's very cool! Looks great!
I wonder if using plastic on the metal is the right base material for "wet" countries tho. Nonetheless, it's a great idea well executed!
Should even give 1 inch head clearance extra vs using arches!

There's no plastic in this. It's fabric with a foam backing and I think would breath just fine if that's the concern. The insulation foam board maybe? No idea about that I definitely don't live in a wet place so never even thought about that. Hadn't thought about the headroom as this thing never had a headliner so never saw what it's supposed to look like.

 

[TheDude]

Took a couple more pics today. Very tough to get decent pics of this thing.



You can see the way it's tucked in under the broken pillar trim

 

[Ripper679]

Yeah. Very creative. Think I may give it a try!

 

[JJU9507]

I think it looks like a new car! Very sharp.