Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

I wanted to write a tutorial on how to repair your headliner. I’ve seen a lot of posts describing methods but they didn’t detail the entire process and include photos. My goals with this are to show that somebody with little skills can do it and avoid some mistakes I made.

I am very satisfied with the finished results. I was able to fix my sagging headliner, ripped sail panels and sunvisors that would not stay up. Although I can see some imperfections, it makes me feel good knowing that I repaired them.

I initially thought that recovering headliner myself would cost around $100. My final costs were a lot higher since I messed up headliner fabric and had to order more fabric. Also I had to order new sunvisor supports and sunvisors. In the end I spent $320 on materials and supplies. A majority of the costs were for sunvisor supports ($40), sunvisors ($80), fabric ($64), and plastic trim retainers ($34). Money could be saved if your supports are good, reuse existing retainers and buy fabric from Joanne Fabrics.

I spent around 10 hours overall time spread out over several months. Hopefully information below will help save you time and money.


Getting materials

Attached is a picture of my oh so common sagging headliner. There are three options for repairing headliner.

1) Fix it yourself with scrape and recover method.
2) Buy ABS plastic headliner that is precovered.
3) Pay upholstery shop.

I could have paid a shop but wasn’t sure if they could fix my deteriorated headliner board and would have factory correct fabric color. I’ve heard that ABS backing board does not fit 100% plus it has a ridge down the middle so it wouldn’t look factory correct once installed. Additionally a covered ABS board is expensive at $200. I finally decided on tackling it myself to save some money, have correct looking piece and learn something.

It’s recommended to recover sail panels and sunvisors with new fabric so interior looks consistent when installed. I initially thought I could order enough fabric to recover my headliner, sail panels and sunvisors. Joanne Fabrics has headliner fabric with foam backing but only offers it in a few standard colors.

I first ordered fabric from Stock Interiors to cover headliner, sunvisors and sail panels. I went through several shipments since they sent me wrong color and placed fabric in plastic bag. The fabric kept arriving with many creases since it was getting squished during shipping. Stock Interiors has great customer service but they would not fix the obvious shipping issue. Plus they did not have an exact fabric color match for my medium dark gray interior.

I then went with Classic Industries. I ordered a medium dark gray color sample and it matched my existing fabric color! Classic sells a kit that includes fabric to recover headliner, new covered sail panels and new covered sun visors for $150. I called Classic and found out that their sail panels attached to car with velcro. I’ve read on here that velcro attachments do not hold up too well. I decided to order kit that included fabric to recover headliner and sail panels for $65. I ordered sunvisors separately at $80 a pair. This allowed me to reuse existing sail panel backing boards and keep car with as many original parts possible. I think it is worth $80 for new sunvisors as the finish quality is great. You could probably save some money if you wanted to sow together new fabric “sleeves” for existing sunvisor backing material. Classic shipped fabric in a box so it was not damaged during delivery.

I had to buy new sunvisor supports since my visors would not stay in upright fixed position. Since metal post on visor support turned easily, I needed a new unit and could not fix it with a new plastic sleeve insert.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Removal

Removing headliner board is pretty straight forward. Unscrew upper rear hatch trim, remove sail panels, remove sunvisors & supports, overhead light and top door trim pieces. Overhead light has metal retainer clips over two metal posts.
I used needle nosed pliers to pull washer like retainers down off posts. I had to use a surprising amount of force to pull retainers off. Take your time to work different sides of retainer while pulling down.

Top door trim pieces were difficult for me. Supposively you can slide it to the rear or front of car to release some of the plastic trim retainers. I got a few retainers loose this way but not all. I basically pulled down on the trim piece and broke the plastic retainer clips. It looks like GM made this piece so you have to put in new plastic retainer clips and then press trim piece into body for installation. I don’t think they made it so you can remove and install trim piece easily without breaking clips. See installation below.

Last thing holding headliner to roof are three plastic clips near front of car. Just slide headliner board to the passenger side and headliner will drop down. Remove headliner board through rear hatch.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Clean headliner

The headliner fabric pulled easily of board backing. A decent amount of deteriorated foam will be left on board. I found best way for removing foam was to rub my fingers in a fast motion across the board. Using a brush is too harsh and ends up removing some of the backing surface material. Be sure to vacuum and brush off any particles with a whisk brush.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Repair headliner board

My headliner board was in decent shape but seat belt area was pretty flimsy. Also headliner board was starting to separate around the edges.
I decided to strengthen board with fiberglass resin and fiberglass cloth. I placed board on a table with interior side facing down. I supported board with some old towels and newspapers to keep shape of board while it sat on table. This worked good since it allowed broken seatbelt area of the board to rest in a good position for repair.

I needed a half gallon of resin total but would have like more. Lowes sells a gallon of resin for $30, which would be plenty. Lowes also has fiberglass cloth and cheap 2” wide paint brushes. I recommend four cheap brushes and some gloves.

First I wanted to add some structural integrity to the board and repair seat belt area. I cut some strips of fiberglass cloth about four inches wide to make a big H and more strips to cover broken seat belt area. It is important to cut cloth before you start using resin as resin dries fast. Also is helpful to have a friend place cloth while you apply resin. I mixed resin and hardener in a used cottage cheese container. Don’t mix too much as resin dries fast. Mix about cup and a half. I generously applied resin to area underneath where I wanted cloth to go. Soon after I applied resin, my helper laid cloth on top of wetted area. I quickly went over dry cloth with lots of resin. Resin turns the cloth into almost a malleable plastic that you can mat down to board with brush. Cloth and resin will dry to a very hard material so helpful if you ensure that no big pieces are sticking up. I let board dry for a day.

The next day I covered entire board with resin. You will need to apply a liberal amount, as board will soak up some resin. I wanted to make this side of headliner board stiff and strong as I could since the other side needed to be prepped better/smoother for fabric installation. Also this side of board would be facing car roof and would never be seen once installed. Again I let board dry for a day before proceeding.

Now that the board was strong and the seat belt areas fixed, I turned board over to work on interior side. I put resin down heavily along outer border, overhead lamp, seatbelt and sunvisor areas. Board material around sunvisor supports was pretty deteriorated. I applied lots of resin to this area on both sides to make it strong. Later I used a drill to clean out screw holes for sunvisor supports. I also placed resin on any other tears I saw. I would have liked to apply a light coat of resin to entire surface but I ran out. You can see in pictures where I applied resin.

I used super glue to bond both edges of headliner together since mine was separating pretty badly. I used a lot of super glue, about ten of the 1 ounce tubes. Do small areas at a time (only what you can hold together with two hands) since glue melts and heats inner headliner material very quickly. Super glue worked great at holding both edges together.

I had a few spots on the headliner side facing car interior that were either depressions or raised areas. I used some bondo and sanding to level these areas out.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

More pictures.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Attaching headliner fabric

I bought Permatex headliner spray can adhesive from Autozone (orange can with blue cap). The spray is very sticky and shoots out like Spiderman’s webbing. Be very CAREFUL and put newspaper or something else over any part of finished side material that is exposed. I ruined one batch of material by shooting some spray onto good side of fabric. I learned that it is easiest to adhere fabric in three large sections.

I sprayed adhesive on both materials and waited five minutes. I did up to three coats in order to get the glue tacky on the headliner board. I wasn’t concerned about backside of fabric being tacky, just wanted some glue to fill in gaps on foam. I sprayed center section of board first and once glue was tacky, placed fabric on board. I gently padded fabric onto board. After waiting the recommended half hour for initial drying, I sprayed another third of the board near rear of headliner. After glue was tacky, I rolled on fabric and patted it down. Once half hour passed, I did the final remaining third and let board sit overnight for full curing. Adhesive doesn’t dry strong initially like superglue but holds tight after a day. PLEASE do not use any superglue to attach fabric. Superglue will melt foam backing and result in depressed/rippled areas that are highly visible once complete. You could probably speed up process by gluing sections sooner but I found it best to take your time for avoiding mistakes. I used scissors to trim fabric from edges and exacto/craft knife to cut material from dome light and seat belt holes.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Sail panel recovery

As stated above, I choose to use my existing sail panel backs with new fabric. The Classic Industries kit for headliner and sail panel recovery came with a 5 FT x 5 FT roll of fabric. I trimmed off enough material to safely cover sail panels.

Existing sail panels are covered in thin fabric that is held on by glue and some staples. After removing staples and pulling away fabric from glue, I washed plastic backs with simple green and let dry.

I initially though that I could stretch fabric across front of sail panel and glue to board back just like original. I tried this without glue and it became apparent that fabric would not sufficiently sag and hold contours of sail panel. I decided to spray headliner adhesive on front face of sail panel. I sprayed enough adhesive to hold fabric but did not go overboard especially around speaker cutout areas. Similar to headliner, once glue was tacky I gently laid fabric on top of sail panel and let dry for one day.

I used superglue to attach fabric to back side of sail panel as it dries very fast and holds strong. I glued opposing sides of fabric best I could and then trimmed corners as necessary to make nice rounded corners.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

More pictures.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Installation

I bought extra plastic retainer clips from a local GM dealer to reattach door trim pieces. Attached is a picture of retainers. Each trim piece uses one Christmas tree style and four “A” style piece. Autozone only has Christmas tree styles available. You may be able to find them cheaper online. Door trims looks like it should only be installed with plastic retainers attached to trim. To me it seems more difficult installing trim pieces with retainers attached to car.

I sat inside car while a friend passed headliner board through rear hatch. After feeding seatbelts into their sockets, headliner was fitted into rear hatch trim piece. Next, three retainer clips on headboard were pressed into roof slots near front windshield. I then snapped into place door trim pieces with plastic retainers already installed in trim. Sunvisor supports screwed in easily and once in place, I inserted sunvisor boards onto brackets and secured them. Fabric on sunvisors is thick so I turned visors in towards middle of car somewhat so headliner fabric wouldn’t get squished. My passenger side visor came with a mirror but I can’t put it back on due to fabric thickness of headliner and visor. Then I reinstalled sail panels, overhead light cover and plastic seatbelt covers. I scrubbed overhead light cover with simple green and it came out very clean. My light cover was yellow before and came out white after cleaning. Plastic seat belt covers were a pain to snap back into place. It took me a while of pushing on them so they would fit.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Overall fit and finish

I am very happy how my interior now looks. It makes the car feel new inside. There a few small blemishes that I can notice but somebody else may not unless I point them out.

The sail panels stick out slightly from new fabric being thicker than existing. Maybe overtime foam backing will compress and fitment will be better. Also I can see some depressions in headliner. I don’t know if this is from small imperfections in headliner board itself or too much adhesive. It might be a combination of both. My sister’s cat also walked on headliner board while it was drying in basement. Good idea to keep these things away from your pets when working on them. I’m curious to see if over time, the foam backing evens out and depressed areas go away. Here are some pictures of finished interior.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Last picture.

Iroc-Z28Man

Wow, this is gonna really be helpful when i fix my saging headliner. One question though, it may sound weird, but after you fiberglassed the headliner did it add a lot of weight or make it hard to manage. And is there any thing you would have done differently. Anyway, yours turned out great, this is gonna be really useful thread for a lot of people.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Thanks Iroc. Just took forever with fabric issues I had. That's not a weird question. I had a similar thought and that board might be too stiff for fitting back in. Board did get heavier but not significantly, maybe a few pounds. I had to push board up forcefully with one hand while securing overhead light retainers with other hand. Other than that board fit back into car great. You can pretty much go nuts fiberglassing back side of board. Check out following t-top repair links. These guys did some major repair

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...iner-lots.html
http://www.mentalsocket.com/Iroc87/headliner.html

I would have liked to add coat of resin over entire interior side of board. This might help reduce or get rid of depressions I see in finish product. I messed up my first fabric attempt and had to pull off fabric. In pulling it off, some of the original board cover material came off with fabric. I think this is why I see some slight depressions. Having resin on the entire side would have prevented this.

ZZ3Astro

I wish I had done this as well. Not shown on my page above are the results of my first attempt to glue the headliner material down. I really screwed up by not working the fabric into the inside corners of the t-top openings before sticking down the rest of it. Had I put a light coat of resin on the bottom side, I could have just peeled the headliner off and started over. Instead, I ended up pulling most of the paper down with it. The end result was ok, but I can see some high spots in the areas where the paper didn't peel off. If I ever do another one of these, I will put resin on the entire board.

HankL69

iTrader: (1)

I know the good feling of doing it yourself, but, my upohlstery shop charged me only $125 to re-do mine (if I remember correctly). I had to remove and re-install it myself. My backer board was in good shape so no repairs were needed there. Overall time start to finish, 3 days! That was at least 5 years ago and still looks great.

DJP87Z28

I let the shop do the complete job. Only 2 hours waiting time and $169 and still looks factory after eight years. It seems like they know what they are doing and not guessing how it is done.

My advice check prices at local Auto Upholstery Shops before trying to buy ABS headliner and doing the job yourself. Saves a lot of problems and a lot quicker.

scottmoyer

I found a guy north of Orlando that does high end interior work for expensive restorations. He told me that the cost would be $180 for the headliner, sail panels and original visors recovered. That doesn't sound bad to me. I only need to find some matching fabric because absolutely nobody has sent me any samples that match the orginal. A company called SMS Auto Fabrics said that if I sent them a sample of my originals, they will duplicate it exactly. I will have to get a sample from Classic Industries to see how close their fabric is.

DJP87Z28

You will NOT find a perfect match for the factory color. You just have to settle for the closest and since you are recovering everything who cares if the color is all the same.

scottmoyer

It wasn't the color so much as the texture. I found a lighter grey that had the same texture as the original, but all the greys that are close to factory didn't seem to be smooth. They looked almost like a light corduroy. I'll find it someday, I hope!

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

I initially requested 5 different color samples from Stock Interiors. Weave on fabric seemed to be two different types but very close to each other. Fabric from Classic Industry was exact color and pattern match. I compared original fabric to new and it looks the same. Fabric has long vertical lines with a V pattern in between them. I believe one company pretty much makes all of the headliner material. Good luck finding your fabric!

thecraze

I just ordered some headliner material online and am waiting for it. I agree with DJP87Z28, the odds of finding an exact match are not good, especially when doing it yourself, or paying someone 200 bucks to restore a classic. You'd either have to pay someone a lot more, or settle for the closest color.

I'm getting light gray, and that's good enough for me, as long as they send me that color.

scottmoyer

Again, the color isn't an issue as much as texture is. I want the car to be correct. If one company says that they can match the texture, but the color may be a slight shade off, then I will go with them. No color samples will be an exact match in color because of die lots and variances in the manufacturing. The fabric can be correct though.

thecraze

Nice tutorial! I hope many people learn from your experience!

A couple of weeks ago I redid the headliner on my 86. I also did the sail panels, and visors (visors which didn't turn out great, but I don't care!). I wish I took pictures of how my 86 looked before, with scratch marks in every inch from, what seemed like, keys or some other object (including first names of the turds who did it!).

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

thecraze, glad you finally finished your headliner. Looks good. Almost seems that you need to stitch sun visor fabric inside out to hide the stitches. Not sure how hard that would be.

My headliner is sagging a little where backing ripped off from my first fabric attempt. Good idea to put fiberglass resin on entire board.

thecraze

Thanks, Blackdog. The visors were in terrible shape before, so that's a vast improvement.... believe it or not! Also, that's actually sewn inside out, I'm just not good at sewing, lol.

nubleet

did the package you have shown in this post have all three of those clips in it?

Americanmouse

iTrader: (7)

WOW!
That is a awesome job, if I would have seen that years ago I would have tried it instead of buying the plastic replacement from Year One. This should be made a sticky or added to the tech articles!

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

Thanks.

One piece per bag from dealer. Autopart stores sell christmas tree style a few to a box. Some thirdgen part stores online and ebay sell bags of used clips.

conkid

if i took my board way down past the yellow foamy stuff will the headliner still stick with glue... what can i use on the surface side that holds the headliner... should i staple a thin layer of cardboard on there? something? let me know!

92Firebug

That Looks like its brand new From the Factory. I need to do this, but I dont know if i will go with the stock color or not.

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

conkid, if you removed too much top cover and have exposed yellow part, I think you need to fix it first. I initially glued down one fabric color only to remove it once I bought the correct stock color. When I removed fabric I tore off some off the top cover and exposed yellow material. I didn't fix it and glued correct fabric to headliner. Now I have one part of headliner where I can see a dimple. I believe headliner adhesive adhered differently to the yellow part. I recommend covering the entire headliner with fiberglass resin. This will also make it easy in future to replace fabric.

Maybe you can apply a very liberal amount to your interior side and then sand smooth. This would give fabric and adhesive a very good surface to adhere too. Do not use super glue to adhere fabric to any part of headliner that will be visible once complete. Super glue causes headliner foam backing to melt and dimples will show.

If you don't care about matching stock color, check out Joanne Fabrics. They have headliner material.

hedberg667

Real good job my man. Now i have a guide for when i do it myself this summer. ADMINS.... STICKY

firebird904

This is a great thread I just got the supplies to redo my headliner This should be made a sticky.

kd5icr

iTrader: (2)

I just got new headliner fabric Thanks for the photos. I needed the help and this fits the bill.

Hogano

Hello all, just curious if anyone thought of using fiber glass resin to actually stick the fabric. I'm using a leather like material( 15 bucks at walmart... color's way off but still looks good with the rest) so the resin shouldnt leak through very easily. just wondering if anyone could give me a reason why i shouldn't do it before i do. thanks

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

It would be impossible to remove fabric in future and could ruin headliner board. Headliner adhesive is very sticky stuff and not that expensive.

Hogano

not planning on ever removing as it can be cleaned with a rag,i don't think it could damage the as i have already cover that whole side with resin. reason i don't want to use the adhesive is because ive had bad luck with it, i don't know why but it didn't stick the first time i did my headliner last summer, just sagged down again 2 weeks after fixing it. maybe the leather is too heavy for it?>??????? thanks for the response though.

kd5icr

iTrader: (2)

I just started to do mine. The backing is in bad shape. I am not sure that the new fabric will stick. after all it is on a 1982 camaro. What would be my best course of action? I liked the fiberglass thing but I am still leery of the fabric side.

kd5icr

iTrader: (2)

[quote=Blackdog36;4490260]
Maybe you can apply a very liberal amount to your interior side and then sand smooth. quote]


I have to ask. Do you mean just the fiberglass resin or do both sides like you did on the roof side? Because mine is in rotten shape. I might have to head out to a junk yard and hope I can find one in better shape. Please I need all the advice I can get.

The Project

iTrader: (6)

Nice write-up.

Great pics.

firebird904

This was such an easy project my headliner was cracked really bad around the seat belt area but it was nothing some fiberglass couldn't fix bought the fabric from midwest fabrics and a can of 3m heat resistant adhesive and my headliner looks pretty darn good and I still have enough fabric to do my sail panels and visors and only spent about 60 bucks

I still have to cut the holes out for the dome light and visors


Sail panels the imperfections on the end i fixed by pulling it and putting
hot glue to hold it down.

firebird904

I'm working on my visors at the moment. I'm going to take them apart and cut the fabric exactly how the old one is and sew it back on. I'll post pics when I get one done.

The_Wraith

This needs to be a sticky!

firebird904

Here's one of the sun visors didn't turn out terrible but not perfect either I'm happy with it.

ShMaCk2004

whats the part number for those plastic retainers for the a-pillar trim?

Blackdog36

iTrader: (3)

kd5icr, can you post a picture of your headliner? I recommend adding resin to interior side so there is smooth surface for glue to adhere to and would make reupholstering headliner easier in future. If your board is that bad on interior side, adding fiberglass cloth with resin would help. You would have to make interior side very smooth or else dimples/waves would show up in final product. My opinion is that the fiberglass cloth with resin would be too rough. Might not be able to sand it smooth enough. Your board may be too far gone. Don't want to see you waste $$ on your current headliner if it won't work. Junkyard headliner would work, just need to resin it so it is strong.


Nice work on sunvisors. I wussed out at bought replacement ones


Chevrolet retainer part number with prices from July 2009
Check you existing plastic A-pillar trim piece to see how many of each you need. I bought an old trim piece at junkyard. Although each trim piece use both retainers, I believe number used looked different by their holding places on trim. Not 100% sure on this but is annoying when the A-clips are so much a piece!
- Christmas tree retainers 20462090 BLU1C CLIP ASM $1.43 each
- A-clip retainers 25639958 BLU1C RETAINER $4.46 each

ShMaCk2004

man thats a bit, how many does a 87 hard top camaro need?

firebird904

Hawk's has the A-clip's for $1.49 http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/do...rdnewgm-1.aspx

gta90

iTrader: (1)

got my headliner, speaker covers and sun-visors recovered at a local auto upholstery shop for $200. Came out beautiful with quality. Just be very careful when removing it. It's EXTREMELY fragile.

Eightyninef

Does the ABS aftermarket replacment panel look that bad?
It looks kinda funky with the recessed areas.