Headliner cloth repair suggestions?

[BLINGMW]

Both Jess' 325 and my 318 need a little TLC before they start looking ghetto. I've heard there's a 3M product for headliners, anyone used it with luck? Is there some other route I should be going? Do I pay someone to do... what, do they replace the cloth? Staples, tape, my usual fixes are not on the table this time around. I tried some product I found at Advance a few years ago for some heavier door cloth before and wasn't impressed.

[PDenbigh]

I've fixed a couple of headliners, so I'll chime in.

Short story - take out the headliner yourself take it to an upholstery shop and have them redo it, then reinstall it yourself. Save you a lot of labor cost but still get a pro quality result. Be sure your hands are clean for the reinstall :-).

DIY is doable, but the surface prep is really, really important. When you tear off the old headliner, you are left with a surface of fuzzy rotten foam that laughs at glue. In the 325 that I got (and should never had sold), Alison and I redid the headliner. I got the material online somewhere, $20-$30 I think, and the 3M spray glue. It was a mess and honestly, it never quite stuck correctly. The auto upholstery shops have glue in auto-spray-type cans, as in, hooked to a compressor, that they can really lay on. The 3M stuff isn't cheap either, over $10 a can if I remember, and I used at least two cans to get it on thick enough.

You can do it yourself -> Use a lot of spay and a lot of material overlap. Or, you can do the removal and install yourself, and save the time and mess of the glue. The auto shops will really make it follow all the little contours too, and it will look just like new.

G/L!

Peter

[Jake]

I just did a headliner on my buddy's 93 Cherokee. He bought a kit online somewhere. They sent him color samples first, so he could match stock interior color. The kit was something like $75 and came with an aerosol can of spray adhesive.

Dropping the headliner was easy. It will come out on a board, and you have to get the old adhesive crap off. We used a stiff brush, carefully, followed by a vacuum cleaner and hose attachment. Easy enough. Then spray both the 'board' and the new material and lay it down. Make sure you get it to mold to all the lines and stuff of the roof board.

Go get lunch while the glue sets and dries. Come home and touch up any corners that you may have missed. Bust out some scissors and trim the liner to the board, and cut out any holes for dome lights, Jesus bars, etc.

Re-install the headliner board and you're done. It took us ~3 hours to do it, and we had never done the work before. I suspect we could do it quicker next time, barring any missing tools or anything. If you're interested, I can ask him where he bought the material and glue. It looks brand new now!