Hi all, I started to redo my sagging headliner, I will post pictures on how to Pretty easy so far The headliner is in 3 pieces, leather, foam, cardboard like sheet The foam and the leather are nicely glued together but the foam had poor adhesion to the cardboard and the cardboard seem to be glued with doubled sided tape to the aluminum Did anyone has ever done this job and what can of glue do you advise for the different interface. My biggest concern is the foam, would need a foamy glue for it.... Thanks and I ll soon post pictures,
How did you remove the headliner? Need to do it myself! As for gluing the foam, I suggest contact cement such as DAP Weldwood. It lists foam as one of the things it can be used for.
I had a similar problem on my 07 612. I got some spray contact cement. I left the headliner in place and sprayed the cement on both surfaces while it was hanging from the roof. I then carefully from the front to the back and then from the center to each side put the two surfaces in contact with each other and applied pressure and pressed the surfaces together. I smoothed the surfaces with my had and removed all bubbles. It worked perfectly and that was a year ago and it still looks great.
Removing the headliner is easy but your need to know what you are doing otherwise you will break parts, also there is a trick to not remove the back seats and panels ( yes you read it well, you would actually need to do that) I will build a little tutorial once I am done What you need to know: There have 4 distinctive layers on the headliner, Leather, reinforcement backing, foam, impregnated cardboard, the only thing you can keep is the leather and the reinforcement, they are well glued together, the foam has to be changed as it is falling apart, cardboard has to be changed too and finding a good one is a challenge but I have some ideas...I am thinking of Isorel board, Foam is easy to source, any spray glue will do for gluing the leather and the foam again and the cardboard If your headliner is flat and not sagging simply don't touch it, if you do you will delaminate the foam from the card board and then it will sag badly and you will have to quickly do the job (ask me how I know that...) Main challenge I am encountering is that the leather has marks due to the rest of the upholstery pressing on it, this means either I find a way to put it at the exact same position or I found a way to get it flat again. I had one failed attempt using a lot of double tape to glue the whole thing again and I tell you, getting it off again is a nightmare, my learning is that double tape has to be used in small quantity, it will hold the board with the leather anyway I will keep you posted
Just an update I found the card board I need, you can get at the artistic painting department of DIY shops, it is carton board like from the color, it is 2 mm thick, Impressionist painters used it in the late 19 century, it is also known as isorel... and now going in my 612 I coated it with a general purpose primer as cellulose fibers delaminate easily otherwise Next step, use spray adhesive to glue the leather and foam and foam to the board Once it is done I will spray the headliner side facing the aluminium with a layer of glue and apply double sided tape to the roof and carefully stick the whole aligning with the marks I made on the roof. You only have one chance at it so I need to be precise Regarding the leather I did not manage to iron it, it's not working, marks are staying, so I have to put it in the exact position it used to be, the tricky part is to align it left and right as you cannot make marks anywhere, front and back is easy you cannot go wrong as there is a support bracket in the front that stops the headliner I will start sticking one edge on the right and see if the rest of the upholstery go precisely in the leather marks
I have the same problem. I have booked in with an independent upholsterer recommended by my F-Service manager. They will take pictures of the process and I will also put them up when it goes in to be rectified mid March
Hi all, I will work on the tutorial soon I was busy with other works on the car, Tubi exhaust : -), which is by the way a fantastic addition to a gen1 car, it sucked my time in the last days, not easy to install... Let me work on this asap
Sorry for that, it is coming, just conflicting priorities at the moment I need to adjust some thing on the headliner and will take the necessary pictures then
Anyone ever consider velcro? The industrial strength stuff would never separate. My 612 had a sagging headliner at purchase but I made them fix it gratis before shipping. But if I had to do it again, that's what I'd look into. Several 2" patches, corners and a few in the middle and it would never come down again.
Guys, I really apologise that the tutorial is not around yet, life pushed me to focus on other things The velcro idea is not bad at all, the only caveat is to get good adhesion between the cardboard and the velcro adhesive, but yeah the idea is good as liners delaminate between the foam and the card board and sometime between the foam and the leather. Velcro would allow to fix this easily without having to pull on the roof like crazy if the cardboard is glued too well (ask me how I know that ) Another idea is to use silicone, in little quantities, silicone glues very well and can be torn apart using little force just bringing it to break elongation. One trick on renovating the roof liner is to shape the card board in an arch that matches more or less the roof one, that allows to use very little adhesive, as the arch support itself (like a bridge) you would need to use silicone or another adhesive to avoid noises but very little would be required, which is a real plus in case that roof delaminates again Shaping a card board is very easy, you just make it a little wet, squeeze it between 2 heavy things to get it into an arch shape and let it dry. you do not need to match exactly the roof shape, but it would need to be a little more pronounced, as the car liner is held by the leather trims on its sides I have used this method but the arch I have done was not curved enough and therefore has a gap which I need to fix The drawback of this method is what I have encountered, the card board is very rigid and resilient (which is also good) so given that the curve I have done was not sticking to the roof naturally adhesive did not help keeping the cardboard stuck to the roof due to the high resilience of the board, hence the need of having a cardboard with a curve a little greater than the one the roof makes I will try to work on this tutorial next week if time allows
