Headliner Restore

[SpankyStokes]

Ok I’m in the process of freshening up my headliner. I scraped off all the old foam from it down to the fiberglass sheet section and now is extremely flimsy to apply the new foam with fabric.
Anyone know what I can use to strengthen it so it can hold its form while it lays out to put the new fabric?

 

[92AWDHX40]

I just did mine i used fiberglass to reinforce the back, of it works really good, and used cloth from hobby lobby, holding up just fine, use good 3m adhesive and let it set.

 

[XC92]

Does anyone reuse the original headliner or do you have to use new fabric, and if so how hard is it to find something that's identical or very close to the original texture and shade?

 

[92AWDHX40]

No original stuff out there, nothing close, I just improvised.

 

[XC92]

Is the original ever reusable if in decent condition?

 

[92AWDHX40]

You can try i did , it didn't work well I just got something else.

 

[XC92]

When I get to it I'll see if it's still salvageable.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Once you pull it off its, may tear or look a mess, better off getting some fabric, our cars werent meant to be restored to factory conditon, parts are not there or never will be for that matter. Ive learned to make it work with what you go.

 

[XC92]

It never ends, does it, restoration?

 

[Dreams Realized]

No it doesn't and we may have drifted from the OP's post a little here. I used foam backed black velour fabric, but I may pull it down and remake another fiberglass board thats a bit thicker in attempt to better insulate our poorly insulated cars.

@XC92 I redid my entire interior. Resprayed all interior plastics storm cloud grey satin and I have bamboo center console inserts and rear trunk floor. Put in racing seats. All of it took about a week and a half.

It was surprisingly easy, a few paint spots missed but really my fault for using a paint that when wet looked identical to the grey primer I used.

That is why I chose to buy a 90's car, everything is exactly where you think it should be...

 

[XC92]

I'm with you on older cars. I personally don't like automated and touchscreen-everything. It's a car, not a computer. I like real buttons and knobs even if they're now digitally processed. I've rented a few cars that have all these whiz-bangs features recently and don't like them. I suspect that even with EVs gradually taking over we'll see a return to more analog interfaces.

Anyway, way off topic now. Yeah, headliners, I just wanted a general sense of what's involved. I'll bone up on the details when I eventually get to it.

 

[1995TalonMT]

Joann Fabrics has automotive headliner with the foam backing. My wife told me about it or I would have never found it. Here are pictures of my headliner restoration. Yes the backing is thin so I used a soft bristle brush to remove all the old foam. Then used 3M spray to carefully apply the new headliner. See attached photos. I did this a year or so ago, and it survived the 102 degree plus summer months. It looks new now. I hope this helps.