Plan on wrapping the headliner and door panels in a plaid fabric. Just wondering if any of you guys have tips and tricks on doing so. I have headliner spray glue with me and ready to roll. If anyone has pics id love to see!
It should work out pretty well. Most plaids are quite flexible and unbias.
Do not put much glue on the fabric, as it may bleed through. Heavy duty spray adhesive is more prone to bleed than the lighter stuff. Be sure the glue is dry to the touch everywhere on your boards before trying to apply the fabric. You don't want any wet spots that may bleed leaving nasty spots everywhere it does.
After you get all the fabric glued on, let it sit overnight. This is a good idea for two reason. One of course being the glue will be fully cured. The other is you will be able to check if any edges are loose and need to have more glue applied.
A few things to look out for:
Let the fabric lay naturally, don't stretch it. Just carefully lay it down straight and relaxed.
Rub it down really good with your hands or scrap pieces of fabric. make sure you hands/fabric is clean with no glue on either one before you begin rubbing it down.
If you have an unbalanced fabric, you may need to 'roll' some parts so it will match the other side.
Leave a good bit of excess around the edges. Better to have too much than to find you trimmed too closely.
Hope this helps and good luck
just finished mine:
I used the 3m general trim adhesive which holds strong for my fabric. Just take it slow and patiently so you don't go crazy haha.
onecleancavy wrote:Some good advise here. I also used the 3m adhesive and it worked great. Dont do the whole headliner at once. I did mine in sections just for the reason if you have any empty pockets where the glue did not hold you can go back and re-aply as needed. Once the headliner was done I used a hot glue gun to hold down all of the overhanging edges. Im about to do my visors to match. Good luck
thnx It was much less stressful doing it in sections. Good luck on those visors! I didn't know they had so many parts lol.
Yah I got the visors appart already, there not to bad. Lining up the fabric lines so they match the headliner....thats gonna be fun
"Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers"-Colin McRae
o nice... I'm guessing you have a pattern then?
Yah, plaid
"Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers"-Colin McRae
ahh yeah very nice... I was thinking about doing mine with yellow plaid but the yellow didn't match. best of luck with it definitely post some pics when you're done.
Jake DeHaven wrote:just finished mine:
I used the 3m general trim adhesive which holds strong for my fabric. Just take it slow and patiently so you don't go crazy haha.
What type of fabric did you use? I've been trying to figure out what type of fabric I should get to do my headliner in black, not plaid or anything fancy. Is it a knit type fabric or fleece?
Anyone ever done it while its still in the car? mine is epoxied in due to the aftermarket sunroof. Not sure how possible it even is to do inside the car but i might be willing to give it a shot...
Sunfiretun3r wrote:Jake DeHaven wrote:just finished mine:
I used the 3m general trim adhesive which holds strong for my fabric. Just take it slow and patiently so you don't go crazy haha.
What type of fabric did you use? I've been trying to figure out what type of fabric I should get to do my headliner in black, not plaid or anything fancy. Is it a knit type fabric or fleece?
to be honest I'm not sure what it's called, but it was densely woven and stretchy, and not flannel or fleecy. but a thick black fabric would be awesome and would hide any potential imperfections
BuiltNBoosted wrote:Anyone ever done it while its still in the car? mine is epoxied in due to the aftermarket sunroof. Not sure how possible it even is to do inside the car but i might be willing to give it a shot...
haha that seems difficult
Jake DeHaven wrote:BuiltNBoosted wrote:Anyone ever done it while its still in the car? mine is epoxied in due to the aftermarket sunroof. Not sure how possible it even is to do inside the car but i might be willing to give it a shot...
haha that seems difficult
it does but mine is already sagging and I would rather have black vs the tan thats in there.
Sunfiretun3r wrote:I've been trying to figure out what type of fabric I should get to do my headliner in black, not plaid or anything fancy. Is it a knit type fabric or fleece?
You can get standard headliner fabric with foam backing here:
http://www.yourautotrim.com/auothead.html
Good quality, fast shipping and fair price.
BuiltNBoosted wrote:Jake DeHaven wrote:BuiltNBoosted wrote:Anyone ever done it while its still in the car? mine is epoxied in due to the aftermarket sunroof. Not sure how possible it even is to do inside the car but i might be willing to give it a shot...
haha that seems difficult
it does but mine is already sagging and I would rather have black vs the tan thats in there.
it would look amazing wrapped in black... and now that i think about it, doing it that way could be faster.
BuiltNBoosted wrote:Anyone ever done it while its still in the car? mine is epoxied in due to the aftermarket sunroof. Not sure how possible it even is to do inside the car but i might be willing to give it a shot...
I did lol, it sucked. Turned out great, but my arms got really sore holding it up for 20 min intervals waiting for the glue to dry.
Took me a total of four hours. Wasnt bad at all. Going to put it in tommorow morning and get more pics!
comments welcomed :]
Oh man this is the second time ive seen someone do this and each time I want to do it more and more... I guess if I dont like it I can just rip it out after a while and sell it for cheap
Just a question though, did you just apply the fabric over top of the factory finish or did you strip it at all?
had a blown ecotec swapped 2000 cavy, now just an 02 Grand Am, and a 74 BMW 2002...
Ty Petersen wrote:Oh man this is the second time ive seen someone do this and each time I want to do it more and more... I guess if I dont like it I can just rip it out after a while and sell it for cheap
Just a question though, did you just apply the fabric over top of the factory finish or did you strip it at all?
It's definitely worth it.... but I put my fabric right over the old stuff. I don't know if that's how it should be done, but I just wanted the padding and it's working okay.
loving the plaid man, great job
Jake DeHaven wrote:Ty Petersen wrote:Oh man this is the second time ive seen someone do this and each time I want to do it more and more... I guess if I dont like it I can just rip it out after a while and sell it for cheap
Just a question though, did you just apply the fabric over top of the factory finish or did you strip it at all?
It's definitely worth it.... but I put my fabric right over the old stuff. I don't know if that's how it should be done, but I just wanted the padding and it's working okay.
Yah putting the fabric right over the old is the best way to go. When I tried the first time I peeled the old fabric off and was going to just use the cardboard part of the headliner but it becomes to flimsy with out the old fabric and two the glue doesnt set up well on cardboard. It soaks up all the glue and the new fabric wont stick worth the crap. Also the new fabric doesnt lay nice and even if you peel off the old fabric. It gets wavey and has humps etc. Il have some pics of mine at a later time as Im yet to finish the visors and the rest of the back part of the interior.
Headliner looks great Adam, nicely done
"Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers"-Colin McRae
I don't think that was a good idea.
Over time the original glue will begin to let loose and the original fabric will sag. You have added even more weight to the fabric without actually attaching it to the board with new glue.
It may hold for a while, but don't be surprised if the original does start pulling loose from the board.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MmT72NDtTs
Start at the 2:38 mark.
If you wanted it padded, best thing would have been to have gotten some 1/8" foam and gluing it on the board (after removing the old foam). Then glue the new fabric to the new foam. That would insure it would hold fast for years to come.
I hope it doesn't sag on you, but I have a feeling it probably will.
Hey guys, I've been trying to upload some pics of it in...pain in the butt lol. Photobucket wont find my pics! But im going to try again tonight.
Thanks for the comments :] and ya, I laid it out over top of the old fabric. As oncecleancavy said if you peel that off its gunna get crappy and take forever to get it right.
The hardest part of this whole thing was putting those dam visors back in lol. Litterally took me an an hour and a half for those 6 star screws.
Theres not much weight to this fabric at all, Im sure it will hold. If not then glue it back together...not that bad.
Adam rioticx wrote:As oncecleancavy said if you peel that off its gunna get crappy and take forever to get it right.
Actually, that isn't true. You just need to carefully brush off the old foam is all. I have done many headliners before and all of them came out nice and have stuck well.
You see your new glue may stick well to the old fabric, but the glue that is actually holding it to the board is old and will probably begin to pull loose, in part due to the extra weight of the new fabric/glue you just applied. You didn't do anything that would actually attach the fabric to the board
I hope it holds for a while, but it probably won't and you will have to redo it again soon
It is always best to completely remove the old fabric/foam and clean the board with a brush,
then apply new glue to both the board and your new fabric/foam. Chances of it holding well would have increased greatly had you of done that.
While this may not be something you care about, another reader that is new to recovering a headline may find it useful, especially if they are trying to get high quality results
Seriously, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Your method is not the 'right' way and could be misleading to others.
