Sagging Head Liner

[94 formula]

Since I have replaced basically every part imaginable under my hood including my engine I've had my car on the road 2 days and its gotten hit at work (luckily very minor and buffed right out) and I got in this morning leaving and noticed something touching my head I'm 6'4 and don't have much head room to start with. I reached up and relized my headliner is sagging on the drivers side. Is there anything I can do to fix it. Will heating it with a hair dryer work? If its not a simple fix are they reparable by a professional or do I need to just bite the bullet and buy a whole new head liner? I'm not sure why but a sagging headliner in a vehicle is my biggest petpieve I could sit in an 800 horsepower car with everything else perfect and notice one small sag in the headliner and think the car is junk there is no way I can drive around like this for long. Also am I allowed to call my car atleast a 2003 since I have replaced nearly every part since buying it .

[Joe 1320]

Once they start degrading, there is no fix except replacement.

[thenuge876]

Yup, your probobly going to need to replace it, but if you have t-tops it doesnt cost nearly as much as if it were a hardtop.

[Rhode Island Red]

I have dealt with sagging headliners for years with my 78 Grand LeMans... best bet is to get it replaced... I have tried various premium contact glues that claim to hold up, but in the end they all failed and I had the headliners sagging on top of my head, annoying me more than Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem at a super bowl. I tried the cheap way (fix myself) but in the end the only real cure is replacement good luck

[Steel2686]

Once they start degrading, there is no fix except replacement.

I disagree. I used a staple gun to re-attach the headliner in my old Grand Prix...

[TraceZ]

My dad repaired the headliner in his 83 Hurst/Olds. The key is to buy new fabric and use the proper adhesive. The fabric is foam backed and you can find it at many fabric stores. I think my dad got his at JoAnn Fabrics. The color matched perfectly and it had the foam backing. He simply removed the old foam and cloth from the headliner, coated the template with adhesive and put the new stuff on.

If you try to just glue up the old fabric it will not last long before it falls down again.

[Trash man]

or just get some color match thumb tacks those hold it up, it worked in my bros old beretta


i just replaced mine cuz of the ttops with a ABS headliner and love it

[ONLNTM5]

I would recommend replacing it. I decided to pull the headliner out of my son’s 97 T-Top Firebird last week, and recover it. I knew that it would be fairly easy to pull out, so I wasn’t too concerned. What I didn’t realize was that it was not made out of the masonite-like board material that I thought that it would be made out of. Instead, I found that it was made out of pressed and formed fiberglass insulation. It developed several cracks in it during the process of removal from the car and the removal of the material. I spent basically the whole week gluing some cheap stretchy type material over the weak and broken areas, and also sealing the whole thing with glue. Originally I had wanted to recover it with some vinyl that I found at the fabric shop, that matches his neutral colored interior. I decided that it wouldn’t work because it would require too much stretching to make it fit, and the headliner is too fragile to be able to do that. Also, there are a lot of imperfections in the headliner’s surface, that would ultimately show up in the thin vinyl. So, I bought some headliner material from the fabric shop, that has a fairly thick foam backing, which could hide the imperfections. Well, the glue (wood glue) that I used to strengthen the headliner worked pretty good, and I went ahead with putting the headliner material on with spray on contact adhesive. Everything was going great except in the inside corners where it curves to fit the T-Top shape at the roof of the car. Even though this stuff is very flexible, it just didn’t want to stretch enough to fit the corners. I realized afterwards, that if I had run the grain of the material the other way, the long way, it probably would have stretched easily. So, I guess I am going to try to do it again. The Headliner material was about $10.00, so it wasn’t very expensive. Although, I have spent a good bit more on the project than I had planned, because of buying the vinyl at first, and several different glues to try to seal the headliner with. It is doable, , but it will take time, and without all of the trial and error expense, it could be done with fairly little expense. The main thing to remember, is that the contact spray adhesive sticks better if you seal the headliner board first.

[Joe 1320]

Um, yeah..... what the guy above me said.

[94 formula]

Looks like I'll be getting a new one for my car. If I found a used one in good shape would that be alright or is that to much of a risk because of the fiberglass backing cracking.

[Joe 1320]

Looks like I'll be getting a new one for my car. If I found a used one in good shape would that be alright or is that to much of a risk because of the fiberglass backing cracking.

I had a used one shipped in to me when I was building up a 94 Camaro. While it worked fine, I still had to do some reinforcing with duct tape on the backside.

[fastTa]

My dad repaired the headliner in his 83 Hurst/Olds. The key is to buy new fabric and use the proper adhesive. The fabric is foam backed and you can find it at many fabric stores. I think my dad got his at JoAnn Fabrics. The color matched perfectly and it had the foam backing. He simply removed the old foam and cloth from the headliner, coated the template with adhesive and put the new stuff on.

If you try to just glue up the old fabric it will not last long before it falls down again.

Tracy is right. You have to buy new fabric and then it can be adhered to the headliner shell. 3M makes an aerosol adhesive that absolutely rocks. It is called Super 77 or Super 99. Wal Mart or most parts stores carry it. It will permantly attach the new fabric. I've done some custom interior jobs on friends vehicles with the 99, and it doesn't budge....ever.

[MN6WS6]

If you don't want to mess with it, most interior shops will do it for you. I used to do them at the shop I used to work at, and it's not that difficult. Once they start sagging, it is easy to replace them. The hardest part is getting it out of the car, but considering how small the one is in an f-body, even that's not a big deal. You ought to try doing one in a van or Suburban. About the only thing you can leave in is the seats

[ONLNTM5]

Looks like I'll be getting a new one for my car. If I found a used one in good shape would that be alright or is that to much of a risk because of the fiberglass backing cracking.

Make sure that you can look at it first. If you buy one off of Ebay, etc. you may end up with someone else's junk. Some of those people on Ebay will tell you anything, to make a sell. If you find one in good enough shape, with no cracks in it, you can strengthen it, before installing it, by using the wood glue as I mentioned. Just pour it on the back side of the headliner and spread it with a bondo spreader. It spreads and seals really well, and it does strengthen it substantially after drying. Make sure that you don't get any glue on the front side of the headliner. If you do, wipe it off immediately with a damp cloth. If you buy a new one from the dealer, you may want to remove it from the box before leaving the dealership to make sure that it was not damaged in shipment. They are very fragile.

[94 formula]

I think I'm going to take it down and try putting on new material. I have a coupe and am not sure how it will turn out so I may end up just buying a new one, when it comes to working on cars interiors seem to be my weak point I honestly think I had an easier time installing my new engine over putting in my new dash and thats not an exageration.