Headliner question - and now progress

Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
For those of you who have had a sagging headliner, would you recommend replacing the liner with material or having it sprayed with Rhino liner? If the latter, what sort of pricing should I be looking at?
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
I appreciate everyone's replies. that'll definitely help me sell the idea to my son in law (Who's footing the bill for HIS vehicle).
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
Welp... Got the headliner "frame" out. Highly recommend gloves as I'm still picking fiberglass out of my hands. Everything I'm seeing recommends a length of at least 95" x 60" wide. Since I may redo the visors, I'm looking at around 108 " in length so 3 yards of material should do it.
 
reaver

reaver

Lockers Installed
Supporting Member
Location
Caldwell, ID
It's not hard to do. Just buy the good adhesive. I think it's 3m super 88...

My mom helped me redo mine last year as a birthday present. Use some wire brushes that can fit in a drill to clean the fiberglass backer, then adhere the new material to the backer.

Before
IMG-20230618-133417.jpg


After
IMG-20230618-165801.jpg
 
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Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
I'm not worried about doing the upholstery myself. One of the shops I support is an automotive manufacturing center. I actually spent the day there today. If I think it'll be problematic I can run it up there on another Wednesday and have the upholstery shop there guide me through it. I'm pretty sure they use 3M 88 as well.
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
Well, it's been almost a damned year and after a small series of beneficial happenstances ( I now own the Xterra and prepping for my daughter) I have the headliner material. I will be doing the headliner, the visors and the material on the inner door skins with

This:
headliner.JPG

Just waiting on the spray adhesive that'll be here Sunday.
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

Liqudstone. Doctor Liqudstone.
Supporting Member
Location
Big Island
That’s going to look really nice!

I paid a bunch once to have it redone and then it drooped again. So I stapled the shiat out of it and covered up the worst in the back with a $20 cargo net I butchered to work. Not proud of it but heck no one is paying money for fully restored Xterras anyway. Wife is already too embarrassed to drive it cause of all the volcano stickers I slapped on the rear windows :)

I did see an overlander that covered the roof of his rig with patches so maybe that’s my next move ! 2layz2careIMG_9217.jpegIMG_9218.jpeg
 
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T

triangles

Test Drive
Location
Toledo, Ohio
I read so many horror stories about people who DIY using the wrong spray adhesive only to have it fail after a year or so of baking in the sun. I also saw so much conflicting info on what spray adhesive to use so I copped out and found a hole in the wall automotive upholstery shop to do it for $250 if I removed the headliner and dropped it off.
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
One of the shops I provide support for has a vehicle upholstery dept in it and I was picking their brains over it. He said the 3M headliner and trim adhesive would be fine but to use more than I think I should so I have enough adhesion of the material due to the weight.
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
Both rear door panels finished and reinstalled, headliner finished, just waiting on my vinyl wrap guy to finish wrapping the map storage frame so I can reinstall the headliner. Front door skins started and one visor about 60% done. The visor wrap is the biggest PITA of everything so far. You have to disassemble the visor, remove the old material, pull the inner rigid form and mount bar. Then you have to measure the material and align it so it lines up the same way as the headliner. Once that's done, you have to glue the headliner material to the cardboard frame and trim off all the foam while leaving the material intact from the overhanging parts so you can wrap it around and glue that separately before reassembling everything and stitching it back together. I will be attempting to machine sew it with Tex70 weight upholstery thread and 110/18 needles without destroying my wife's embroidery machine (pray for me).
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

Liqudstone. Doctor Liqudstone.
Supporting Member
Location
Big Island
Peacemkr45 said:
Both rear door panels finished and reinstalled, headliner finished, just waiting on my vinyl wrap guy to finish wrapping the map storage frame so I can reinstall the headliner. Front door skins started and one visor about 60% done. The visor wrap is the biggest PITA of everything so far. You have to disassemble the visor, remove the old material, pull the inner rigid form and mount bar. Then you have to measure the material and align it so it lines up the same way as the headliner. Once that's done, you have to glue the headliner material to the cardboard frame and trim off all the foam while leaving the material intact from the overhanging parts so you can wrap it around and glue that separately before reassembling everything and stitching it back together. I will be attempting to machine sew it with Tex70 weight upholstery thread and 110/18 needles without destroying my wife's embroidery machine (pray for me).
Click to expand...
That is going to be one nice looking truck!
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
Well, I already tore down the second one (that's the easy part) and I'll get pictures of the layout and recovering.

Now to start tracking down in bumper fog lights and the updated headlight stalk.
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
Trust me, It's a labor of love as I'm doing all this to give the car to my daughter. While the labor itself isn't hard it's tedious and time consuming. I still have to finish gluing the second visor then sewing both of them with green upholstery thread. Working with quilted material adds a whole new set of frustrations. The small pictures make everything look great but there's flaws all over the place. Open the first door panel image in a new window and look under the door handle. Just one of many touch up areas I need to figure out how to patch. Given that I've never done or even attempted doing this before, I'm amazed it's even remotely close to looking decent.
 
Peacemkr45

Peacemkr45

Bought an X
Location
DFW, TX
BEEFY said:
Great job, turned out so good. Just need you to come do mine but I want yellow thread. Thanks
Click to expand...
The headliner came from an Etsy.com seller out of Turkey and 4M was about $180 USD. Yellow quilted vinyl. I still have about a meter left but wanted extra in case I messed up somewhere (which I did).

tools needed:
philips bit for a cordless drill
10mm socket for same
3" cone type wire wheel
8-10mm wide standard screwdriver
wooden spudging tool (homemade out of hardwood)
Performance Tool W80645 Door Panel / Upholstery Removal Tool
small drill index
heavy duty scissors
about 20 spring clips
1 quart size ziplock bag (to hold the small parts you will undoubtedly lose without the bag)
Retractable 13 Point Break-Away Razor Knife (the smaller one)
Regular household iron
Black and red markers so you can make your rough cut pieces and make where the wholes need to be.

Adhesives needed
3M headliner and trim spray adhesive or similar
small can of contact cement

Materials needed
3-4 meters of foam backed headliner material
matching upholstery thread (if going with the quilted headliner) min of 72 or 90 lb strength
upholstery needles (18/110 or larger)
Roll of blue masking tape
scrap paper, butcher paper, newspaper, etc to stop overspray of adhesive.


Additional needed
Both indoor and outdoor work areas that will handle the headliner tub in a temperature controlled environment (indoor obviously) so the adhesives can dry and cure. Working and curing temp must be above 18C for a minimum of 24 hours. If possible, do not store any of the glued items in the house due to offgassing for at least 24 hours. (guess who learned that the hard way?)
weights like 3-4cm thick books (appx .5Kg or better each) so you can weigh down portions of the headliner while the adhesive cures.

Ideally you'll want a serging machine (heavy duty sewing machine for upholstery) but you can use a regular machine or handstitch things together for the visors. Hand sewing will be time consuming and rather painful and you will break at least 2 needles.

When I have time, I'll do a complete write up how-to but this should get you started in collecting what you need.
 
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