Headliner tutorial

First of all, Harofreak has an excellent write-up about headliner replacement here. http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ic.php?t=21182 I’m just adding my own thoughts cause I always like to have a second opinion.

Board Removal
There are members here that have removed the board from both the front and rear passenger doors, but that requires quite a bit of bending, and the board is about as strong as laminated tissue paper, so bending it really creases it. I found through trial and error that the only way to get it out with out causing major damage is to remove the front passenger door, both front seats, the console, and the shifter assembly. Afterwards, it slides out easily.

Door-
1. Remove the interior panel. There are screws behind the door handle cover, the black cover above the armrest-handle, and the interior lights.
2. There are plugs lining the perimeter of the door--use a trim fork to pull them out.
3. Unplug all the wires and get them ready to feed through the hole when you pull the door off. There is a picture below to show how to route them when you reinstall the door.
4. With a marker, trace the outline of where the hinges bolt to the door. This is so you know where to align it later.
5. Remove the four nuts bolting the door to the hinge. Leave the hinges attached to the car.
6. Reinstallation: When you reinstall the door, you have to be very careful to align it properly before you even try to close it because the clearance is so tight.
Front seats- Very straightforward.
Console-
1. First pop out the bottom of the storage area under the armrest. There are two nuts in that area to remove.
2. Remove shifter ****. There is a clip on the front side of the ****—pull it out and the **** lifts off.
3. Remove two screws from the ashtray, then lift up on the entire plastic top of the console. There are two or three bolts in there to remove.
4. Detach the long clip in the front of the console, under the dash.
5. Unplug cigarette lighter wire.
Shifter- This isn’t 100% necessary to remove, but it gives you that last two inches you need to get the board out.
1. Detach shifter linkage by pulling out the clip in the end of the plastic ball joint socket then pull the socket off.
2. Detach Shift Interlock cable. This is kind of a “half ball joint”—slip the cable up over the end of the ball.
3. Remove four bolts, then let the whole assembly sit over buy the pedals. You don’t have to unplug it.
Trim-
A pillars- well i never figured how to get those off without breaking.
B pillars- can’t really remember, but I think there is a plug in top and the bottom.
C pillars- two plugs
Grab handles- http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...handle+removal
Map Light- for sunroof cars, this will stay attached to the headliner board. Just unplug the wires when you get it down.
Sunvisors- The inside brackets have a clip that you pull down with a screwdriver, then they pull off. The outside brackets have two screws. Beware that the board is ready to come down when you pull the visor brackets.
Board- After you pull all the trim pieces off, the board is really just held up by the sunroof gasket (if you have it) and Velcro in the back.

Recovering
I bought my material from www.yourautotrim.com, and am happy with it. Harofreak00 got his from www.hancockfabrics.com and he’* happy with it too. Randman1 got his from a local shop and he’* happy with it three. At any rate, you’re gonna need 2 yards of it in 54” width for the headliner, and three yards if you’re gonna do the sunroof cover at the same time. On the Bonneville club, 3M Super Trim Adhesive #08090 is the generally accepted glue, but I hated it. It is not sticky when you’re working with it, so unless you’ve got everything clamped down, it’* not going to bond. I had a lot of trouble in the maplight area and it didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. Instead I recommend Permatex Heavy Duty Headliner Adhesive, sold at Autozone. I used this stuff for the Sunroof cover, and it is better. However, the Permatex is too sticky—It will leave permanent fingerprints and marks from your clamps if you’re not careful. I used 2.5 cans of adhesive total on the headliner and sunroof cover.

Edit: jrs3800 used Permatex and it did not last. Use the 3M instead.

1. Remove all foam residue from your board.
2. Follow instructions on your can of glue, spraying both the fabric and the board.
3. And now the most important part, lay the fabric on the board and clamp it. If you use 3M glue, if you make a mistake you can easily pull the material back off and try again. The Permatex is much more sticky and you’ll want to get it right the first time.
4. The factory headliner was rolled around the front edge only, but I recommend rolling around all the edges to get more contact…why not?
5. After the glue dries, trim all the holes flush. i.e. grab handle holes, map light.

If you have an aftermarket moonroof:
Then your board was cut away by the installers, and you’re screwed, like I was. I went to the junkyard and got a board from a factory moonroof car, but the sunroof cutout didn’t match mine. I had to trim away part of it, and fill in part of it. You’ll just have to improvise.



The console might put up a fight.





Family project-that'* my dad, brother, and grandpa

post any additions or corrections if ya got em.

how many hours do that take?

Good job!

This is my favorite pic:



Good choice of beverages too! ...Diet Dew drinker here, too.

I don't really know. We spent 6 days on it, but most of that was spent hunting for and modifying a new board. I'd say its a 2-3 day project for two people if you have everything you need.

family project. cool.

nice job. whats next on the project.

oh yeah GOT CLOTHS PIN ?

haha i love it how you use my clothes pin and can technique...

still holdin up alright?

you did a very nice job...

If you're doing all this work anyways, why not go ahead strip the entire interior and do a Dynamat job on it?
Any time you see a project like this on the horizon, think of any other projects you might want to do. Minimizes the amount of labor for multiple projects.

Great job and great writeup. The headliner is probably one of the biggest pain in the neck projects to do, and yours came out VERY VERY nice!!! Great to see you have a helpful family too, thats cool.

Thanks for the pics and writeup.

Update:

For some reason the material was too thick to put on the sunroof shade panel, and after a summer of opening and closing the roof, the fabric caught something and tore in the back of the cover. Luckily it can't be seen unless the cover is completely closed, which i never do.

On the upside, the two imperfections around the maplight completely dissappeared.