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FCP Euro Service Kits

FCP Euro Kits

IMG_20140226_194802The headliner on your car serves multiple functions. It insulates passengers from the searing heat and brisk cold of the sheet metal roof, provides isolation from wind, rain, and road noise, and also makes the interior of your car look more habitable.

It's usually made of a cardboard or fiberglass composite backing with a glued foam and cloth backing. When the material gets old, exposed to heat and cold, or worn off by fingers, hands, and tools, the cloth portion can begin to separate from the foam and sag lower and lower onto unsuspecting passengers and drivers. Not only is it an annoying eyesore, it can also be a dangerous situation since it can block the driver's view from the rear view mirror.

An unsightly sagging headliner that's coming down can be replaced in it's entirety, but can be prohibitively expensive. The large unwieldy size combined with the delicate and easy to damage backing usually makes the entire headliner fairly expensive to purchase, especially from the dealership. I was quoted over $1200 for a new headliner board from Volvo for my Volvo XC90  which quickly got my mind spinning on how to DIY the headliner board.

This project isn't hard, difficult, or expensive. What it is, is time-consuming and messy. This is something that will take a weekend of sweating and getting covered in foam particles, while getting high on spray-adhesive, and getting every inch of your hands glued to each other.

STEP 1 - REMOVE THE INTERIOR ACCESSORIES ATTACHED TO THE HEADLINER
The headliner can usually be removed if all of the interior accessories such as the pull handles, the rear view mirror, sunroof trim, are removed. Consult the forums for your car to locate guides on how to remove the interior accessories and headliner. For my Volvo XC90, the sunroof trim, pull handles, dome lights, rear view mirror, rear roof electronics and trim, and sunroof control panel, had to be removed. A plastic trim removal tool is very useful in removing trim pieces without damaging them.

STEP 2 - REMOVE THE HEADLINER BOARD
Try to keep the old fabric attached to the headliner. When it's removed, it leaves small particles of foam everywhere that are difficult to clean. On a hatchback or SUV, the headliner can usually be removed from the rear trunk hatch. On a sedan or coupe, the seats probably need to be removed to get enough room to remove the headliner board in one piece. It's usually made of cardboard or fiberglass composite, so be careful removing it to prevent damaging it. Have a set of sawhorses or a large fold-up table set in your garage or outside to keep things clean. 

STEP 3 - STRIP THE HEADLINER BOARD

On some like Volvos, the engineers had a strange fascination with gluing the overhead wiring harness to the headliner board. The adhesive can be softened with a heat gun or hair dryer (if you're patient) while the harness is slowly pulled off. The glue can then be scraped off with a paint scraper or razor blade. Clean the wiring harness. I like to re-install the wiring harness back into the car without the headliner using zip ties and cable mounting bases with high-temperature adhesive.

Once the wiring harness is removed (if applicable), it's time to strip the fabric from the headliner. Just grab a corner and pull to separate the fabric from the foam backing. Once the fabric is removed, use a stiff bristled brush and brush the foam backing off of the headliner board. This is one of the messier and time-consuming parts - you will pretty much have a mess of small particles of foam to clean up. A vacuum with a soft bristled attachment is useful in cleaning this up.

To make sure the adhesive bonds the fabric and headliner board together, it's very important that the headliner board is clean and all of the old foam material is removed.

STEP 4 - GLUE NEW FABRIC TO THE HEADLINER BOARD

For headliner boards,  it's recommended to get foam-backed fabric. The foam backing helps to insulate the cabin against noise and heat and helps to make a wrinkle-free install. I've seen it done with non-foam backed fabric, but it takes a lot of time to apply without wrinkles and makes repair very difficult if the headliner needs to be done again. Various online fabric shops will sell headliner fabric measured by length and width. If you're doing the sunroof and/or any of the pillar covers, make sure to account that into what needs to be purchased.

The adhesive used also need to be carefully selected. Aerosol spray adhesive is the most common and easiest to get, but I've also seen it done with liquid adhesive applied with a brush. Whichever adhesive you choose, make sure it's rated for applying headliners. The adhesive must stand up to the extreme heat and cold of a car without breaking down and possibly causing you to redo the headliner again.

Lay the foam-backed fabric across the length of the headliner board and measure off a few inches longer than you need on either side. Cut the fabric and then fold about 15 inches of the fabric over. The key to applying the fabric and adhesive without wrinkles is to take your time and carefully mold the fabric into the nooks and crannies of the headliner board.

Spray and coat both the foam backside of the fabric and the headliner board with headliner adhesive and fold the cloth back and slowly. Use a stiff bristled brush or a foam roller to apply the fabric to the headliner board - if you use your hands and aren't even and careful with the pressure, you may leave marks or indentations into the fabric. Follow up with an iron set on low heat to help set the glue and get rid of wrinkles.

Once that small section is done, fold up the fabric, and continue applying the adhesive in small sections. Take your time and use heat carefully and you can apply the fabric to be wrinkle free. When you're done, consult the label on the adhesive to determine the amount of time to let the adhesive set.

STEP 5 - TRIM THE FABRIC AND CUT OUT SECTIONS FOR ACCESSORIES AND TRIM PIECES

Once the adhesive has set, get a pack of new razor blades and trim the fabric from the edges. You can either leave about an inch and use the adhesive to clue it to the underside of the board or trim it close to the board and leave it. The fabric will dull the blades quickly so have extras ready.

You will also need to cut out holes for the interior lighting, pull handles, and sunroof opening (if equipped). The openings don't need to be exact, but usually I like to keep a small border of fabric to fold back into the trim piece and keep the edges looking neat when the trim is installed again. For through-holt bolt mounts, you don't have to cut a perfect circle. Just cut out an X in the fabric for the fastener to go through. Use a hair dryer or an iron on low heat to iron out any wrinkles. Touch up any sections of fabric that weren't glued correctly.

Now is the time to install any additional soundproofing or noise insulation into the car before the headliner goes in.

STEP 6 - REINSTALL THE HEADLINER AND ACCESSORIES
Usually once you've had the headliner out, you can get it back in quite easily. Installation is the opposite of removal, just pay attention to the orientation and direction of pull handles (left hand / right hand sides) and other interior pieces.

Enjoy your headliner that you didn't have to pay an obscene amount of money to replace!

How has your experience been working on the headliner in your car?

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Written by :
Andrew Peng

Andrew is an aerospace engineer and car fanatic that enjoys working on his garage of Volvos and Subarus. When he’s not busy attending car meets and shows or taking things apart, he enjoys driving his cars and finding interesting new ways to break them. He can be reached via his personal website at http://andrewpeng.net, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, or Twitter.


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