Cadillac CTS-V - Suede Headliner & Interior DIY

I completed a number of interior Suede Interior Upgrades about a year ago that I wanted to share. This is a fantastic way to upgrade the interior of your V on the cheap, just talks a little sweat and fortitude! Total cost for supplies was about $150, did the work in a weekend.

I wrapped all the pillars, headliner, some dash pieces as well as my entire trunk. A year later the suede still looks like new, it darkened the inside quite a bit which is a great compliment to the 15% tint, it's like Dark Vader car!

I ordered all my fabric from Your Auto Trim, here is a link to their suede headliner kits: http://www.yourautotrim.com/suheki1.html

They are a fantastic vendor, ship fast and great customer service. My advice is to order all your fabric at once as the shipping is what hits the pocket book the most. Also order more than you think you need, trust me you will be happy with having extra rather than not enough.

The fabric itself is foam backed with makes it not only easier to wrap and hide creases, but also provides a fantastic soft cushy final product. However, note that you only get one chance with the foam backed stuff as if you try to peel it back up to reposition it, the foam will stay stuck and the fabric will be ruined, plus you will have to sand off the foam left on the piece you are wrapping (did this a few times).

When wrapping, over cut your pieces and take your time making smooth passes with your had to prevent any creases. On the edges, just cut multiple small strips to wrap around, these serve as stress relief and make the final product look pro.

I experimented with a few different glues, here is the one that I like the best. It has very strong hold and it highly resistant to heat and moister. You can pick it up at Lowe's for $10 a can, I went through 4 cans. Spray both the fabric and the piece you are wrapping, let sit for 5 min until tacky then wrap.

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The pillars and dash pieces were easy to remove, wrapping the pillars was slightly challenging as they are funky shapes. If you over cut your fabric then you shouldn't have any problems. The most difficult pieces to wrap were the large pillars in the back by the rear window.

Another key thing to remember, especially when doing the headliner, is to not spray the entire piece of fabric, just do one half of the piece, then the other side. Handling large pieces of fabric full of glue is a pain in the ass!

Getting the headliner out was a biotch because I did it by myself. I pulled mine out of the passenger side front door. In order to get it out I had to fold it slightly which made some terrible ripping noise however the piece was fine. I did reinforce the slim pieces around the skylight with fiberglass on the back before I put it back in.

The other piece of this is painting all the plastic trim pieces, knobs and buttons. I used this paint along with prep spray and plastic primer.

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Results were great, got a good durable glossy black shine on everything. I painted everything including the seat belt guides, both roof light/control panels and all of the pieces on the sun visors.

At first I tried to dye the vinyl on the visors black using vinyl paint. That turned out horribly. So I stripped the vinyl off, seperated the two plastic pieces on the visors and wrapped each side. I then sandwhiched them back together and used some epoxy to hold them in place.

If you want to tackle this and have any questions please let me know, I would be more than happy to help!

Here are some final results photos followed by some in-progress photos.

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This turned out really well man. Especially the trunk, it looks badass man.

1. Why does it look like you sanded the old fabric off? Was that necessary?

2. The glossy paint seems like an odd choice, considering the matte black finish everywhere else. Could we get a little bit better picture of the sunroof controls?

3. What did you do about the Bose tweeters?

4. Did you ever consider wrapping the steering column base?

5. Before you did all of this, did you consider taking those pieces to a shop and having them do a stitched Alcantara job on them?

6. Can you give us a couple of good finished shots from both the driver's seat and the rear seats?

I think the sanded pieces, aside from the a pillars were re-dos. When you peel the material back off it leaves the foam on the adhesive.

Looks good man.

Damn!!! That looks sickkkkk!!

1. Why does it look like you sanded the old fabric off? Was that necessary?

2. The glossy paint seems like an odd choice, considering the matte black finish everywhere else. Could we get a little bit better picture of the sunroof controls?

3. What did you do about the Bose tweeters?

4. Did you ever consider wrapping the steering column base?

5. Before you did all of this, did you consider taking those pieces to a shop and having them do a stitched Alcantara job on them?

6. Can you give us a couple of good finished shots from both the driver's seat and the rear seats?

1. The factory cloth is also foam backed, when you peel it off it will leave foam that needs to be removed. The part that was an issue was on the sunroof cover.

2. I tried Matte first and didn't like it, the glossy looks waaay better.

3. I pulled the entire Bose system out of my car, the pictures of the pillars was for making a custom tweeter pod in the pillar before I wrapped it. If you still have the Bose system, you can just paint the pods and screens, the screen is easily removed from the pod. The BOSE emblem can also be easily removed so you can paint the screen then glue it back on which is what I had before I got the new system in.

4. I haven't considered the base but that's not a bad idea! I got some quotes on getting the steering wheel wrapped in suede which came in around $400 from www.dallascustomsteeringwheel.com. I HATE the cheap ass looking steering wheel in these cars, that cadillac emblem looks so cheap, so before I paid to wrap the steering wheel I've been mulling over options to upgrade the center piece of the steering wheel. I wish the v2 wheels work on our rides!

5. I did consider this, but cost did not justify the result for me. Upholstery shops charge a shit load of money, the one up the street from my house wanted way too much to do the headliner for me. For $150 I'm more than satisfied and had cash left for all the engine mods!

6. I will get some more shots tomorrow of the inside of the car. It's tough because it is so dark inside now, but maybe I can pop in a shop light.

By the way you can see the factory left over foam on one of the pillar shots, only half of it is sanded.

Also, don't use the suede you can get at the local fabric shop. It SUCKS for this application, glue soaks right through it.

damn that looks good. I did my truck headliner and had to take out my seats to get the liner out. How hard was it to get the liner out of the V?

Thanks for the compliments fellas!

The headliner was a bit of work to get out, however I think with two people it would be 100 times easier. I laid my seats all the way back and got all of the pillars out of the way. I did have to fold it a touch to get it to slip out but it didn't hurt the headliner. You can easily reinforce any folds with fiberglass before you stuff it back it.

Removing the seats would make the job a lot easier.

Awesome MOD! I am now committed to doing this!

TWO QUESTIONS:
Did you reapply any foam to the headliner before you covered it in suede?

Lastly and MOST IMPORTANT, how did you repaint the sunroof control knob and dial and still keep it looking factory?

Oh, and one more question, how do you remove the rear sail panels? Somebody already tried to remove the sailpanels on my car and broke the tabs that attaches them to the car. I have not tried to repair it yet. It sucks, I can't open my back windows or the one sailpanel wants to come off.

Looks incredible man, awesome work!

I plan to do this soon to mine. I have a lead on some black seats finally so once I get them and all I will have left is the headliner and pillars, I'm going to do this for sure!

Is that a JL W6 or W7 in the trunk? I like the caddy logo on it. Lol

Oh, and one more question, how do you remove the rear sail panels? Somebody already tried to remove the sailpanels on my car and broke the tabs that attaches them to the car. I have not tried to repair it yet. It sucks, I can't open my back windows or the one sailpanel wants to come off.

I have this same problem..drives me nuts:eek2:

Could you post maybe some more and better pictures? It looks awesome. I think I just may do the same in mine.

Awesome MOD! I am now committed to doing this!

TWO QUESTIONS:
Did you reapply any foam to the headliner before you covered it in suede?

Lastly and MOST IMPORTANT, how did you repaint the sunroof control knob and dial and still keep it looking factory?

Oh, and one more question, how do you remove the rear sail panels? Somebody already tried to remove the sailpanels on my car and broke the tabs that attaches them to the car. I have not tried to repair it yet. It sucks, I can't open my back windows or the one sailpanel wants to come off.


I didn't reapply any foam, just used the foam backed suede which was more than enough, nice & soft. The same place does sell a foam that you can shape so if you artistically inclined you could shape the foam maybe with a Cadillac emblem then glue that to the headliner and wrap over it.

The sunroof knob was a little tricky. Mine was already peeling a touch so I removed all the factory paint with my thumbnail, did a 800 grit sand on it and used prep spray to make sure it was 100% clean. I then used laid down a light coat of plastic clear primer followed by 3 light coats of the plastic paint. Let it dry and it's steady as a rock! Looks great and super durable.

Another trick with plastic that works great is to wave a torch over it quickly, the heat will release the mold release agents they put into the plastic which prevents paint from adhering. The mold release agents are like pam on a hot pan, they are an oily layer that prevents many paints from sticking. Most good industrial plastic prep solvent will remove this stuff if you scrub it good with a scotch pad, make sure it is good and clean before you start to paint.

Here is a good video on the process:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/GTiCWp0unjs

The sail panels are held on in three places, the small screw that is behind the airbag plastic tab (this is a biotch to get back in by the way, use a tiny flashlight to see the hole). Undo that then there is a plastic clip that pops into the car body near the screw, pull gently to release that. Lastly the sail panel is attached by clips to the bottom door trim molding, you have to remove that bottom molding around the door first, then remove the sail panels.

I broke the inner piece off where the screw goes on first time I removed them. Easy fix, just JB welded a washer in it's place. This stuff is also incredible for plastic repair, two part plastic bonder you can pickup at any hardware store. When dry it's like a new piece of plastic:

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Here are the factory instructions for Sail Panel and Trim Removal. As always use a clip tool to remove trim and buy replacement clips from e-bay not the factory! You can get 25 clips for less than one clips at the Stealership...

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Is that a JL W6 or W7 in the trunk? I like the caddy logo on it. Lol

It's a W7, had a W6 but blew the shit out of it with a few two many watts and a badly built box from e-bay.

The W7 hits sooo hard, 1 is MORE than enough. Most of the time the sub control stays at negative 10. Also put some bass shakers in the seats, give the ladies a nice lap massage while riding in the V!

The caddy logo is a bit much, just haven't decided to pull it off yet, still debating. I had a grip of cadillac vinyl emblems so I stuck them in a few places to see which ones will stay and which will go!

Here are more pictures, sorry fellas but it is just too difficult to get a decent picture inside the car, it's too dark even with all my doors open and the only camera I have is my iphone.

I used a led light to get these photos so you will notice a blue hue to the pictures, also forgive the lint in the car, it's been sitting in the garage for a while while I wait on parts to show up for other mods. Needs a good cleaning and vaccum job.

Also note I used rubber trim around the edges of the skylight, gives it a cleaner look.



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Good job..I never do that..One day I ll try.

Where did you get the rubber trim for the sunroof?

I just looked at my V and just noticed that the sunroom dial bezel is already black. Duh! I was asking you how you painted it so perfect, haha

Got the trim from McMaster Carr.

My dial was tan so I did paint it.

Got the trim from McMaster Carr.

My dial was tan so I did paint it.

Do you have a part# for the trim?

The round bezel looks stock to me. It is a lighter shade of black. I am refering to the round bezel that surrounds the knob.

Oh gotcha, you mean the piece with the writing on it, yeah that's stock haha. Wish I had those kind of skills!

Let me track down part number.

Okay part number is 8507K67 and I ordered 10 ft of it at $1.50 per foot.

Here is the link: http://www.mcmaster.com/#trim-molding/=irezb7

It's the last one under rubber edge trim style 5, was a perfect fit and perfect length!

Okay part number is 8507K67 and I ordered 10 ft of it at $1.50 per foot.

Here is the link: http://www.mcmaster.com/#trim-molding/=irezb7

It's the last one under rubber edge trim style 5, was a perfect fit and perfect length!

Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to help us out so that we possibly don't run into any issues or delays doing this mod.

Did you use a hand held roller to lay down the material? When I think of a roller, I think of the tool you would use to put on DynaMat.

I went to the website you posted to source the material. Can you tell me what size kit you purchased? http://www.yourautotrim.com/suheki1.html

Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to help us out so that we possibly don't run into any issues or delays doing this mod.

Did you use a hand held roller to lay down the material? When I think of a roller, I think of the tool you would use to put on DynaMat.

I went to the website you posted to source the material. Can you tell me what size kit you purchased? http://www.yourautotrim.com/suheki1.html

I just used my hand no roller required for the suede! Looking through all my receipts it looks like I actually went through 5 yards of the 60" fabric (had some left over). Keep in mind this included my entire trunk so I would say you would be fine with 3 yards (108") of the 60" wide fabric. I didn't acutally buy the kit because I bought my glue from Lowe's, it's quite a bit cheaper if you just buy the fabric from them then pick up a few cans of glue from lowe's IMO.

Here is link to their bulk headliner fabric: http://www.yourautotrim.com/suheobl.html

Also you can order a sample card from them to see and feel the fabric before you purchase for $1.50: http://www.yourautotrim.com/pusuhech.html