Headliner repaired in my 96 Z28 coupe
04-10-2005, 01:21 PM
#1
Headliner repaired in my 96 Z28 coupe A while back(Dec 2004) I noticed my headliner starting to sag down on the passenger side. I hate that ‘look’. Otherwise my car looks damn near new(Thank goodness for Zaino products!). So after talking to you guys I found out what it’s quite common. The ‘foam’ on the inside apparently disintegrates and the weight of the cloth then just drops down. I looked on Google for headliner replacement kits and found this site.
It is rather Spartan on specifics http://www.z28.com/archive/index.php/t-2391.html
Then I found this one. http://www.wlsheadliners.com/tutorials/94camaro/ This site *appears* to show how to do it but it’s far from informative/comprehensive. Anyway, I ordered this kit (They are generic and not make/model specific)
http://headlinerkit.com/index.shtml and selected the color (2001 Graphite) from here.
http://headlinerkit.com/hl03/hc.html The large kit (kit? Hahaha.. it’s the cloth and a spray can of adhesive) is what I bought. With Fedex (wasted money because I bought it thinking I would put it in right way but here it is April after ordering it in Jan) the total cost was $43.88. Here’s the breakdown:
Qty Item Name Description Price
1 Headliner Kit WLS Headliners
* Selected Color : 2001
* Selected Kit : Full Size Car Kit $ 36.95
Subtotal 1 Item : $ 36.95
Fedex Ground : $ 6.93
Total Order Amount : $ 43.88
Here we go:
Tools: Phillips screwdriver (medium size tip)
Rather stiff brush
Somewhat softer brush
Scissors
Xacto knife or box cutter
Vacuum
Latex Gloves(optional but safer)
Several baggies
Small blade screwdriver
Dust mask(s)
(optional but I needed it. Another can of suitable spray on adhesive)
Procedures:
(Take the folded sheet of foam/fabric out of the bag and let it lay flat for a day before proceeding. This is to let all the creases dissipate prior to applying the fabric to the spine.
1. Take out 3 Phillips screws on each sun visor and put screws in a baggie
2. Unscrew the Phillips screws on rearmost courtesy light(rear of headliner). I didn’t remove mine absolutely since they stayed captured in the plastic housing. On the coupes like my Z28, there is a plastic rivet holding the headliner to the roof and is located under the rear courtesy light. It’s quite stubborn and I had to use needle nose pliers to remove it. I pulled the head of the rivet down a bit with my fingers, then slid the tips of the needle nose under the head and then pulled down.
3. The plastic bezels surrounding the seat belts merely snap on/off so snap them off. Pull down to unsnap them, push up to reinsert. The seatbelt escapes the headliner via slits going to the edges of the headliner.
4. On each side of the rear passenger areas there is a coat hanger hook. Take the small blade screwdriver, put it in the small slot of the inner button and it will barely pop out a bit. While pushing the body of the coat hanger hook against the plastic sail panel, grab the inner button and pull on it. It will disengage and pull out. Put the button and the coat hanger hook in a baggie. Repeat for the other coat hanger hook. If you merely pull on the inner button and DON’T push the coat hanger hook outward, you’ll do like I did on the first one. Cuss a lot, get bulging veins, grab a pair of visegrips and mutilate the recalcitrant button beyond recognition. As I yelled “VICTORY IS MINE”, I looked at the inner design of the button and, in a more humble voice, mumbled, “oh…..”.
5. Now, to the plastic trim at the top of the window. Open your door. At the top rearmost point of the trim, grab it with both hands supinated (palms up), your fingers hooked into the inner edge of the plastic. Pull out and down. To get an idea of the angle, imagine standing behind the car and envision an analog clock face. On the drivers side you’d be pulling towards 8 o’clock, on the passenger side, you’d be pulling towards 4 O’clock. There are 3 clips on each side, so disengage all three but additionally pull these plastic pieces towards the interior of the car to a degree after each is free of the 3 clips.
6. Now pull the plastic side panels (that had the coat hanger hooks) inwards a bit to completely free the headliner. You might have to wiggle them a bit to get them free enough to pull inwards.
7. Now, with the passenger side door window down, gently lower and turn the headliner sideways and emerge from the car with the headliner.
8. I took the headliner to a spare bedroom and started peeling the old decrepit headliner fabric off. I came off in one piece but left a lot of foam and glue on the otherwise pure fiberglass ‘spine’ of the headliner.
9. The spine is quite fragile so when you handle it, be careful. Put on a long sleeve shirt, don a dust mask, put on some latex gloves, grab the stiff brush and start scuffing off the old foam. This will generate a LOT of debris as well as fiberglass particulate so that’s why you need the long sleeve shirt/gloves(maybe even goggles would be wise).
10. After most of the heavy stuff has been scuffed off, switch to the softer brush and scuff loose all the old glue/foam.
11. Lay the new fabric over the spine and cut the excess cloth, leaving at least a couple of inches of fabric hanging off all sides.
12. With the spine brushed and vacuumed to remove all dust/ loose fiberglass and the new cloth positioned as close as possible to the desired location, fold back the cloth half way over the spine, exposing the spine and the foam underside of the new fabric. Spray the adhesive on both the exposed half of the spine and the exposed half of the foam underside of the cloth. You have 2 minutes to now fold the new cloth over the wet adhesive and shape it tightly over the contours of the spine. After the 2 minutes have elapsed, it’s bonded. Repeat for the other side of the spine/foam.
13. After about 10 minutes, (and going to Home Depot to get another can of spray adhesive since the “headliner kit” provided can was now empty), I turned the headliner spine over and sprayed the adhesive on the end flaps and pulled them tight over the ends.
14. I took a pair of sharp scissors and cut the excess foam/fabric that hung off the sides since the factory version had the edge of the fabric cut flush with the spines left/right edges.
15. I then cut the fabric away from the apertures for the sun visors, rear courtesy light and seat belts.
16. After letting the assembled headliner dry for 30 minutes, I reinstalled by just reversing the removal steps.
The result looks great. Most of the time is consumed removing the old foam/glue but it took about 3 hours, back to back.
Hope this helps!
David K. Wilson
'96 Z28 355 LT1 M6 4.10 11.1 @ 121 mph
It is rather Spartan on specifics http://www.z28.com/archive/index.php/t-2391.html
Then I found this one. http://www.wlsheadliners.com/tutorials/94camaro/ This site *appears* to show how to do it but it’s far from informative/comprehensive. Anyway, I ordered this kit (They are generic and not make/model specific)
http://headlinerkit.com/index.shtml and selected the color (2001 Graphite) from here.
http://headlinerkit.com/hl03/hc.html The large kit (kit? Hahaha.. it’s the cloth and a spray can of adhesive) is what I bought. With Fedex (wasted money because I bought it thinking I would put it in right way but here it is April after ordering it in Jan) the total cost was $43.88. Here’s the breakdown:
Qty Item Name Description Price
1 Headliner Kit WLS Headliners
* Selected Color : 2001
* Selected Kit : Full Size Car Kit $ 36.95
Subtotal 1 Item : $ 36.95
Fedex Ground : $ 6.93
Total Order Amount : $ 43.88
Here we go:
Tools: Phillips screwdriver (medium size tip)
Rather stiff brush
Somewhat softer brush
Scissors
Xacto knife or box cutter
Vacuum
Latex Gloves(optional but safer)
Several baggies
Small blade screwdriver
Dust mask(s)
(optional but I needed it. Another can of suitable spray on adhesive)
Procedures:
(Take the folded sheet of foam/fabric out of the bag and let it lay flat for a day before proceeding. This is to let all the creases dissipate prior to applying the fabric to the spine.
1. Take out 3 Phillips screws on each sun visor and put screws in a baggie
2. Unscrew the Phillips screws on rearmost courtesy light(rear of headliner). I didn’t remove mine absolutely since they stayed captured in the plastic housing. On the coupes like my Z28, there is a plastic rivet holding the headliner to the roof and is located under the rear courtesy light. It’s quite stubborn and I had to use needle nose pliers to remove it. I pulled the head of the rivet down a bit with my fingers, then slid the tips of the needle nose under the head and then pulled down.
3. The plastic bezels surrounding the seat belts merely snap on/off so snap them off. Pull down to unsnap them, push up to reinsert. The seatbelt escapes the headliner via slits going to the edges of the headliner.
4. On each side of the rear passenger areas there is a coat hanger hook. Take the small blade screwdriver, put it in the small slot of the inner button and it will barely pop out a bit. While pushing the body of the coat hanger hook against the plastic sail panel, grab the inner button and pull on it. It will disengage and pull out. Put the button and the coat hanger hook in a baggie. Repeat for the other coat hanger hook. If you merely pull on the inner button and DON’T push the coat hanger hook outward, you’ll do like I did on the first one. Cuss a lot, get bulging veins, grab a pair of visegrips and mutilate the recalcitrant button beyond recognition. As I yelled “VICTORY IS MINE”, I looked at the inner design of the button and, in a more humble voice, mumbled, “oh…..”.
5. Now, to the plastic trim at the top of the window. Open your door. At the top rearmost point of the trim, grab it with both hands supinated (palms up), your fingers hooked into the inner edge of the plastic. Pull out and down. To get an idea of the angle, imagine standing behind the car and envision an analog clock face. On the drivers side you’d be pulling towards 8 o’clock, on the passenger side, you’d be pulling towards 4 O’clock. There are 3 clips on each side, so disengage all three but additionally pull these plastic pieces towards the interior of the car to a degree after each is free of the 3 clips.
6. Now pull the plastic side panels (that had the coat hanger hooks) inwards a bit to completely free the headliner. You might have to wiggle them a bit to get them free enough to pull inwards.
7. Now, with the passenger side door window down, gently lower and turn the headliner sideways and emerge from the car with the headliner.
8. I took the headliner to a spare bedroom and started peeling the old decrepit headliner fabric off. I came off in one piece but left a lot of foam and glue on the otherwise pure fiberglass ‘spine’ of the headliner.
9. The spine is quite fragile so when you handle it, be careful. Put on a long sleeve shirt, don a dust mask, put on some latex gloves, grab the stiff brush and start scuffing off the old foam. This will generate a LOT of debris as well as fiberglass particulate so that’s why you need the long sleeve shirt/gloves(maybe even goggles would be wise).
10. After most of the heavy stuff has been scuffed off, switch to the softer brush and scuff loose all the old glue/foam.
11. Lay the new fabric over the spine and cut the excess cloth, leaving at least a couple of inches of fabric hanging off all sides.
12. With the spine brushed and vacuumed to remove all dust/ loose fiberglass and the new cloth positioned as close as possible to the desired location, fold back the cloth half way over the spine, exposing the spine and the foam underside of the new fabric. Spray the adhesive on both the exposed half of the spine and the exposed half of the foam underside of the cloth. You have 2 minutes to now fold the new cloth over the wet adhesive and shape it tightly over the contours of the spine. After the 2 minutes have elapsed, it’s bonded. Repeat for the other side of the spine/foam.
13. After about 10 minutes, (and going to Home Depot to get another can of spray adhesive since the “headliner kit” provided can was now empty), I turned the headliner spine over and sprayed the adhesive on the end flaps and pulled them tight over the ends.
14. I took a pair of sharp scissors and cut the excess foam/fabric that hung off the sides since the factory version had the edge of the fabric cut flush with the spines left/right edges.
15. I then cut the fabric away from the apertures for the sun visors, rear courtesy light and seat belts.
16. After letting the assembled headliner dry for 30 minutes, I reinstalled by just reversing the removal steps.
The result looks great. Most of the time is consumed removing the old foam/glue but it took about 3 hours, back to back.
Hope this helps!
David K. Wilson
'96 Z28 355 LT1 M6 4.10 11.1 @ 121 mph
04-11-2005, 06:05 AM
#3
Yes! My car is a non-T Top car. With T-Top cars it will be closely the same except that you will have another plastic rivet in the middle of the spine from the pic I saw in one of those links. The procedure is the same. You wouldn't need the additional can of adhesive though. Be sure to let the foam sheet layout overnight(or longer) so that the wrinkles will have a chance to flatten out. They pack the sheet of fabric so tightly (and folded in half) that it has pronounced wrinkles in the folded portion by the time you get it. Btw-on mine(and perhaps your T-Top version) there are two velcro-like fasteners between the mid-point spine and the roof of the car so be sure to press those areas closed when you re-insert the headliner so that area will have all the designed support.
Good luck!
Dave
Good luck!
Dave
