Thread: Sagging headliner

Originally Posted by BradC

I probably did. I suppose the point I was making is it's not a small job and paying someone else to do it can be worth it.

You did and I agree with paying someone else. I suppose the point I was making is that we both have good memories

For anyone still looking at this thread, I've just paid $750 to an automotive headliner shop in Brisbane to have this done.

I did remove all the trims and handles, sun visors myself. But still got an earful from the person at the shop about how difficult it was to do etc.

If you're Brisbane based, looking to get this done on the south Side, feel free to drop me a message as I will let you know who I used - I wouldn't recommend as they were extremely rude and pushy, regardless of the quality of work.

Originally Posted by discomatt69

To do it properly all the old foam backing must be removed from the roof lining panel, then new foam is needed to be glued on before re glueing the lining.

When I've done it the lining came with the foam attached as one piece (not Landrover).

Just a tip for those tempted to minimise outlay and DIY. This isn't landrover specific but if you pull out a headliner remove the lining and expose the foam/liner to the sun for a few days. The UV seems to destroy the integrity of the remaining foam and makes it almost fall off by itself. In my case it was a Volvo 740 wagon, but once the foam had been in the sun for a few days, it just fell to bits when I hit it with a vacuum. I went from trying to scrape it with a stainless scraper, to just hoovering it up.

The other tip is if your headliner is falling down and you really need it to "just last a bit longer" the brass "drawing pins" with the large slightly domed head push into the backing material and hold the liner in place. "We're not fancy, but we're cheap. Eh!".

As some good info for owners in Perth W.A...

I used a local motor trimmer, fast, tidy job, did the A pillar trims (extra $50) and didnt complain.
I removed nothing from a D3, i think it was $550 from memory, he said I can save some cash if I remove it first, I look at him and said I wont be doing that.
He was happy either way.

Jordan - 0447 445 379

I’ve just done this removing and installing myself and getting a trimmer to recover the A B and C pillars and headliner. According to him it’s the biggest PIA headliner on the road to do due to size.

Removing the headlining and pillars was pretty easy following the workshop manual. I took out one of the back sides to get enough drop angle to get it out the back but it depends on how brave you are bending it ultimately.

First drama was getting the headliner to the trimmer as in a 8x5 cage trailer it wanted to fold in half over 40kmh. Several stops to adjust and solved that.

I left it at the trimmer and drove around for a few weeks with curtain airbags on display. The trimmer did a great job and I fitted the headliner in at his shop while he did a seat bolster repair on driver’s seat out of the car.

Back home I refitted the pillars but this is where the fun really starts. I ended up replacing about 40% of the push studs which I bought in advance. Just removing the items breaks quite a few.

Especially the rear cargo side panels and D pillars it is really difficult to line them up with the holes and get them in without breaking multiple clips. Get it wrong and they break or flatten. You can choose to do up the retaining screws and ignore or start again.

The D pillars need to go on first before side panels which overlap at the bottom of the pillars and I ultimately removed both sides. The cargo side panels have a difficult alignment where they clip under the window.

My suggestion is that the trimmer will not have the spare clips or patience and relies a lot on bending the hell out of things to reinstall. You will have a lot of broken clips and vibration sources after the job. It’s unavoidable if you don’t do it in the right sequence.

Reinstallation is 3x the effort of disassembly. It’s really slow going to get it right and you need a clip kit which you can get from AF. Half the cargo area gets disassembled to get it right however this was an opportunity to clean out heaps of dust and sand.

Very nice again once done especially the A pillars that were very shabby before.

Just to add...

the motor trimmer i noted didnt remove all the pillars completely, i wasnt sitting there watching but they had it out in a very short time.
the biggest time was stripping sanding recoating, again it was back in very quickly.

As it was my mate's D3 while the head lining was out he did the roof in Car Builders heat and sound sheet. I think it was 1 box.
As someone that is in and out of D4s all the time, I think yes it made a noticeable difference to deadening the sound in a D3. While I was a septic I'd do it on other project jobs.

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

While I was a septic

Hopefully you were more of a sceptic than a septic, Dazza.

Yes if you are brave to bend you can save a lot of time. Everything tucks into the piece below it.

The headliner has 5 hidden press clips that hold up the middle across the car and getting these aligned before pushing in requires a little wriggle room. Because of the centre overhead console also holding up the roof they are maybe not missed.

Full removal of all pillars and disassembly of the B pillars seat belt adjustment was needed to recover them.

It’s like a Tetris game.

Driving around for two weeks without a headliner it was astonishing how much noise it cancels. Like being in a hiace minivan.

There’s a few panels of deadener from factory but more is an excellent idea. Something from a tree fell on the roof while I was driving and it was like a gunshot.