Sagging head liner repair - Painting the board

[Ezeman]

I posted this project because of the level of support AURLO members have offered me in the past. This is an awesome site and I'll continue to seek advice from the members. So, thank you.

As with many older Land Rovers, the headlining of my Range Rover Classic was sagging. To be more accurate, there was not one bit of felt stuck to the roof any more; and it was held up in an artfully designed chesterfield pattern, by a series of thumb tacks.

After some extensive internet research (mostly on AULRO, thanks guys) I decided to remove and repair. This is how I did it and any issues that I found along the way.

Removing the ceiling board was fairly simple. I just had to unscrew all that was on the driver's side of the roof (sun visors, handles, lights & rear speakers) and some plastic plugs - fortunately, I didn't need to worry about a sun roof. Watch that you support the board, or it will crease. Not a problem if recovering but it will show through the paint.

I found the safest way to remove the plugs was to carefully lever them out a little and then wrap a bit of string (I used a thin guy rope) around the shaft a couple of times and wiggled back and forward, while pulling. I managed not to break any that way.



With a little care and persuasion the board came out relatively easily, with just a little bending at one corner to get past the rear seatbelt mechanism.

The felt just fell/pulled off, leaving a mess of sticky red foam that was easy to remove. I got the bulk of it off by simply rubbing it with my hand. The more I rubbed, the stickier my hand got and the easier the foam disintegrated.


Old Lining and foam waiting to be cleaned.

I stole a pot scrubber from the kitchen and washed the rest off, then hosed it clean. This was a gamble, because i couldn't be too sure how the board would take the water. It's two sheets of very thin & porous fibreglass, with some sponge in the middle. It took on some water by dried OK, eventually.

So what to do next?? Re-felt or paint the headlining board. I decided to paint it and if it didn't work, then I could always re-felt it later.



The board takes paint well.

2 coats of British Paints 4-in-1 undercoat
2 coats of Dulux Sotne effect paint (mistake)
2 coats of Exterior low-sheen paint (would have been better with NO sheen)
Small sponge rollers

I saw on AULRO that any textured paint would do, but I made the mistake of getting Stone texture from Bunnings - this rather unsurprisingly dried far too rough and had lots of tiny black beads showing through. I'm sure it would have looked fine on a wall but it looked terrible on the board. So I found a good flat exterior paint at Masters and painted on top of the "pre-textured" board.


Low sheen paint - a pretty good match of colour was called Paving Stone

Colour matching was a pig. All attachments had their own colour variation and the original felt was that dirty it was useless. But the paint I ended up with (shown above) had a good enough colour match (I thought the sun visors were the most important to match to) and it didn't go on too badly with a sponge roller. It seems quite difficult to get matt paint in Oz so I used low-sheen, it looks OK but if you look closely, you can see some roller marks. I decided to use a roller so I could touch up later; I didn't like the idea of spraying upside down, once inside the car.


All painted and ready to be fitted.

Before refitting, I went to Clarke Rubber and got some dense foam insulation, with foil on one side. I measured a 15mm gap but it was far too thick at some points. Fortunately the foam was made out of 3x5mm layers and the top layer simply pealed off, making it a perfect fit. Cutting the insulation was really easy and the thinned-down 10mm rubber fitted beautifully.


Nice insulation, better than the original.


Insulation stuck very nicely.

I used Shelly's Kwik Grip Gel Contact Adhesive and stuck the foil side to the roof with the little plastic paddle that came in the lid. I stuck the foil side to have a better chance of removing it if it didn't work and I also didn't want foil on the underside in case it reflected heat back into the car.


All nicely insulated and ready for the board refit.

Getting the board back into the car was relatively easy, just one little bend to get it past the seat belt mechanism. - and the paint didn't crack.

Starting at the front with the sun visors and Oh ****! handles, everything screwed back on nicely. I did end up with a crease at the rear handle because it bent a bit before i got all fixings in. But it straightened out OK. Some holes that were hidden by the felt are now visible (eg there was no handle above the driver's door but the holes were pre-fitted, some of the holes for the Oh ****! handles are not totally covered by the fixings & cover, and the flat rear speaker frames don't fit snugly on the concave board), but it looks great!

I read on a forum post that you should remove the door rubbers for a better fit. There was no way that the board would fit behind them, and it just butts up against the beading. Yes, you can see a small gap in places, that the felt would have masked, but it looks fine. If I did it again (Haha, no need - like, ever!) , I would consider trimming off some of the rough edges around the board, prior to painting. Although be careful not to cut into where the foam is; If you leave the fibreglass join still intact it will retain the rigidity that the join provides.,


Looks awesome!! From this angle, you can just make out the roller marks, but cant be seen from inside the car.

The roof now looks awesome and you hardly notice that it's just paint. Passengers would have a clue that it was a bit of a home-made botch job. It's a 23 year-old truck and there's plenty other worse looking bits to notice first.

In all, it maybe took a relaxed 5 hours hours of activity + board and paint drying time.
Removing board - 30 mins
Cleaning board - 30 mins
Painting board - maybe 20 mins per coat
Cutting & sticking the insulation - 60 mins
Refitting board - 60 mins
Standing back to see the result - Priceless!!

Very happy!!

[damienb]

Hi Ezeman,

Thanks for the tutorial. Was interested as I was just about to buy Stone effect as it had the strongest texture, but based on your feedback will try Suede instead. Will let you know how it goes.

Damien

[gavinwibrow]

Well done. Looks like there are pics? but I could not see them!!

[JBM770]

Is this painting method OK for a D2?
I know the handles etc are different and theres a roof console at the front.
Not prepared to retrim the headlining more than once.
James

[damienb]

My D1 is apart at the moment. Took about an hour but I lost some clips going too quickly. There's quite a few posts on the web about this.

e.g., Headliner Replacement step-by-step - Land Rover Forums - Land Rover Enthusiast Forum

I could have read this more before I tried it and would have avoided creasing it a bit, but fairly straight forward. It looks like creases only really show on the back side but want to avoid creasing it on the way in.

Any questions happy to answer. Just about to paint it.

Believe it works fine also for a D2.

[JBM770]

Pics of the painted board would be awesome.

[damienb]

First primer coat, which was just a standard acrylic primer. After brushing (medium bristle) and vacuuming fairly well it just needed painting. It sucked the primer up so wouldn't try no-primer paint. Brush was easier than roller and gave the same results. Will use a second coat of primer using a roller if possible.



/Damien

[JBM770]

Would it be worthwhile glassing up the sunroof holes while its out, seems odd to have them there when they are not used.

[damienb]

I've got sunroofs which come with their own issues

[damienb]

It's all back in but ran out of light to take photos. Used Alpine mist in dulux suede which gave quite a nice finish. Below is the board before I put it in.
250 mL/coat (i.e., one sample pot). Rolled both coats on. Looks factory until you look closely.

New 4mm shock cord for the map baskets of course. Kids destroyed the last ones. 1m $2 from bunnings.



/Damien