What glue to repair the headlining?
Discussion
I've just been through this with an old BMW Mini. It took three goes to get it to work.Three rounds of removing the headliner panel, all the associated interior bits that hold it in place, cutting fabric, gluing it on & refitting the lot only to watch it sag again within a week.
Two things from my experience, once the foam backing starts to disintegrate. there's no real saving the headliner, best to replace. It crumbles to dust & realistically, the glue has nothing to adhere to from that point. All the Youtube tutorials will tell you to use spray adhesive. I tried three different brands from Screwfix to 3M specific headliner adhesive & none of them worked. In the end, I used a tin of Wickes contact adhesive & applied it to the panel with a brush. Four months on & it's rock solid. Whiffed a bit for a few days but worked.
If I was doing it again, knowing what I know now, I'd dump the job on a trimmer. It's a pain in the arse.
Two things from my experience, once the foam backing starts to disintegrate. there's no real saving the headliner, best to replace. It crumbles to dust & realistically, the glue has nothing to adhere to from that point. All the Youtube tutorials will tell you to use spray adhesive. I tried three different brands from Screwfix to 3M specific headliner adhesive & none of them worked. In the end, I used a tin of Wickes contact adhesive & applied it to the panel with a brush. Four months on & it's rock solid. Whiffed a bit for a few days but worked.
If I was doing it again, knowing what I know now, I'd dump the job on a trimmer. It's a pain in the arse.
The key thing is to get the panel as clean as possible. After three tries, mine was not great but trowelling on contact adhesive with a sacrificial brush worked.
In practice, the way to do it is to lay the new fabric over the panel, ensuring it's lined up straight, fold it back over itself hallfway & then apply glue in a line across the width of the panel which creates an anchor point for the fabric. Then more glue across half the panel & smooth the fabric by hand to the end of the panel, paying particular attention to nooks & crannies. What you don't want is to have tension on the fabric as it goes over thngs like grab handle recesses. That ups the risk of the fabric pulling away from the panel. Then repeat on the other half, trim it as required - good idea to fold it over the panel in places where the panel won't be covered by weatherstrip trims etc. such as at the front where the panel meets the windscreen.
Once you lay the fabric, you'll have a few minutes only to lift & adjust it if you have any ripples or folds before the adhesive starts to go off. It's a bit of a one shot thing, so it pays to take your time & get it right. I would imagine in the factory, they're pressed on which makes life easy I should think.
Doing the headliner is pretty easy, the real ag is ripping the interior out. Rear view mirror, grab handles, A,B & C pillar trims, interior lights...
In practice, the way to do it is to lay the new fabric over the panel, ensuring it's lined up straight, fold it back over itself hallfway & then apply glue in a line across the width of the panel which creates an anchor point for the fabric. Then more glue across half the panel & smooth the fabric by hand to the end of the panel, paying particular attention to nooks & crannies. What you don't want is to have tension on the fabric as it goes over thngs like grab handle recesses. That ups the risk of the fabric pulling away from the panel. Then repeat on the other half, trim it as required - good idea to fold it over the panel in places where the panel won't be covered by weatherstrip trims etc. such as at the front where the panel meets the windscreen.
Once you lay the fabric, you'll have a few minutes only to lift & adjust it if you have any ripples or folds before the adhesive starts to go off. It's a bit of a one shot thing, so it pays to take your time & get it right. I would imagine in the factory, they're pressed on which makes life easy I should think.
Doing the headliner is pretty easy, the real ag is ripping the interior out. Rear view mirror, grab handles, A,B & C pillar trims, interior lights...
Edited by President Merkin on Monday 24th October 12:20
I don't consider my car a shed, but I had the head lining repaired near Poole for £280 earlier this year. By no means was it a pristine job (one of the courtesy lights stopped working and the sunroof close button opens it and the open button closes it!) but those issues were fixed easily and £280 was a steal, so didn't feel hard done by overall
Happy to share the garage's details with anyone here
Happy to share the garage's details with anyone here
Deranged Rover said:
if the foam backing is starting to crumble then it will never re-stick properly.
You need to remove the headlining completely, clean all the old foam off and then re-stick it using spray contact adhesive.
^^^That.You need to remove the headlining completely, clean all the old foam off and then re-stick it using spray contact adhesive.
Common issue on Classic Range Rovers.
Need to use a high temperature tolerant adhesive.
Used these when I redid my Range Rover's headlining for the material & the adhesive.
www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/glues-and-...
Be warned though - their contact adhesive does what it says on the tin! Instant grab and NO leeway to slide things around a bit!
Edited by paintman on Monday 24th October 21:15
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