Droopy headlining in your Range Rover? PIC HEAVY

[richardthestag]

Thought I would share this with you. Others with 70's and 80's cars afflicted with droopy bits might be able to use the following.

 

Although the work was spread over 2 weekends there is probably about 4 hours work here

 

Usual problem, headlining separates from its foam backing which stays attached to the back board.

 

I tried to squirt some glue into the space but my time was completely wasted. That is what cause the ugly stain above the drivers seat, nowt to do with brylcreem.

 

This is the problem, by no means the worst I have ever seen but annoying all the same.

 

 

 

I looked at the nationwide solution but baulked at the cost. Woolies sent me a sample of the widest roll that they stock. That was a smidge over 57inches.

BEWARE you will not get away with anything any narrower. The widest bit is right at the back of the headlining due to the deep dish effect in that area.

 

So I ordered it and 2 cans of glue, all in £60ish delivered. Not bad I thought.

 

First haul out the old lining. Best to take out the whole thing on that backboard unless you want to spend the rest of your life hovering bits of foam dust out of the car.

 

Obviously, sun visors and centre clip need to come out, also the alarm sensor above the mirror if fitted.

 

 

The three “feck†handles have 4 screws each under the plastic clip at the end, these can be released carefully using a flat blade screwdriver.

 

 

Two interior lights are fixed to the roof with two short screws accessed from inside the light unit.

 

Pull the light unit down and you will find the electrical connector hidden in a load of tape

 

 

 

One of mine had a small deceased community in it.

 

Next I removed the rear speakers and 4 bungs from inside the top tailgate and above the rear side windows. I also removed the rear seat belts entirely. Folded the rear seat flat, shifted the front seats right forwards and removed the front head rests.

 

 

From the back of the back of the car, the rear edge of the headlining is held in place by a metal clip, shove the lining forwards slightly and it should drop like that ^^

 

 

Now how to get it out! Some say you have to take out the spare wheel but that is where my LPG tank is. I found by removing the boot trim from around the barry bass box on the other side of the boot (I have no barry bass box, you might need to remove that also) I could manoeuvre the headlining out at an angle.

 

 

Yay

 

 

The old material came away very easily, leaving a crumbly foam substance and its backing glued to the back board.

 

 

This could also easily be peeled away. Cleaned up the area with a hand brush and was left with bare glass fibre backing.

 

 

Roll on a week. This is the backboard clean and with new material. The staining on the front edge is down to the failed attempt to re-glue the failed headlining.

 

 

Laid the headlining out and made sure it was square

 

 

Folded it in half down the middle, the idea is to work on one half at the time.

 

 

Following the instructions on the glue can, and wearing disposable gloves I glued one half into place. Took my time and smoothed the lining into place carefully as I worked methodically. The front section was a bit fiddly but again working an inch at the time and smoothing the fabric achieved good results.

 

 

With the other half done it looked like this

 

 

I turned it over and worked around the edges to glue the return edge, being careful to keep the glue away from the front edge.

 

 

 

It ended up looking like this

 

I marked screw holes with a pencil, used a screwdriver to punch holes through where bungs and sunvisors need to fix. The carefully using a knife cut a cross from the middle of speaker, alarm and roof light holes. Then from the reverse I glued the excess to the rear of the board.

 

Now to get it back into the car.

 

 

It goes in here without too much of a struggle.

 

 

But before doing that I though t I would check out the radio booster. I have had poor radio signal since I bought the car nearly 7 years ago. The coax cable had been shoved into the hole but not secured using the threaded nut. Easy fix with the headlining out

 

With the headlining back in the car, I balanced the front edge on top of the rear view mirror and then secured the rear edge in the metal channel. I refitted the two bungs that hold the rear in place. Then at the front I refitted the front roof light. This got the lining in roughly the right place.

 

This is it after refitted the sunvisors. Feck andles were a fiddle but by finding the captive nut with the screw first I was able to get one end fitted. The other end was then easier to find and secure.

 

 

This is the back end. The marks on the lining are from my fingers and brushed out again.

 

 

Last thing to do was refit the rear speakers and seatbelts.

 

Very happy with my amateur efforts, not perfect by any means but very presentable indeed.

[dollywobbler]

Nice one. I just took the headlining out of my Rangie, which meant it got VERY hot on sunny days!

[rml2345]

That's a great write up Richard! Part of me wishes I'd done it like that rather than with carpet.

[FredTransit]

in the interests of tightness, would it have been possible to remove the foam and re use the original fabric?

[Spiny Norman]

That's a great write up Richard! Part of me wishes I'd done it like that rather than with carpet.

Dunno, your Volvo's carpeted headlining is quite a talking point at Scotoshite meets when new arrivals are led out into the car park for their "initiation" strokage....

 

That's an excellent write up, as an ex Saab 900 owner I know all about droopy headlinings, some of the 900s out there have so many pins holding theirs up they look like the sort of button-backed dralon sofas you got back in the decade that taste forgot.

[Guest]

Well done, but, for mine, I say feck that for a game of sodjers. I'm using draper's screw in pins.

[Junkman]

So where did you get the new material, what exactly is it, and in which colours is it available?

[KruJoe]

I was going to do a thread on this, inspired by a line in a recent Montego thread.

...the work was spread over 2 weekends, there is probably about 4 hours work here

Very happy with my amateur efforts, not perfect by any means but very presentable indeed.

Looks good, very professional I'd say! But my method takes nearer four minutes than four hours!

 

Cost of fix: £3.78 off the bay, free p+p. Item title: Twist Pins 13mm.

 

 

...so many pins holding theirs up they look like the sort of button-backed dralon sofas you got back in the decade that taste forgot.

That's not a look I was going for, so I planned for minimal twist pin usage!

 

 

My Rover has a sunroof to hold the cloth up at the front, so just the back half looked saggy.

I found that if I held the cloth up into the raised part of the ceiling behind where the sunroof slides back, (above the rear passengers heads,) the whole of the headlining looked good and tight again. I figured I could do it with just three pins in a straight line across the back. With the help of tape measure and string, I carefully measured and marked the spots...

 

 

Done! Not concourse, but I won't be looking at it much.

 

 

Job jobbed, I can forget about it now.

 

VERDICT: If you CBA with RichT'Stag's professional method of fixing your saggy-arse BL headlining, twist pins FTW!

It doesn't need to be look too bodged if you measure carefully first.

[Guest]

That's the feller for me, and I will do the same on my Excel, another candidate for "is this a car, or a fucken tent, or what?" trophy.

[richardthestag]

Cheers for the feedback.

 

Yep. Agree, even in the week i ran without headlining it was almost unbearably hot if the sun shone.

 

Carpet lol

 

I honestly dont think you could rub all the foam off and then even if you did the glue would probably stain what went back. I did briefly concider just resinstalling the bare fibreglass backing.

 

The stuff i used was from woolies-trim.co.uk 01778 347347.

 

They sent me a sample and catalogue which i have to hide if i is drinkin

 

I called, lady i spoke to was fantastically helpful, the fabric was called dove grey but the do loads of stuff. I chose dove gray because it was the widest they had. And at 57.5 inches i needed it. £14 / metre + p&p + glue.

 

Like the pimp buttoned headling, mistake i made was using staples and drawing pins. The bastards just fall out again.

[brickwall]

Great write up! I'll get the stuff together

[Lord Sterling]

Excellent write up man! Never done a headlining before hut I have heard of it being done, Rovers also do suffer from droopy headlining, so far the KV6 has a great headlining still holding up well. The G-reg Sterling had a good headlining when I had in on the road, but it got promptly ruined by me twatishly shoving the rear bumper in when it first got recovered and then when the sunroof drain channels got blocked up in which water leaked into the headboard and subsequently some of the lining, particularly at the front. Seems ok still now though.

[Vin]

Great work. Both the 126 and the Panda MK1 have suffered the same rotten headlining sponge syndrome.

 

Neither of them now have a headlining.

 

I also managed to 'destroy' them whilst removing them, so it is unlikely they will be furnished with replacements of any kind in the near future...

[Spiny Norman]

[richardthestag]

Just needs the gold tooth and white fur coat to finish it.

 

Pimptastic

[Junkman]

 

This reminds me of the sagging headliner in our long gone Olds Ninety-Eight Regency. It was - like the rest of the pimp-tastic interior - dark red. I used chromed buttons to chesterfieldise it and my daughter found it 'posh', which prompted me to believe that being a Shiter is in your genes.

[barmatt]

I did the headlining in my old disco a couple of weeks ago. Took it out, cleaned it off and gave it a couple of coats of matt black from rattle cans. Looked awesome.

[purplebargeken]

Epic fix. Looks brilliant.

[stuboy]

i used staple gun on my mates rooflining of his pug 405 estate

[Brent_Crude]

Just stumbled across this and am most appreciative to you, Rich - you've made it look easy. I will give it a go when time and weather permits. Only added issue is that I have a sun roof in my Rangie, but it can't be that much more difficult, can it? The headlining on the sliding panel bit of the sun roof was missing when I got the car, which has never bothered me much as I normally have it slid back anway, but I can see that being more of a bitch than doing the entire headlining.