The sagging headlining

[Station]

What makes cars do this? It seems to be mostly BL cars, but my very own Nippa started to unstick. No matter how much I tried to stick it back up again, it would slowly creep down, to the point where it fell over my head while I was driving and I had to rip the whole thing off 'in situ'. Surely gravity and crap, dried out glue aren't the only contributions to it?

 

Looking at this near perfect Rover 213. Little bit of rust, 23,000 miles, old tax discs, well looked after.

Sagging headlining.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1988-ROVER-213-S-GOLD-27-000-MILES-FROM-NEW-TAX-TEST-OUT-THE-BOX-/171174814444?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item27dad062ec

 

 

[Shep Shepherd]

Volvo 700s are notorious for sagging headlinings. Don't ask me how I know

[Morgan84]

Little map pins are a favorite 'repair' ; might be repositioned with spray glue

[Station]

Right into the metal? It would also look like one of those lumps of meat with the herby things all over it.

 

I've tried spray glue, but gravity won!

 

Also - leaves in the heater blower. The non-stop dried leaves in the face everytime you turn the blower on x infinity.

[eddyramrod]

Back when I edited a club mag, one of our members sent me an article detailing how he fixed this very issue on his Oldsmobile Cutlass.  I'm sure all the principles would apply.  If I can find it (which WILL take some time!) would you like me to send you a photocopy?  Pm me your address if so.  I'm not going to be around very much for a couple of weeks, but after that, I should be able to start searching.

[HMC]

Most Saab 900s I owned also had the same trouble. At the mo the sierra has it pinned up, and depending on the damage mot time I may put it through a local trimmers and have it properly sorted.

[RedSparrow]

Literally every Maestro I've ever seen has this problem.

I'm sure someone on here had a clever solution.

[Jim Bell]

The rear of the sunny headlining is pinned up with junior school drawing pins.

 

Glue degrades and fabric sags, but pins will always be pins.

 

If it gets worse, add more pins. It's not like theres a shortage or they're expensive. That's my motto.

[TagoraSX]

It will happen to every Audi 100 and 200 from 1983 to 1990 at some point. SD1's are also notorious for it.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

You can buy fibreglass replacements for Range Rovers,apparently the trim doesn't come unstuck from these like the original cardboard/ felt shite BL used at the factory.

[KruJoe]

Six months ago we had this thread:

http://autoshite.com/topic/13850-droopy-headlining-in-your-range-rover-pic-heavy

It includes RichardtheStag's proper method, and my quick fix* with twist pins.

[Jim Bergerac]

'The Sagging Headlining' would be a great name for a BL/ARG themed pub.

[rml2345]

Dunno what the reason on others was but on the Volvo 700s it's the actual foam stuff the cloth is stuck to that degrades over time. The only real permanent solution is to replace it with something stuck down properly but on a saloon it can be a right old faff getting the base board out. After much soul searching I probably wouldn't recommend the solution I used as it's a bit of an acquired taste...

 

[Angrydicky]

On Maestros it's the same problem, the foam stuff on the back of the headlining material that disintegrates. My Maestro's headlining is no exception, despite the material having been replaced once before. I can only think the special headlining glue bought off Ebay was a load of shit as a couple of years on it's brushing on the driver's head again.

 

It needs to come out soon to weld up the rust around the ariel so I'll do the headlining at the same time. There's a guy on the owners club site who has written a thread on how to do them properly.

[Des]

It's not really the glue that fails, the headlining is made up of the nice fabric facing bonded to a thin layer of foam bonded to a wispy cloth backing like really cheap knicker material and it's the foam which degrades over time turning into a nasty unpleasant mess. I think valeting might speed this up, I've had a couple of notorious offenders, a Saab and a Rangy that were / are still fine after 20 years and had never passed through the hands of dealers. Re=glueing will never work because of the skanky foam mess, you might as well try to bond slugs together with blutac.

[lovejoy]

slugs and bluetack !!  this is a most entertaining thread! had the same prob in a Mk2 golf....

[twosmoke300]

My old civic loan car had staples holding it up. Worked well too.

[Station]

Thanks eddyramrod!
I'm going to buy replacement headlining for the Nip' on eBay. It's foam backed with nylon perforated stuff but in black. (True story).

[Vince70]

I also had the saab thing with the headlining on my old 90.

 

The previous owner had ripped out half the headlining, the main problem was after driving the car the old foam would drop on your head and shoulders and give you a ginger dandruff look.

 

As for Audi having the same problem I find my old A4 is starting to lift just behind the sunvisors, but I think that may have due more with condensation caused by sitting in my damp garage.

[oman5]

Many early 80's GM cars are exactly the same...Caprice, etc.

 

For cars in "our" sector of the market, I recommend stapling. it works a treat.

[Vin]

The 126 and Panda Mk1 are currently without headlinings...

 

As others have mentioned, the foam backing has turned to dust over time. I've kept the boards but they are a pain to get out intact without damaging them...so the desire to put one back in is at the bottom of the list of priorities...

[fordperv]

My mk1 sierra sagged, I took it out and re trimmed it with some headliner material off eBay and some high temp brush on glue, spray glue is useless for headlining the material will just keep dropping

[FredTransit]

if all else fails, cheat. Transits dont really suffer with this as they have plain cloth held up with ribs, tucked into a lip thats hidden when thhe headlinings up. We did have an underbonnet fire once that took out a headlining in the flashover. The scrapper was a LWB so the headlining couldnt be transferred to the luton. It became obvious through the winter doing without a headlining wasnt an option cos the wind would be pushed between the cab and body and the resulting cold drifted down in the cab. So I crafted a headlining of exhibition carpet stuck directly to the roof with contact adhesive. Worked a treat until we btoke another chassis cab and used the headlining from that.

Headlining no2 is in our camper reversion. She came to us with a wooden headlining This was part of the camper conversion,, along with removing the hidden lip above the cab doors. So all I could do with that was cover the board with the real headling material that lined the pop top. Looks the part, but does need regular attention!

[Partridge]

R.E Volvos with sagging headlings. My mates Mum had one, and the headlining just got torn off after undue saggage. The foam left in place was great to play noughts and crosses on

[MrDuke]

Volvo used a solid 'lining in the 900s, after failing massively with the 700s. The good news is, they're completely interchangeable! The even better* news is, you have to remove the windscreen to get the solid one in!

[Sigmund Fraud]

I don't know what you chaps are on about... Both my 740 and 760 have immaculate headlinings !

 

Come to think of it, so did my old Rover SD3. I suppose I'm just lucky.

[brickwall]

Yep, Range Rover Classics are well known for this and when the lining comes down it's impossible to find a glue that will stick it back on properly. My brother was driving mine at speed with the windows down and the whole lot came away causing much trouser fillage.

 

To sort it properly you have to remove the whole lot and do it proper.

[barefoot]

Can you not stick it back up with copious use of fridge magnets?

[brickwall]

My mum was an upholsterer and gave me some screw pin type things.

[oldford]

My Sierra one is delaminating at the back, what I've done is a proper Pikey mod on it.  I've put a bit of sunroof surround trim over it.  The reasons are that its a Pikey (or Pike mod)  is that it cost me £0 and that the part used came out of a Mazda that we scrapped which used to belong to Ian Lavender.