Hey Guys-

I came up with a super cheap headliner repair that I wanted to share. It probably is just buying me some time until it completely disintegrates but who wants to spend time tearing out the headliner?

On my 1998 disco 1 - my headliner started to sag near the passenger side windows. Instead of pulling and replacing, I removed the interior handles or "dry cleaning hooks" and mounted a sheet of painted aluminum flashing that was trimmed to fit, then put the handle back on. It kinda works like a big washer. Took about 20 minutes and $3.00. Doesn't look too bad and the headliner is tight now.

 

lol. what a waste of 20 minutes. you already had the handles off all you need is the lights and the sun visors and you could pull the whole thing out scrape the foam off and paint it with spray paint. never worry about it again.

 

Pulling all of the trim, lights, etc- for a sag in one place wasn't worth the time investment for me. I've seen the spray paint approach sometimes it looks awful.

 

Ingenuity - quite possibly could pass inspection by she-who-must-be-obeyed, a good idea.

 

It passed the test here by she-who-must-be-obeyed

 

What's thE best paint to use?

 

Use exterior house paint after you clean it and prime it with stain blocking primer. Search the forums for painted headliners.

 

not cheap, not easy, but awesome

 

^ Not my cup o' tea, but excellent work nonetheless. It goes great with your olive interior. Is that olive a stock color? It could grow on me.

I have seen other people use standard fabrics as replacement headliners. I have always wondered if they used some foam backing. Did you?

For pained headliners.... Get a can of "Kills" primer and put in on with a roller (use a brush in the tight spots.) One good coat is all you really need. Two coats is more than enough. It creates in barrier and it will stick to ANYTHING. Even glue. And it will be a great base coat for adding just about any kind of paint.

I have always wanted to try flocking to give it a suede appearance.

 

the right way to do the headliner is foam backed fabric. It's gotta be 64" wide. The foam is what makes the wrinkles minimized. Obv my material wasnt foam backed. Thats why it's wrinkly. Actually my material is kevlar backed, my firend took it from a materials development lab for the army...true story. Its way too expensive to be on the roof of my car.
Tha olive is a stock color and thats the reason i picked the desert digital camo, thanks. I'm color blind, but i always thought my interior was tan.