Okay - after seeing the pics from Tweak thats the way im going. The finished product looked amazing and although ive done several headliners in fabric the paint looks great. I'm off to Lowes in the morning and will report back on the finished product. If it turns out half as good as Tweaks I'll be happy. The wipe down/mud friendly look has me sold!

 

Tweaks looks real good. I attempted paint but due to a leaky sunroof my headliner had some crappy spots. I opted for the bed liner to hide some imperfections

 

The trick is the kilz to block out the stains and glue residue from bleeding through.

 

Tweak - i picked up a quart of the Kilz premium and a couple of gray scotch brite pads. While the primer is drying I'll take a piece of trim and have it color matched. unfortunately my husbandly duties kept me out of the shop today and in the yard instead. Tomorrow I'll get started after work and at least get the primer on. cant wait to see the difference this makes on the interior. Thanks again for the encouragement.

 

I alao removed my headliner today. I'm anxious to see how yours turns out.

 

Hi all - started on the headliner tonight. I took it out of the LR1 yesterday and had it cleaned off. One thing i seriously under estimated was the amount of primer the headliner would soak up. I was literally scraping the sides of the quart can. That being said the primer looks great. Tweak was right about getting the top of the line Kilz as the coverage was perfect and the entire job covered evenly. I have no problem believing the final product will turn out as good as the primer.
One thing i did do extra because I found a few places that looked like something had hit the roof and dented the headliner core. I mixed up some fiberglass resin and filled/sanded the holes and scrapes. It smoothed out pretty good and covered fairly well. I also took this time to replace the bungees in the rear storage nets. I used some tiny bungee cords that i got from the dollar store.
Tomorrow Ill take some pictures of the primer before i start painting and then again of the finished product.
This is definitely a labor of love as replacing the headline with headliner fabric and I would have been done in half the time it took to put the primer on.
I'm off to soak my rolling arm and will report back tomorrow evening....

 

I also primed and painted mine (chalkboard paint). It soaked up nearly a quart of primer, and it (oil-based primer)stunk for a couple months. But, it has held up well to young kids, and some dirty trail riding for at least a year or so.

 

I used the latex kilz, the thing with primer is it doesn't have to cover like a top coat. Just make sure you go over all of it and if it soaks in and looks blotchy don't worry when it dries it seals it so when you do the top coat it won't soak in.

 

+1 on the primer looking somewhat blotchy, even after using the entire quart. Once the actual paint went on the absorbtion was minimal. I ended up with three coats of color and only used maybe half the quart of paint. I have to say I am totally amazed with the results. The color went on smooth and even and there is no bleed thru from any of the glue residue. I'll try to get a few of my pics uploaded later today. Thanks Tweak for the inspiration, hopefully the pics of my final product will inspire someone to try this as well.

 

Pics as promised.....