Headliner Coming Out Tomorrow, A Good Time To.....?
 

The headliner in my '97 is coming out tomorrow and since this is a once every 14 year proposition, I don't want to miss the opportunity for any preventative maintenance. I plan to look for leaks around the roof racks and inspect the sunroof drains well. I'm replacing the rear view mirror so i'll have access to the wiring harness for that. I also have rear A/C, so I'll be looking over the ducts as well as for leaks around the Alpine windows. What am I missing?

If you dont mind me asking, How much is it costing to replace the headliner?

Taking off your roof rails and respraying the top... I should have done mine then...

Check your backer for sags and reinforce it with fiberglass when it is down..

Other than that, looks like you have it covered...

I'm curious, too. A local Rovers-only shop quoted me around $700 to have it done on my SD (no sunroofs!).

I plan on shopping around.

A local upholstery shop has been doing Rovers here in Richmond for years. They take the old one out, rip off the fabric, scrape and brush the old foam backing from the pan, glue on the new foam backed headliner material, cut and trim everything to fit and put it all back together for $425.00 parts and labor. I've done this work before and it is well worth it to pay someone else this time especially because mine has sunroofs and rear air which complicate the job.

The local Rover dealer wanted almost $800.00 for a factory new headliner not including labor. Aftermarket kits to do it yourself generally run at least $150.00, so $275 for labor for an all day job is pretty reasonable, IMO, and I'll have several hours to poke around while the pan is out being worked on.

Richmond, CA?

Virginia

I did mine for $100. I got a used backer (mine was gone), cleaned it, glassed the weak spots and put the fabric on. I had to take it down because I realized I was missing the metal crossbars as well. Took me 6 hours total, never having done one...

I ran new speaker wires to the rear when I had mine out.... You could check the drain hoses on your sunroofs, but be careful the plastic is very brittle. My sunroof glass didn't sit correctly on the rear, it was letting water in and messing up the headliner. So I unplugged it and sealed it up... I don't sit in the back anyway ;)
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strawberry cough

cost me $20. $6 for a brush and $14 for paint.