Reupholstered headliner for my 2001 D2 went back in today. Several different threads here were really helpful in getting it done, so I thought I'd give back by contributing some notes from my experience. Many of these items have been mentioned in other posts, so apologies in advance if any of this is old news.

Progress pics here.

In no particular order:

• Use a magnetic parts tray for screws.
• Keep a flexible magnetic screw holder/fetcher handy. Great for pulling stubborn screws out of the overhead console, for instance, before bringing the whole thing down. Because you know that's when they're going to fall out and roll down the driveway.
• Don't be stupid like I was and pull all the material off the board before removing it from the truck. I'll be cleaning that sticky foam residue out of my interior for who knows how long. So dumb.
• As someone else had already rec'd, fold the 2nd row seat backs down, but don't fold up completely. Put front seat backs all the way back.
• A-pillar trims don't need to come all the way off. Just the upper ends, enough for the board to slide away.
• B-pillar upper trims (with the seatbelt adjustment slide) probably don't need to come all the way off, either. But I removed mine to get them out of my way. Use needle nose pliers to pry the small metal tabs off the door frame (hidden under the door gaskets). Once they're off, the trim pieces can just hang by the seatbelt, on the front seat backs.
• Careful when removing the rear dome light assembly. My wrench touched the bulb contact and the retaining nut (which is grounded) at the same time, shorting the circuit and throwing a spark. Didn't think much of it til I started the engine and my radio, clock, AC, and dome lights were all dead. It had blown one of the obscure fuses that is marked with the "refer to manual" symbols. The normal fuses for those items were fine.
• Take pics of the various screws/rivets as you're removing them. It all seemed very straightforward to me as I was pulling them all out, but I didn't wind up replacing the board for almost a month later. I'd totally forgotten, for instance, where the long rivets go vs. the short ones. Took some trial and error.
• When open, the tail door stands proud of the rear cargo opening. Removing the tail door check strap will let you open the door clear of the opening. This didn't occur to me when removing the headliner. It took my friend and I a bit more finagling to get the board out without damaging it. The storage bins alone aren't restrictive, and neither is the door. But the two together required us to flex the board in a pretty funky angle. I used some retaining ring pliers to remove the ring on the strap pin and the strap came off easy. If your spare tire is on the door, it'll rest (gently!!) on the tail light assembly and let the door open enough to give you full access. Made bringing the board back in MUCH easier. Also gave me a chance to lube that pin.
• I used an electric screwdriver to remove the nuts from the plastic posts holding the map pockets to the board. I immediately regretted this when a few of the posts broke off. However, I came up with a pretty good fix: I JB welded some screw posts into the remaining plastic (had to bore them out slightly) [pic] and affixed to the board with matching washers/nuts and Loctite. When putting everything back together, another post broke off. So ironically, you might be better off being heavy-handed with it when removing, so you weed out the weak ones. If you baby them, they might just break later, anyway. Alternatively, you could just break them all off and replace with screw posts. I considered that.
• A stiff nylon brush works okay for removing the old foam/adhesive, but wire is way more effective. You just have to be gentle.
• Don't work on a surface that's too high. My workbenches are higher than most, because I hate bending over. But in this case, it made it really difficult to work the new material from the center out, while simultaneously holding the excess out of the way. I started panicking and made a ton of mistakes.
• Generally, I shouldn't have tried to apply the material alone. Another set of hands would've made all the difference.
• Read the instructions on the adhesive can. I didn't and had no idea that I should've waited ~2 min before trying to adhere the material. So I was rushing for no reason and making unforced errors.
• That adhesive that Headliners Express sends is the "web" style. Comes out like a spider web. Wasn't familiar with that. It goes all over the place. You have to be really careful to avoid overspray. In yet another panicky moment, I sent a ton of overspray onto a huge section I'd already laid down.
• If you do get overspray on the material, a good amount of it is probably suspended in the fibers. Wait til it dries and then go over it with a safety razor. I happen to use a Sensor Excel on my ugly mug and it worked like a charm. It takes a good amount of fiber with it, but you can't really tell. For the white spots that made it all the way on the surface itself, I hit those spots with a black Sharpie. Not invisible, but close enough.
• When it's time to flip the newly-upholstered board over to reattach the trim, lay down some poly on your work table to protect the new material from all the crap you previously stripped off.
• Exact-o-Knife works well for cutting the larger trim screw holes in the new material. I just cut Xs and made sure I could fit my finger through them all.
• I don't have an awl, so to create the small holes for the map pocket posts, I used my straight pick tool. Worked great.
• I bought some Reflectix to help with radiant heat. Figured I just affix it to the topside of the board. Had it all done then realized, "There's no way this thing is going back in with all this additional thickness." Ripped it all off then just glued some smaller pieces to strategic spots on the ceiling itself. So far, doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Probably because a radiant barrier doesn't work if it's in direct contact with the metal roof. Yeah, there's a layer of bubble wrap in there, but it's so thin. Oh well. Maybe I should've just been more strategic with placing it on the board.
• Take this opportunity take all that interior trim into the house and clean it. I used a mild soap and sponge, then hit the stubborn spots with a Magic Eraser. Those things can do wonders. Just don't go crazy with it. It's really just very fine sandpaper and will eventually cause damage.
• Hit the new material with a lint roller just before reinstalling. It's much easier than doing it in place.
• Final thought...if it starts drooping again, I'm just going to take it to a local place to have it done by pros. This was a fun exercise, but I wouldn't want to do it again. I'll definitely remove the board on my own, if that helps save on labor costs. But it takes experience to lay that material down well.

Cheers.

 

Excellent job and thanks much for writing this up. Here in the Northeast we had quite a bit of rain today and when I went out to the store tonight I heard water sloshing above me. A few weeks ago water exited at the rear view mirror under hard braking as well. On top of all the PO put about 100 brass tacks in the headliner to keep it pinned to the board all around the front half of the vehicle. I was a little put off by the thought of tearing the headliner down and was wondering how long I'd put up with the situation. I consider myself an excellent mechanic but this type of interior work can have a pretty good learning curve so I really appreciate you taking the time to document the process and share your notes and observations. This gives me the confidence to to tackle mine forearmed against some of the quirks and gotchas. I may consider taking the board to someone for recovering with fabric however I kind of like the idea of rolling some kind of coating onto it like the bedliner dude. In any event, nice work and thanks again for sharing the pics and experience so I won't have to make some of the same mistakes.

 

Yah, thanks for all this! The headliner is on the list of things to do on ol' MagPie..

 

 

Yeah, I was really looking forward to running some smurftube from back to front, but when I finally went to do it, it just didn't seem like it was going to work. It's pretty tight around the C-pillar and there's just enough room for the existing loom. So I just said screw it and let it go. The only thing I'm even considering that would require conduit in the future is a rear dash/backup cam. But who knows if I'll ever buy one.

As for the sunroof drains, I posted on that when I first started the headliner. The front driver's drain broke off as we were removing the board. I JB Welded a 5/8" aluminum spacer in there and that worked fine. I considered preemptively fixing the other three, but again, I was just ready for this project to be over. So I let them go. I might regret it in the future. But whatever, I now know how to remove and reinstall the headliner in my sleep. I'll just do it again if I have to. But if the headliner needs repair again, I'll either just bedline it or take it to a pro.

Cheers.