I know this has been beatin' to death and yes, I did search but I didnt find any specific answers to my main question.

1. My headliner backer seem to be(working from the roof side to the passenger side) a thin layer of fiberglass, a 1/4" thick layer of low-density foam, a thin layer of fiberglass again, some sort of sticky greenish fabric, a thin layer of backer foam then the actual headliner fabric. Im in the process of deciding whether I want to paint it with enamel(HVLP rig), bedliner spray (rattlecan, like duplicolor) or have it done professionally with the thick bedliner or undercarriage coatings and Im not sure how far to strip this backerboard down to for the coating. I obviously tore the headliner fabric off that was falling down and scraped off all the backer foam behind it but now Im wondering if I should peel off that sticky greenish fabric. Behind it is just a loose thin layer of fiberglass that seems like it would produce a terrible finish. There are plenty of pictures of painted headliners for our Discos but no one makes any mention of whether or not they stripped off the greenish fabric with the glue on it or just cleaned it up. There was one close up picture and I could tell that the person stripped this fabric layer off because the you could see the individual fiberglass strands through the paint.

2. Secondary question. What is everybodys opinion on a finish? Any experiences with the thicker bedliner like the Rhino Liner or under carriage coatings? My concern is flexibility since I have to bend the headliner to get it in or out.

 

That's totally different from my headliner. Mine is just a fibreglass layer, and it had thin foam and then fabric on top of that.
Because the glass is one layer it doesn't have the strands like yours is showing, and is a smooth enough surface to look decent when painted. I got a can of interior latex at Lowe's that was colour-matched to the leather, and used cheap airless sprayer. Kinda rough, but I wasn't going for showroom quality.

 

Add another option... throw it away completely! It works well for me. I don't notice any road noise change. But on the other hand, I don't care, I've gutted every possible piece of interior except for the center console - which I have my eyes on next

I simply hate flimsy plastic and those damn panel clips. I replaced every hole (about 60) with 1/4-20 rivet nuts, allowing me to modify and accessories very easily.

 

Ive been suspecting this. What year is your truck? I have an 04 and they made a bunch of minor changes for the 03-04 MYs.

I would love to but there are so many wire looms and crap that it would look like holy hell and my kids would grab at everything.

 

Wire brush off all of the fabric.

 

Mine's a 1999. If they made changes for 2003-04 then they're probably for noise-deadening. Maybe you want to try finding an earlier style at a wrecking yard and install that one instead (after refurbishing it, of course).

 

Its a 99 as in a DI or a 99 DII? Just curious.

 

Pics by any chance? You got me daydreaming.

 

"Headliner Options", well this depends entirely whether you want to keep the truck as 'standard' or it's for use as an offroading hack. IMO I replaced the headliner as I wanted it to look standard.

TIP: insulate between the headliner and roof, I used multi-layer foil faced type insulation (23 layers I seem to recollect) but ensure it doesn't create any wiring shorts where there are lights etc. It's magic in keeping you cool in hot climates.

 

D2. Info is all in my sig.