Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. You can still see the fabric
pattern. Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. It even sealed over the little torn spot.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:

Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. You can still see the fabric
pattern. Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. It even sealed over the little torn spot.

I recall seeing dye used in a sprayer to spray fabric and carpet in
vehicles. Worked well and improved appearance.

My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. Someone told me it would be cold in winter. Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.



On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:

Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. You can still see the fabric
pattern. Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. It even sealed over the little torn spot.

On Nov 24, 3:24*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. *All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. *One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. *The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. *Someone told me it would be cold in winter. *Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. *At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. *It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. *Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. *You can still see the fabric
pattern. *Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. *It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24Â*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. Â*All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. Â*One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. Â*The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. Â*Someone told me it would be cold in winter. Â*Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. Â*At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. Â*It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Â*Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. Â*You can still see the fabric
pattern. Â*Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. Â*It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

Yeah, my '88 Celebrity had the foam. Can't remember exactly why, but
when I pulled the falling fabric headliner off, I scraped the foam off
the cardboard with a putty knife. Lots of vacuuming Then I painted
the cardboard with some extra white latex I had laying around.
Looked pretty good - like cardboard painted with white latex.

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. *All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. *One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. *The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. *Someone told me it would be cold in winter. *Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. *At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. *It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. *Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. *You can still see the fabric
pattern. *Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. *It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

Yeah, the modern cars have that foam backed fabric glued to a backer
board. I redid one of those in an S-10 pickup with the proper
material. Fairly easy. These old car headliners that are just
stretched fabric are a real bitch to do properly. I tried doing one
and it looked like hell so I took it to an upholstery shop to redo and
they made it look right. But that's pricey and I was looking to avoid
it this time, esp since the old stuff was still all in one piece, just
stained.

I'd try liquid nails panel adhesive. That stuff is wicked.

A couple vehicles ago, I had a sky light, that I didn't like. After trying
several other ways to cover it, I masked, and then used black spray paint.
The next owner was the wrecking yard, and they didn't complain.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
...

Yeah, the modern cars have that foam backed fabric glued to a backer
board. I redid one of those in an S-10 pickup with the proper
material. Fairly easy. These old car headliners that are just
stretched fabric are a real bitch to do properly. I tried doing one
and it looked like hell so I took it to an upholstery shop to redo and
they made it look right. But that's pricey and I was looking to avoid
it this time, esp since the old stuff was still all in one piece, just
stained.

Ashton Crusher wrote:
Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. You can still see the fabric
pattern. Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. It even sealed over the little torn spot.

Reminds me of my 64 mustang I had in mid 70's I made a sort of drop
ceiling, where I put up surround speakers using matrixing. I don't think I
ever saw ceiling speakers anywhere else.

Greg

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. *All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. *One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. *The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. *Someone told me it would be cold in winter. *Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. *At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. *It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. *Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. *You can still see the fabric
pattern. *Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. *It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

I didn't think any Voyagers would last long enough for the
foam/plastic to fail. Mine certainly didn't.

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 20:52:46 -0500, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I'd try liquid nails panel adhesive. That stuff is wicked.


It's like trying to glue a piece of paper to the sand, more "sand"
just keeps letting go and it falls down. You have to scrape all the
old dried out foam off it for any adhesive to stick more then a few
minutes/days.


A couple vehicles ago, I had a sky light, that I didn't like. After trying
several other ways to cover it, I masked, and then used black spray paint.
The next owner was the wrecking yard, and they didn't complain.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
.. .

Yeah, the modern cars have that foam backed fabric glued to a backer
board. I redid one of those in an S-10 pickup with the proper
material. Fairly easy. These old car headliners that are just
stretched fabric are a real bitch to do properly. I tried doing one
and it looked like hell so I took it to an upholstery shop to redo and
they made it look right. But that's pricey and I was looking to avoid
it this time, esp since the old stuff was still all in one piece, just
stained.

On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:37:24 +0000 (UTC), gregz
wrote:

Ashton Crusher wrote:
Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. You can still see the fabric
pattern. Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. It even sealed over the little torn spot.

Reminds me of my 64 mustang I had in mid 70's I made a sort of drop
ceiling, where I put up surround speakers using matrixing. I don't think I
ever saw ceiling speakers anywhere else.

Greg

That's an interesting idea. There are places in some cars where there
might be just enough room between the fabric and outer roof panel to
get at least some thin tweeters in there hidden behind the fabric.

On 11/24/2012 11:04 PM, z wrote:
On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24 pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. Someone told me it would be cold in winter. Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. You can still see the fabric
pattern. Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

I didn't think any Voyagers would last long enough for the
foam/plastic to fail. Mine certainly didn't.


The best headliner I ever saw was in my 75 Fury, the headliner was
perfect after 30 years but the body was beat all to hell. O_o

TDD

On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 00:04:12 -0500, z wrote:

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24Â*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. Â*All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. Â*One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. Â*The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. Â*Someone told me it would be cold in winter. Â*Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. Â*At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. Â*It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. Â*Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. Â*You can still see the fabric
pattern. Â*Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. Â*It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

I didn't think any Voyagers would last long enough for the
foam/plastic to fail. Mine certainly didn't.
I still see a couple of 1984-85 Voyageur/caravan magic-wagons running
around up here in the snow belt.

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. *All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. *One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. *The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. *Someone told me it would be cold in winter. *Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. *At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. *It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. *Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. *You can still see the fabric
pattern. *Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. *It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

That's the same thing my chevy had. But that foam was real sticky and
was getting all over everything. I first removed just the cloth, but I
could not deal with that sticky foam. That's when I just removed
everything. I was considering covering the ceiling with some thin
carpeting glued on, but it's worked fine with just the bare metal for
about 4 years now. The car is old, but still runs. That's all that
matters to me. I'd rather save the money for getting a newer car
eventually, rather than spending it on the headliner, which really
serves no purpose anyhow.

On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:11:55 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 00:04:12 -0500, z wrote:

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:40:20 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

On Nov 24, 3:24*pm, wrote:
My old Chevy had a headliner that was always sagging and laying on my
head. I tried pins, staples, apuolstry tacks, and even poked a few holes
and shut glue under it. *All these things would work for a few months,
and soon the thing was hanging again. *One day I just ripped it out of
the car right to the bare metal. *The metal is painted, so that is a far
better ceiling. *Someone told me it would be cold in winter. *Sure the
metal is cold, but the car still heats up fine. *At last now, it's not
dangling in my face and irritating me.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:58:32 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:



Shop wanted $400 to replace the 50 year old fabric headliner in one of
my cars. *It was very discolored and stained but only had one small 1"
tear. I masked the edges and did two coats of oil base Kilz with some
tint to color match. *Worked great - strengthened and stiffened the
fabric and looks practically new. *You can still see the fabric
pattern. *Hopefully it really will prevent stains from coming back
thru. *It even sealed over the little torn spot.

my 1999 plymouth voyagers head liner failed, its a very thin piece of
fabric originall glued to foam thats glued to cardboard.

so i pulled off the fabric exposing the foam. looks fine, except
moving the visiors makes for a bit of foam shedding but its not worth
spending hundreds for a new head liner.

the fabric peeled off easily.

the failure is really the foam falling apart..... from age

I didn't think any Voyagers would last long enough for the
foam/plastic to fail. Mine certainly didn't.
I still see a couple of 1984-85 Voyageur/caravan magic-wagons running
around up here in the snow belt.

My '85 was done in '92 and my '90 didn't make it anywhere close to
Y2K. Neither rolled over 100K before they had to be put out of my
misery. The '85 had terminal engine problems (head gaskets mostly)
and the '90 had rotted out shock towers. OTOH, they were the only
Chryslers that I didn't have any transmission troubles with (both were
manuals). Junk, all.