Headliner Sag

[tmccarthy]

Headliner is sagging on my 1996 single cab. Anyone know a quick/cheap fix? I've tried spray adhesive, but the foam under it won't take it/

[fdchief]

thumb tacks.... no seriously... in my 84 bronco 2 i had like 3 packs of thumbtacks holding the liner up... of course i was 17 at the time

[97Beast]

Just get it recovered. The foam backing underneath the cloth has decayed and no amount of adhesive can make a clean repair that will last. My headliner began to sag in the rear corner. Went to my local upholstery shop and they had the exact fabric. $50 later i was all fixed up.

[tmccarthy]

Awesome. Thanks guys.

[pork chop]

You can do it yourself cheap and easy. A lot of fabric shops have the headliner material. It comes in two thicknesses. A lot of shops want to put in the thicker material - it does not look right to me. Get the thinner material. That, some spray adhesive (high temp) a steel wire brush and some razor blades are all you need. It goes easily. If you want specifics, I can do a writeup...

[OZZYEDD]

Originally Posted by pork chop

You can do it yourself cheap and easy. A lot of fabric shops have the headliner material. It comes in two thicknesses. A lot of shops want to put in the thicker material - it does not look right to me. Get the thinner material. That, some spray adhesive (high temp) a steel wire brush and some razor blades are all you need. It goes easily. If you want specifics, I can do a writeup...

yeah pls do, i have burn holes & cigarette smoke stains in mine i want to replace it but don't know how...

[351fifty]

how do you get it out and back in without messing up the whole thing?

[Southpaw]

I have to do mine too. Only I have to do mine in the truck since I have an after market sunroof. My headliner does not come out in one piece

[97Beast]

Pulling the headliner and reinstallng it were pretty tricky in my CC. I pulled out all the seats and all the necessary trim. I slid it out the passenger door sideways with a slight bend in it carefully not trying to put a big crease in it.
I reinstalled it the same way everything turned out great. You just have to muster up a little courage when your about to put the repaired headliner in.

[pork chop]

Happy to! I won't be able to post pics though as I didn't take any when I did mine.

First, remove the overhead light, visors and then the plastic trims around the headliner. They hold the headliner in place. For a regular cab the headliner removal should be super simple. It is a bit more difficult for the super cab, the Crew Cab takes some weird contorting. Basically those come out the passenger side door with the seats folded forward and slid all the way forward.

Next you need to find a nice clean open place to work. Outside is best. A picnic table works well. Peel the old cloth off - start at a spot where it is sagging and just pull it off. You will find that most of the foam will stay on the top - that is fine for now.

Once you have the fabric off, get a steel wire brush and brush the foam from the headliner base. You won't get it perfectly clean, but you need to get the foam off. Use a dust broom to clean the debris off - or better yet, a shop vac.

Lay the new headliner material over the face of the headliner and smooth it out. If you feel bumps and such now, they will show through later, so resolve those issues before moving further.

Fold the headliner in half on itself. Spray the headliner board face and the back side of the fabric with the adhesive. Get a good even coat - but not sloppy wet. Let it dry per the instructions of the spray adhesive. Smooth it down carefully to not get wrinkles.

Fold the other half over and repeat.

At this point, the headliner is covered. DO NOT PRESS HARD WHILE DOING THESE STEPS!!! IF YOU DO, YOU WILL END UP WITH A MESS AS THE GLUE WILL PRESS INTO THE FOAM AND GLUE IT DOWN IN A COMPRESSED STATE. At this point, you are best off to set the headliner aside for a while to dry. An hour or more would be best. You want the glue to dry before proceeding (if you don't let it dry and press on it, your hand/finger/whatever print will remain there).

After it is dry, get a brand new straight edge razor and trim the holes out and the excess material from around the headliner. Your headliner is now ready to install.

Place it back in the truck and center it where it needs to be. Put the visors, light and trims back in place, and you are done.

If you want to recover your visors, now is the time for those. They are pretty easy too, but you need an industrial sewing machine to do it right. I recovered mine and took them to an upholstery shop to have them stitched. They came out nice. If you want, I can detail that too.

Oh, if you think you want to install an overhead console (either the Explorer or Bronco one for example) or clearance/roof lights, do that while the headliner is out. I did all of it at the same time and am happy with the results.