How hard could it be to replace the headliner!!!!

Well, it is a royal pain in the ass! I am about a third way done and I will be finishing the "3 hour job" over the next several days. I destroyed the backing board and will be repairing it, How, I am not sure. What is the best method to reinforce/repair the area around the sunroof? I was planning on using several wooden yard sticks (cheap) and some sort of glue, since I would like to avoid the fiberglass repair material(Marine sealant maybe). Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Thanks

Next time, buy 3M Super 90 spray adhesive. 12 bucks and five minutes. Headliner looks grungy, but hell, no one looks at it anyway!

Use the fiber glass crap, get a small repair kit at waltmart. I think its the only thing that works well. Nasty chemicals though.

I said it was a time consuming job. The board gets brittle with age, and you have to be UBER careful when scraping it clean.

Not to worry though, a broken back board isn't that much of a deal. Remember, the headliner fabric will gold it all together and all the gear you have to hook up anjd secure to the roof will firmly attach the headliner.

Just proceed as you normally would. When you go to glue the new headliner fabric to the board just do it like you would a puzzle. Place the pieces where they need to go and make sure they are firmly attached. It may flex a little bit, and the breaks may make it more complex to put in, but once in everything should hold up alright.

Around the sunroof is a plastic U strap that holds the edge of the headliner to the roof, so no need to worry there.

Just keep going. If you really need to you can use duct tape on teh top side of the roof board to hold it all together, but I would do this AFTER you glue it since the tape won't hold very well with you pushing and stressing the roof board as you glue it all together.

good luck,

rick

I do have a question about headliner repair. Is all the breaking going on when removing the HL from the car or removing the fabric from the backer board. If the trouble is removing it from the car, would it be advisable to remove the back window to facilitate the removal of the HL? Wanting to redo my HL and wonder if the rear window removal/refittal is a DIY job.

My headliner in my 740 wagon is sagging big time also. I am thinking of using 3M Super 77 spraymount with a the little red tube from a tube of WD40 and poking a hole in the liner and shooting and resticking. I know I will get wrinkles but hey, it's not a show car and I need to see out my rear view.

Art

What you stated works great, for about 2 days! After the headliner sags bec it isn't glued to a clean surface it would be like glueing a peice of paper to the beach!

My 740 sedan headliner sags and the car is so nice otherwise, I have finally found a line on a place that will do it for $250, so will go that route. Seems worth it, given the other posts confirm what a tedious and dirty and time consuming job it is to DIY. (What is the value of your labor in Dollars per hour anyway?)

I have heard that these older, (and newer also), Volvos use environmentally friendly materials here and this can mean as a result the headliners do not last as long as they otherwise would.

Last year I owned an '86 Cavalier wagon with this sagging headliner problem and tried the spray can with the tube through a tiny hole, it didn't work, just made a mess inside and outside and around the hole and only held up a tiny bit of the headliner. That is because it is practically impossible to rotate the straw in a circle through the pinhole you put it through and evenly distribute the spray. The headliner just will not co operate.

What finally did the trick was a liberal application of swingline staples.

Not looking concours afterwards but it did work, and was free. There are supposedly thumbtack like headliner fasteners made for this purpose,at some auto parts/supply stores also. Wooden and other kinds of roof bows and other exotic fixes but all of them just don't seem worth all the trouble.

In the end it depends on your time, and your budget, and how nice you need the car to look. My personal idea is save your money and have it done by a pro. A 740 is such a wonderful everlasting car, it really deserves it.

'91 740 sedan

'01 C70 HPT turbo coupe

and a '91 Mercedes Benz 560SEC coupe

Jim:

To each his own. My time is valuable, but I view fixing these problems as a kind of hobby on the old Volvo, and find it more satisfying when I can get it all put together on my own. I coule pay someone to do it, but only like to pay for skills I do not possess (such as rebuilding a Turbo... oy).

In my old 1980 Cutlass Classic(waaay back) I also used regular old tailors pins. You just stick them up and too th side throughout the ceiling and it holds it up very well.

Good luck,

Rick

Art:

It may not work. The headliner is two parts, the fabric layer and teh foam layer. Over time the foam layer begins to break down and disintegrate, making sticking things to it impossible. In the end of mine it was blowing all over the car. My little brother came out looking like he was being attacked by millions of little red insects.

It's horribly annoying.

-Rick

Art,

Please re-post and let us know if the spray glue thru the tube method works.

Thanks,

I glued mine a year ago, and it fell down again, so I just pulled down the fabric, leaving the backing up there... I scrubbed it with a metal brush, getting all the glue off. I will admit that the little red "crumblies" all over the interior was a mess, but the kid at the car wash liked the tip after he vacuumed the inside of my car, and cleaned it all up for me. I have to say that it doesn't look all that bad, and most people don't even notice the missing liner. I still need to remove the fabric from the sun roof, but haven't decided if I want to or not. I have red interior in my car, so the dark colored liner board doesn't really stand out.

Total cost: $10. And it hasn't given me any problems yet.

Ted - 182k, 88 740 Turbo.