Headliner fail...

[clhyer]

Good evening folks. Been a few days since I've been on....
Last week I jumped in the Duster to take a friend for a spin and my headliner was totally sagging, just held up by the dome light, seat belts and edges.
This is a Stock Interiors, plastic tub with foam and black vinyl. Installed maybe eight years ago, always garaged. It did look great for those eight years. The foam totally disintegrated. My thoughts are that the vinyl covering was too heavy - way heavier than the fabric headliners I have worked with in the past.

Anyhow, I removed the tub and liner and took it to a body shop for replacement. There is no black fabric headliner material to be had in this area. I ended up getting two yards of black neoprene. Using Joanne's coupon it came out the same price as headliner material. Should get it back tomorrow or early next week. Will post a follow up on my thoughts on the neoprene.

Just a public service announcement for anyone considering the plastic tub with vinyl...
C

 

[RustyRatRod]

Dang Calvin. I hate to learn about that. Kitty says we need to take advantage of pie day soon.

 

[MoparMike1974]

The foam backed fabric does this, even on factory headliners. I would suggest wrapping the ABS board with real vinyl

 

[mad dog]

thanks for this info, i just purchased a un-wraped ABS headliner and will be installing it in the near future.. i think ill skip the foam...Rich

 

[Tooljunkie]

Something in my future,a headliner for my dart. Knowing about a iminent failure helps with my decision. Just the black vinyl tub.

 

[BobW]

If you're going to skip foam backed material and glue vinyl straight onto the headliner board, make sure you have all the old foam & glue removed. Otherwise you will see every lump & bump!

 

[Dartswinger70]

I had a GM product a Chevette or T 1000 ( I had both at one time) and the cloth headliner was sagging, this was back in the day, I had some friends in the car and it was hanging in the face of the guy in the back seat, he got sick of it ripped it down and threw it out the window...LOL!

 

[clhyer]

I have the headliner back with the neoprene glued on. It looks "pretty good". I hope to install it sometime this week and will take a few pics and give my final thoughts after installed and cleaned.
In the meantime, this piece of eye candy was at the body shop. They had recently painted it. One sharp looking fish.
If you are the owner of this beast in Warner Robins, welcome aboard FABO, nice car & thanks for your service!
C

 

[clhyer]

Hey Rob, we definitely need to get together and do pie day - and soon! That means Warner Robins, the restaurant in Macon closed...

 

[clhyer]

I have the headliner installed and think it looks pretty good!
It was a minor pita to install, the neoprene is a bit thicker and denser than the headliner and foam that was removed.
It fought me every inch of the way, and took me about 3 hours to install. Some of that was due to my not having the seat and rear quarters out when I removed it and it took me a few minutes to make the decision that they had to come out to reinstall...
It looks better than the cell phone pic!