Dying Carpet and Headliner

[ATIII]

Well the results are in. The carpet came out Ok. I think if I had it all to do again, the replacement carpet from the link posted earlier would have been a better choice. The headliner came out ******! The first coat of dye went on Very even, but only dyed it a med-dk gray. So I decided to put on a second coat. Big mistake! Now the second coat didn't take evenly and left what looks like run marks ALL OVER! And if that isn't bad enough the material is separating from the board, so I'm looking at a reupholstering now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rocket Man]

Bummer. Thank you for sharing though so somebody else doesn't go through the same thing. I replaced my carpet with a kit from Stock Interiors and it came out nice. I keep looking at the headliner but so far that's all. They also sell a recover kit for that but I believe it goes over the old foam so I'm not sure if it would work for you.

 

[08grey]

Some 3m spray and some suede fabric for the headliner is in your future.

 

[Fosscore]

I did the same carpet change out as Red Rocket from stock interiors. He actually gave me that advice.

I took my headliner to the local canvas shop.

Cost was $250 for headliner and visors and they scraped off the old foam and relayed it with new foam. End result is a slightly darker color from pewter to dark grey and so much cleaner and newer. Still looks awesome. Just my .02.

 

[Tonyrodz]

You need to get off all the old foam when redoing a headliner .If you put new on top of old, it will come out UNBELIEVABLY ******! ! I've done a few headliners in my day, and you really have to take your time and I recommend an extra set of hands. I really like the suede idea ! Redoing headliners sux!

 

[iamdub]

I'd advise against the spray can adhesive, especially for such a large headliner. It's okay for small projects such as seats. But with something like a headliner that's constantly fighting gravity and extreme temperatures, it's durability is very questionable. You can get the real stuff from an upholstery supply house or online- do it right or do it twice!

This is in my '01 XJ. It had a light grey fabric headliner that was completely sagging. I replaced it with graphite colored, leather-grained vinyl. I used an old Harbor Freight sprayer to apply the glue.

Brushed off the decomposed foam:




Sprayed both surfaces and worked from the easy end (front) to the difficult end (rear with the built-in speaker pods):




After lots of pulling and grunting to lay it flat on the compound curves:






Cut, wrapped and glued the edges of the holes:




Installed:





This material is MUCH heavier than regular headliner fabric, but I have zero doubts about it staying up. Also, this was my first headliner experience.

 

[Tonyrodz]

How'd you clean the adhesive out of the gun once you we're done? What kind of adhesive did you use and where'd you get it from ? I use the spray can stuff by permatex or 3m with no issues yet. I spray both sides and let it tack up .

 

[iamdub]

I poured a muriatic acid and water solution in the pot, shook it up, and sprayed it until it ran empty. Then I flushed it with brake parts cleaner, then finally with tap water. I'm not a chemist so I just went at it with whatever strong chemicals I had on hand. I know- this could be bad one day. I used DAP Weldwood Landau top and trim adhesive I picked up from an upholstery supply house. Got the headliner material from there as well. I've heard plenty of success stories with the canned stuff. My assumption is that the failures were probably due to those trying to stretch out a few of those cans to last the entire job and applying it too thin. With the professional stuff in the half-gallon tub that requires a spray gun, it's almost impossible to not use enough.

 

[05Single]

Damn I should look into getting one of those guns for sure.
Thanks from the headS up iamdub. That headliner came out clean!

 

[iamdub]

Damn I should look into getting one of those guns for sure.
Thanks from the headS up iamdub. That headliner came out clean!

Thanks!

I don't know which model spray gun I have. It was in with a bunch of miscellaneous tools someone gave me years ago. It was never used up until that headliner. They're only $20-$25 at Harbor Freight, so if it never works again after this, it's no big deal. Considering the cost of all the aerosol cans you'd have to buy to achieve the same results, I believe the tub of adhesive and spray gun method is a far better investment. Removing, recovering and replacing a headliner in a full-size truck or SUV is too much work to be doing more than once.


After reading this thread and thinking of the color of my Tahoe's headliner and pillars, I'm getting the itch to dye or recover mine. I have the ebony leather interior, but I don't think I wanna make the headliner match because I don't want it to feel smaller in there. It would probably be okay, though. I may end up going with a medium gray color. I should Google for images and see what's been done...