RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

[adventurenali92]

Yeah I’m that nerd that buys Grogu keychains for my truck keys!!

 

[adventurenali92]

Had another short adventure today. Drove to upland from big bear to pick up a headliner out of a 2005 Escalade ESV. The whole truck was immaculate! Sad seeing it being sorted out but the guy that had it was building an el Camino and bought the esky for its LQ9 and 4L65 trans. Interesting story for sure. Was a one owner truck out of Temecula that looked like it had been garaged it’s whole life! It w stitch of bad paint and the interior was immaculate! Headliner is perfect and will go into my Denali after a cleaning. It’s only got little spots in the rear portion which I’m positive is from it rubbing giant a brand new set of tires I pulled with the wheels and brought them up the mountain in the back of my Denali. Lol. Snagged the wheels and tires for the 2005 ESV that belongs to the family that I used to live upstairs from. Still keep in touch with them regularly. They were stoked to get the chrome esky 17s on it, and he paid me for the time I took to get them and paid for the wheel/tire combo. All in all good day! And the headliner which is getting prepped for cleaning as I wrote this!

 

[adventurenali92]

both headliner pieces are so clean! Will update this week when I get the liner installed!

 

[Rocket Man]

Something wrong with your headliner?

 

[adventurenali92]

Something wrong with your headliner?

Yup…. Front of my factory headliner is peeling and separating up where it meets the windshield, just behind the overhead console and visors. It’s also separating aong the edges where it meets the front doors. I’ve tried the headliner adhesives, I’ve tried taping it in place. Nothing works and it’s driving me BONKERS!!! Oh wait I’m already bonkers lol. Anyways I have been thinking about ways to fix it and i when I found this esky being parted out I had to just jump on the headliner. And the guy was willing to wait til today when the roads were clear of snow and I had a day off from teaching to get down there. Super stoked. Will share photos of my headliner.

 

[Rocket Man]

Yup…. Front of my factory headliner is peeling and separating up where it meets the windshield, just behind the overhead console and visors. It’s also separating aong the edges where it meets the front doors. I’ve tried the headliner adhesives, I’ve tried taping it in place. Nothing works and it’s driving me BONKERS!!! Oh wait I’m already bonkers lol. Anyways I have been thinking about ways to fix it and i when I found this esky being parted out I had to just jump on the headliner. And the guy was willing to wait til today when the roads were clear of snow and I had a day off from teaching to get down there. Super stoked. Will share photos of my headliner.

That’s weird that yours is separating. Mines just dirty and I just realized I have a steamer that I think I’ll try. The things are a PIA to clean. I’m just hoping I don’t make it worse.

 

[adventurenali92]

That’s weird that yours is separating. Mines just dirty and I just realized I have a steamer that I think I’ll try. The things are a PIA to clean. I’m just hoping I don’t make it worse.

I need a steamer! Haven’t found a good quality steamer yet that will withstand they heavy use it’ll get form me. Lol.

 

[Tonyrodz]

That’s weird that yours is separating. Mines just dirty and I just realized I have a steamer that I think I’ll try. The things are a PIA to clean. I’m just hoping I don’t make it worse.

I've been told don't get any kind of water or moisture on a headliner, since it is foam backed. I was told the best thing to use is a foam type product with a rag or towel.

 

[Rocket Man]

I've been told don't get any kind of water or moisture on a headliner, since it is foam backed. I was told the best thing to use is a foam type product with a rag or towel.

Huh. I’ve seen videos of using steam cleaners on headliners. There’s a method where you just steam a small area quickly and then use a microfiber cloth and keep rotating it, drawing the dirt off. You don’t just power steam it, but instead just use enough steam to loosen the crud and break the bond and then use the cloth to remove it.

 

[adventurenali92]

Huh. I’ve seen videos of using steam cleaners on headliners. There’s a method where you just steam a small area quickly and then use a microfiber cloth and keep rotating it, drawing the dirt off. You don’t just power steam it, but instead just use enough steam to loosen the crud and break the bond and then use the cloth to remove it.

This right here^

 

[Tonyrodz]

Huh. I’ve seen videos of using steam cleaners on headliners. There’s a method where you just steam a small area quickly and then use a microfiber cloth and keep rotating it, drawing the dirt off. You don’t just power steam it, but instead just use enough steam to loosen the crud and break the bond and then use the cloth to remove it.

New one for me. I've only used a damp cloth a few times on mine, but nothing crazy. Thx for the info.

 

[adventurenali92]

If you’re ever considering replacing a headliner, DONT DO IT!! Just pay someone to do it!! It was an absolutely nightmare!! Reason I replaced mine is because of the infamous gmt800 headliner sag. I’ve tried all the fixes and none worked. It was driving me nuts.

 

[Rocket Man]

If you’re ever considering replacing a headliner, DONT DO IT!! Just pay someone to do it!! It was an absolutely nightmare!! Reason I replaced mine is because of the infamous gmt800 headliner sag. I’ve tried all the fixes and none worked. It was driving me nuts.

But what’s the new one look like?

 

[iamdub]

If you’re ever considering replacing a headliner, DONT DO IT!! Just pay someone to do it!! It was an absolutely nightmare!! Reason I replaced mine is because of the infamous gmt800 headliner sag. I’ve tried all the fixes and none worked. It was driving me nuts.

Not much you can do when the felt separates from the foam backing. Just peel it all off the headliner and re-wrap it.

I did this back in 2015 with my XJ. Instead of regular, lightweight headliner material, I used fiber-backed outdoor upholstery vinyl. Used DAP Weldwood contact adhesive applied with a Harbor Freight paint gun. As heavy as that material is, that headliner hasn't failed yet, according to the current owner of the XJ.

Peeled off the cloth and brushed off the degraded foam:

Spraying the adhesive and laying down the material:

Getting the vinyl to lay flat over them compound curves of the speaker pods was a MOFO!

Topside:

Installed:

 

[adventurenali92]

All of the wires that power everything in the roof from the overhead consoles, the DVD player, and all the dome lights, plus the stupid little temperature sensors that make the auto climate system work, are all attached to the headliner and said harnesses run from the headliner down through all the trim panels. A, B, C, and D interior pillars all had to be removed and then the passenger side third row seating area lower plastic trim had to be removed to fish out the wire harness that powers the rear HVAC temperature sensor. Three harnesses up front run down the drivers A pillar, with one going behind the gauge cluster(which had to come out to access the harnesses to unplug them!) and two going further down by the fuse panel and then down to the lowest panel in the drivers door well. It was a nightmare. On top of that, at 7pm when I was still elbows deep just disassembling everything to get the headliner out, my mom calls and says she needs me to drive her to the ER!! I’m like “you’ve GOT TO BE FREAKIN KIDDING ME!!” Truck was in pieces and there was no way it was getting driven so of course I had to figure out how to get her to the ER without my truck….. She has a roommate who’s literally a grown woman that acts like a child, and was making the situation worse with her child like behavior and freaking out. So I had to be the one to take her.

By the time I I got her taken care of and back at it, it was 11pm! I finally got the OEM headliner out of the truck about 2am and then discovered that the replacement headliner out of the Escalade had the harness that powers the rear DVD player CUT OFF!! I let out many angry swear words at that! But I guess it was my own fault for not double checking every harness on the replacement headliner before I actually paid for it….

After cutting the DVD player harness off my OEM headliner and splicing the wires together on the replacement, I finally was able to start putting everything back together. I literally finished the job at 6am Monday morning after not having slept in nearly 20 hours. I then had to go home, shower, change into snowboard gear, and head to the resort to teach a full 8 hour day of snowboard lessons…. So I didn’t get to actually sleep until MONDAY NIGHT!

So the lesson learned is… pay someone else to replace a headliner!!!! On the upside the replacement headliner looks good and no sagging anywhere.

 

[adventurenali92]

I managed to break one dome light mounting tab so I gotta make a junkyard run, probably tomorrow for a replacement and a couple other small pieces.

 

[adventurenali92]

Surprisingly the Escalade headliner is exactly the same color as my Denali headliner despite the fact that the Escalade had the shale colored interior, so all the plastics are lighter colored. But headliner matched perfectly thankfully.

 

[Sam Harris]

Well, I’m sorry it was such a headache, but it looks great..! Wanna do mine..?

 

[Rocket Man]

I thought people pry the original wires off the headliner, break them free from the glue and leave them all hooked up, then reglue them as the headliner goes back in or not even reglue them but I’ve never done one. @Tonyrodz didn’t you do your headliner?

 

[Tonyrodz]

I thought people pry the original wires off the headliner, break them free from the glue and leave them all hooked up, then reglue them as the headliner goes back in or not even reglue them but I’ve never done one. @Tonyrodz didn’t you do your headliner?

I didn't. I was starting to get some peeling along 1 edge, but I was able to successfully glue it down--and it doesn't look like $hit.