Headliner Replacement How-To

Posts by members with instructions on how to do certain mechanical projects.

Postby RiverPatrol » Wed May 22, 2013 5:03 pm

Installing a New Headliner in your Nissan Patrol 60 Series

Not many of the Patrols that I have seen still have their original headliner intact. Some have sagging, tattered remnants left, especially if they have sat out in the elements for a couple of decades. There might be just enough left to clip out a sample to match the original materials. If there’s none left, then what you have is a ceiling full of ancient, deteriorated, flaky foam and rust, most of which lands in you hair and lap while driving the trails.

The ’69 Patrol that I use regularly for the trails was a prime example of the latter. Even after I brushed off as much of the old foam and rust as I could, a good hard bump would have the stuff dropping in my eyes. I quickly got in the habit of wearing a hat for survival. Every time I hit a good bump, or even if the wind was blowing hard, the roof would pop and bang and oil can so much I couldn’t hear the rest of my rattles. Makes me nervous when I can’t hear all my rattles – that might mean something fell off.

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One day I had an opportune moment: 2 guys around to help me! :D I actually was just going to swap the roof with a better one, but due to extenuating circumstances, it became a much more involved project. Hence a new headliner became part of the project.

I had samples of what the original material should look like. Of course I wanted like-original even for just a trail vehicle, I’m anal. Finding it was not quite so easy. It’s not so uncommon, because it’s the same or similar to what was in the VW Bug. I went to an auto fabrics store, but they didn’t have it and couldn’t even order it. They said it was pretty hard to find. If you attempt this, you can use whatever material suits your fancy. This tutorial is for the material that I found.

I got the material that is used for a TLC headliner kit, but I was able to get it in bulk. Only problem was, the foam backing was extremely thin, about 1/16”. Much too thin for my liking. So, back to the auto fabrics store for some foam: I got a roll of ¼”. I also picked up some headliner adhesive while I was there. You’ll want a foam backing of at least ¼” to keep the inner support bows from banging on the roof.

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A word about headliner adhesive: make sure that what you get is specifically heavy duty adhesive, and that it specifically states that it is for heavy duty headliners. Otherwise, your headliner will end up in your lap. I used 6 cans for this project. If you are not gluing foam to your vinyl headliner material, you can get away with half of that. I also used double coats.

Okay, so I think I’ve got everything I need now. As a sanity check, lets review the list.

headliner material
¼” foam rubber
tape measure
yardstick or square
marker
heavy-duty scissors or Exacto knife
heavy duty headliner adhesive, 3 – 6 cans
mineral spirits
150 grit sandpaper
chalk or crayon
Eastwood’s Rust Encapsulator ( http://search.eastwood.com/search?w=rust%20encapsulator )


We start by prepping the surface that the headliner is going to adhere to. Remember, I’ve got the roof off of the vehicle: I wouldn’t have even attempted this while it was still on – I’d still be wearing the headliner. But it is possible, people do it all the time.

The roof is off, and sitting on a couple of saw horses. Nice and easy to work on. The first thing you need to do is to remove the 2 support bows. They are held on by 16 Phillips screws. You will probably also find the wiring for the rear interior light running along the edge of the roof. This is attached to the rear support bow and will come out with it.

Start by sanding down the roof to remove all of the deteriorated foam and flaky rust. A 150 grit paper works fine. Get up along the sides especially, for this is a critical area. You don’t have to sand it to bare metal, just get the loose and lumpy stuff off. Vacuum out the debris.

Now you have this nice clean surface for your new headliner. But you’re still not ready yet. All of that rust that you just sanded is ready to just start growing again. You want to protect the surface from continuing to rust, otherwise your headliner will just fall down again in a couple of years, because the adhesive is stuck to the rust but the rust isn’t stuck to the roof anymore. You also don’t want a perfectly smooth surface on the roof, because the adhesive sticks better to a slightly rough surface. This is where the Rust Encapsulator comes in.

I have used the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator in many different applications, and this stuff works great for stopping rust. I have pieces that have sat out in the weather for 2 years and don’t show a bit of rust after having painted them with this first. I think POR-15 may have a similar product, but I have read reviews where the Eastwood product is better, and cheaper. I don’t even consider Rustoleum to be in anywhere near the same category as this stuff.

I used the brushable Rust Encapsulator for this application. I wasn’t real concerned with the quality of the finish, since it’s going to be hidden. It does come in aerosol cans, so the choice is yours.

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While the Rust Encapsulator is drying, it’s a good time to go measure and cut the headliner sections.

Rolls of material or fabric come 54” inches wide. Because your headliner needs to be 6 feet (72 inches) long, you need to buy 12 feet, or 4 yards of material. You should end up with some extra.

TIP: when working with vinyl, it is best if the temperature is above 70 degrees. The vinyl is much more pliable then.

Roll the headliner material out on a flat surface. Measure 6 feet (72 inches) of material, and cut across the entire length. The headliner is actually in 3 separate sections, each of them a different width. This makes it much easier to install and work with. We’ll start with the rear section. The rear section is 17 inches wide, so measure 17” across the entire length of the 6’ section you just cut. Draw a line with your marker and cut the rear section. The center section is 30 inches wide, so do the same thing to end up with your 30” section. You are left with a section that’s about 7 inches wide. Save it, you can make use of it later.

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If your material already has an adequate foam backing, you don’t need to perform these steps. Otherwise, cut your ¼” foam to the same measurements as the headliner material you cut above.

Lay the first section of headliner material down with the foam backing facing up. Lay your ¼” foam over the headliner material and line up all of your edges. Next, fold back half of the ¼” foam, so the foam backing of the headliner material is exposed on half of the section you cut.

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Get your heavy duty adhesive spray and shake it up real good if it requires it. Spray the exposed foam backing of the headliner material, and the half of the ¼” foam that you folded back. You have to apply the adhesive to both pieces. Get a nice, even coat on both pieces. I actually used 2 coats.

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You want to let the adhesive dry for about 15 minutes, or until it is just slightly tacky. Now, carefully roll and press down the ¼” inch foam. This stuff is going to stick immediately, so there’s no fixing mess-ups once you start. You don’t want any wrinkles or bunches here, because the will show up when you put the headliner in the roof. I used a tube, like a mailing tube, to help roll the foam onto the headliner. Once the foam is all rolled out smooth it down real good to make sure everything is stuck together. Repeat this process with the other half of this headliner section, and then repeat the same procedure on your next section of headliner material and ¼ foam.

The front section for the headliner is a little trickier to cut, so we’ll cover that in a while. Right now you are anxious to see what this new headliner is going to look like in your Patrols, so we’ll install the 2 sections that you have.

Start with the rear, it’s the easiest and it will set up a guideline for your center section.

Lay the rear section in the roof and get it situated. It needs to line it up with the center of the support bow mounts. To the rear, it will overlap the tabs for mounting the rear panel. Both sides will have excess on the ends. Once you have it centered, use your chalk or crayon mark a line on the roof along the inner edge of the headliner material between the 2 support bow mounts. This line will help guide you when you are spraying the adhesive, and especially when you are applying the headliner material.

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I don’t recommend doing any trimming or cutting just yet. There will be time enough for that once the material is glued down. The material is going to move, and so will your cuts.

So, you’ve got the material centered and you have your chalk line drawn. Fold back half of the headliner material, like you did when gluing the foam to the headliner. Spray a good coat of the adhesive on the roof, remembering to get up along the sides. Now spray the exposed back of the headliner section. Let your glue dry for about 15 minutes.

Once the glue is ready, put one hand inside the fold of the headliner section to hold it in place. This will also be the hand you use to spread down the headliner. With your other hand, pick up the end of the headliner. While holding the end up, spread down the headliner, smoothing and pressing as you go. Watch the inner edge of the headliner to make sure it stays along your chalk line. Don’t worry so much about the panel tabs at the rear yet, your goal is the side. Spread and press from the center towards the sides, still holding the end up. You don’t want that end dropping because it’s going to stick where it lands. When you get to the curve just before the side, give it some extra pressure to make sure you get it all the way down into the curve. Now press it up along the side. Go back over it to smooth it out, but by now any wrinkles are there to stay. You can either do your trimming now, or wait until you get the other side done.

Now, repeat the same procedure with the other half.

Repeat the above procedure for the center section, centering it and drawing your chalk line first. Trim as necessary.

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Now for the front section. Depending upon what you want the final result to be, this can be a very trick procedure. You can go one of two ways. I did the difficult way, of course.

The front edge of this section is intended to tuck in under the front edge of the roof above the windshield. If you’ll notice, there isn’t a real huge gap there for tucking this !/4” + headliner into. So, I had to accommodate for that narrowness. If you are not real concerned about how the front edge looks, you can plan on just trimming the headliner at the front edge instead of tucking it under. But, you will lose some support of the headliner doing it that way, because by tucking it under it helps to hold the front edge up.

The other difficulties on this front section are the front and side edges. The front edge of the headliner will need to be cut in an arch, to follow the front edge of the roof. Also, because the top of the roof drops down to the front here, your sides will not be square edges. The sides are wider at the rear and narrow down slightly at the front. All of this has to be considered when measuring, cutting and installing the front section. Sorry, I didn’t get pictures of this part – the photographer was busy.

Using the same process as we did for measuring and cutting the rear and center sections, cut your material and foam to measure 6’ (72 inches) long by 25 inches wide. DO NOT glue the foam to the headliner material yet.

You’ll need to make a pattern of the front edge of the roof to make the same cut on the headliner material and foam. Use some craft paper or something similar to work with. Lay the paper across the front edge of the roof and draw a line tracing the edge of the roof. Cut along that line to get the arch pattern of the front edge. It’s still not quite exact, so we nee to work it a bit more. Tuck the paper up under the front edge of the roof, making sure to get all the way in at both ends up by the windshield frame tabs. You’ll need to cut one of the outer edges to be able to fit it in along the entire length. Don’t worry, it’s just paper. Once you’ve got it tucked it (it should tuck in about 1 inch) draw a line on the paper using the front edge of the roof as your guide. Remove the paper and again cut along that line. You should now have a pattern that is useable.

Lay your paper pattern on the section of headliner material that you cut earlier. Center it away from the edges, you don’t want it on one end or the other. Draw a line tracing your pattern, and cut along that line. Repeat this procedure with the section of ¼” foam.

When you glue the ¼” foam to the headliner material, you want to have a 1 ½” gap between the edge of the foam and the edge of the headliner material, with the headliner material overlapping the foam. This way it won’t be too thick when you go to tuck the headliner material under the front edge of the roof. So, glue you foam to your headliner material with this in mind. Be careful not to get glue on the front overlapping edge of the headliner material. You might want to tape it off.

Once you got your front section ready, lay it in the roof and start positioning it. Tuck the front edge up under the front of the roof. You’ll need to cut notches at the front ends to get up under at the windshield frame tabs. Line up the rear edge with the support bow mounts and the front edge of the center section of the headliner.

Once you got it all tucked and lined up, fold back half of the section like you did with the other sections. Make sure that the other half stays tucked in and lined up. Spray your adhesive, keeping the glue away from the front edge of the roof on both the headliner and the roof. It will make it very difficult to tuck it in if you glue it down here.

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Using the same procedure as you did for the rear and center sections, glue the headliner down, making sure to watch your front edge so it doesn’t overlap too far. Don’t worry about trying to tuck it in right now, since you didn’t apply adhesive on the edge you can do that later. When you got it glued down and smoothed out, trim the edge and along the support bow mount. Repeat the procedure for the other half of the front section.

Using a flat screwdriver, tuck the front edge of the headliner under the front edge of the roof. Your headliner is now finished.

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Okay! You’re headliner is finished! Stand back and admire it. But, the job is not done yet.

You need to put the support bows back on know, and put the roof back on the Patrol. All I can say is it’s not going to be easy to put the bows back on. You’ve got all that foam padding now that are going to make things difficult to fit back on. You can try to put them back on while the roof is still off, or once the roof is back on the vehicle. I ended up doing it when the roof was back one the vehicle. Since this is just a headliner tutorial, the rest is up to you.

A little added touch that is nice is to use the extra headliner material to line the fiberboard panels inside the Patrol. The remnant left from cutting the rear and center sections will work perfectly for the panel that mounts in the rear of the roof. Just use the adhesive like you did for the headliner material, notch the edges so they fold over nicely, and viola!, you have lined trim panels.

Here’ the finished product. Not perfect, got a few wrinkles in places, but much better than what was there before.

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Postby 50car » Wed May 22, 2013 7:49 pm

As always, awesome.
thanks
Jeff
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Postby miksum56 » Wed May 22, 2013 11:17 pm

You can start on mine anytime your ready Leslie! :lol:
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Postby nizmut » Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:29 pm

what happened to the pic's? Went to show it to my wife, and nothing :(
Robin
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Postby mdawg4x4 » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:36 pm

^^What he said...except for the part about his wife!
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Postby RiverPatrol » Fri Feb 28, 2014 11:38 pm

nizmut wrote:what happened to the pic's? Went to show it to my wife, and nothing :(


Refresh. They're there.
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Postby sleepyzzz » Sun Mar 02, 2014 12:12 pm

RiverPatrol wrote:
nizmut wrote:what happened to the pic's? Went to show it to my wife, and nothing :(


Refresh. They're there.




thank you mam, now did you make this a sticky? if not please do :clap:
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Postby ctcruiser » Thu Apr 02, 2015 8:58 am

Where are the Pictures?
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Postby RiverPatrol » Thu Apr 02, 2015 10:05 am

I haven't forgotten. I'm busy moving/unpacking right now.

I actually tried fixing the pics a few weeks ago, but the forum wouldn't let me add the pics to the post. After trying for a while I had to move on to other things. Soon...
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Postby RiverPatrol » Sun Apr 26, 2015 2:51 pm

Tada! Got broadband now. Beat Yosemite into submission. Got pics now. :D
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