Single Piece Headliner

[Greasy DeLorean Mechanic]

My sincerest apologies for the delay -- I've been busy reading online commentaries about the Republicans' latest legislative failure. There sure are a lot of them, from all ends of the political spectrum, and I'm devouring every delicious word.

There are pop rivets in the backer boards already -- that's what holds the brackets on. A couple more isn't going to hurt anything. Make sure you install them pointed towards the roof of the car.... I used aluminum rivets with large diameter heads, but I suppose steel small head rivets would work too -- that's what Dunmurry used to hold the brackets. You'll need backing washers otherwise the mandrel will just tear through the backer board (Dunmurry used the brackets themselves as backing washers).

I used Heads UP brand light gray, HU804, readily available from eBay, Amazon, JC Whitney, etc. I like it:

SinglePieceHeadliner.jpg

If I had it to do over I would pop rivet a piece of aluminum across the back, above the back window. My headliner has developed a slight cooked smile across the back of the car over the years, but I'm not the only one (everyone with unreinforced OEM boards has it). It's really not worth my time to tear the interior apart to take the boards down now.

Everybody's all "Ooo Ooo" over 3M contact adhesive. I used floor adhesive (the stuff you apply with a notched trowel). Headliner's still hanging were I stuck it more than a decade ago.... One advantage of floor adhesive is you can pull the fabric back off and reposition it if necessary -- particularly handy in the door pieces. It's also super easy to massage the fabric into nooks & crannies. I've seen a couple of cars with wrinkles in their headliners that were likely caused by contact adhesive grabbing before the headliner was properly positioned, particularly in the door pieces. If you do use floor adhesive make sure to follow the directions -- *WAIT UNTIL IT FLASHES OVER*. Wet adhesive will just squish through the fabric. It also doesn't grab right until flashing over. I had to reglue a bathroom at my church because they didn't wait for the adhesive to flash over before sticking the tiles down. You've got about 24 hours working time after the adhesive flashes over -- what's the big rush?

My door boards were ripped where the fir trees go in. I sandwiched large head fir trees (the ones intended to hold hood insulation) between the boards and the fabric before gluing the fabric down. Worked like a charm.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[Rich_NYS]

Thanks Bill, very much appreciated....

There are pop rivets in the backer boards already -- that's what holds the brackets on. A couple more isn't going to hurt anything. Make sure you install them pointed towards the roof of the car.... I used aluminum rivets with large diameter heads, but I suppose steel small head rivets would work too -- that's what Dunmurry used to hold the brackets. You'll need backing washers otherwise the mandrel will just tear through the backer board (Dunmurry used the brackets themselves as backing washers).

So I only need washers on the back...I see that's how it is with the brackets, I was thinking everyove was putting washers on both sides.

I used Heads UP brand light gray, HU804, readily available from eBay, Amazon, JC Whitney, etc.

Exactly the info I've been looking for... Your headliner looks to be the same shade as my previous DeLorean.... that's the color I want. (Compare our pics.)

If I had it to do over I would pop rivet a piece of aluminum across the back, above the back window. My headliner has developed a slight cooked smile across the back of the car over the years, but I'm not the only one (everyone with unreinforced OEM boards has it). It's really not worth my time to tear the interior apart to take the boards down now.

I planned to do this also....great minds, brah. I have an aluminum strip and was going to fiberglass it to the panel when I sealed the boards this weekend. I like the riveting idea....I'll be able to test-fit the board before fiberglassing it. I mistakenly ordered two boxes of rivet assortments (instead of one,) so I'm swimming in rivets.....this'll be a good excuse to use some.

My door boards were ripped where the fir trees go in. I sandwiched large head fir trees (the ones intended to hold hood insulation) between the boards and the fabric before gluing the fabric down. Worked like a charm.

Bill Robertson
#5939

I really like this idea....probably good to do even if my boards aren't ripped. Those are universal fir trees, right?