Headliner front panel replacement

Simon

Simon

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I have an upholstery shop replacing the headlining in my 1975 E9 3.0 CS. They have done a really shoddy job. I have sent it back to get it redone and now they advise that the front panel above the visors is falling apart and will not hold the lining material up. Is this a common issue? What are the options to replace/repair this panel? Anyone know of a good second hand item available? Picture for identification of part only (a good picture from the web). I searched the forum for old post but came up blank. Thanks in advance for any useful info.,

Edit/update: been to visit upholsterer, turns out the panel is not the best but really its just incompetent workmanship. Will take vehicle elsewhere to get new headliner.
 

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Interesting, dynamat in the sunroof, never crossed my mind.

That panel is one solid piece so I am unsure of what they are talking about. It is held by two small rivets on each side that attach to the roofline and it gets some help from the switch for the sunroof that has a little cage that also fits into the roof. BUT, the headliner attachment has nothing to do with the panel, panel goes on after the headliner is in place.

Comments based on you having a car with a sunroof.
 
Isn't the headliner material supposed to be glued to the underside of the roof, near the front window edge? if, so, then indeed, like @bavbob comments, the panel with the sunshade recesses has nothing to do with it.

sunroof and non sunroof cars are different - non sunroof cars use 3 or 4 metal rods from left to right , keeping tunnels sewn into the headliner up in the air; giving them a nice bow. I'm not sure how sunroof cars have their mechnical attachment of the sunroof vinyl to the roof structure.
 
Yes Erik, you are correct. glued on all edges, also held on the sides by the alum strip that runs along the roofline along the length of the car and on the front and back below each window gasket.

The sunroof is basically a sandwich, the part you see from outside and a separate panel inside that is covered in headliner material and clips into the portion you see from outside. You can unclip it, slide it back and expose all the mounting bits. It is slid back in the OP image.
 
Thanks for your input. I have a manual sunroof car.
The main headliner around the sunroof is clipped on the sides and around the lip of the sunroof hole. This is all OK and able to be fitted.
The problem area is the hard panel above the visor area that fits on after the main liner. The headliner material is glued to the contoured panel. This panel is held in place by the sunroof handle and sunroof clips etc. The headliner material when glued to the 'solid' panel just seems to pull the panel apart and fall off. i.e. the panel seems to be disintegrating. I will travel out to the upholstery shop to take a better look. I attach some pictures. First one is the liner falling/sagging off the panel (the reason is sent it back to redo the job). the next pictures are those sent to me yesterday from upholsterer advising the headliner material is just pulling the skin off the panel. Fianl picture is a pic from web with the panel highlighted in red to clarify the area with the issue
 

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I had a small posting about them in the Sunroof How-to. Repeated below. Hard to come by. Good upholstery shops should be able to repair most examples but it takes some creativity. As you have noted, trying to pull the original material from the padded backing results in damage to the backing. But glueing new material over the old adds thickness and is difficult to get smooth. The bottom one in the photo below had replacement headliner material glued over the original, thus the bubbles. I think a good shop will end up using what they can of the original, perhaps reenforcing with fiberglas or similar, and shaping the contours with some new firm foam before recovering. I got lucky and got a replacement from Carl Nelson that we were able to respray. Good luck.

The front visor panel is different on manual and electric models, as the crank or switch area differs. The corners of this piece are usually roached. Be sure that your rearview mirror bracket base is attached to the roof before installing this panel. Once this is held in by the front glass rubber, visors, side rubber and trim, etc. it is virtually impossible to remove.

visorPanels.jpg
 
I'm in the same boat myself and need to revisit the front piece of my headliner. Mine had been retrimmed and had new material stuck over the original bonded/molded material, that was delaminating from the backing panel so I figured it was best removed and new material stuck direct on to the "foam" backing - it didn't really work! The current plan is to try coating the whole panel in a layer of fibreglass resin to get a better base and then trying again... i just need to psyche myself up for the ridiculous amount of disassembly needed to remove the panel!
 
Mine was in bad shape but the liner material was intact though discolored etc. I rebuilt the foam with some epoxy and got SEM paint that matched the new headliner. Even if the new liner is dimpled a little different from the old, it is not appreciated once they are mounted and the same color.

Those panels do show up for sale every once in a while but most I have seen are for electric sunroofs. The hunt is part of the challenge, that's how I look at it.
 
Thanks for your input everyone.
Its turned into a bit of a nightmare getting money back from the incompetent tradeperson who did the work. Working on getting my car back and getting a new liner installed elsewhere. I will take all your tips on board. The original looks like it may be restorable and mainly discolored. The issues had arisen when they tried to glue the new liner to the original. I think i have found a good craftsman for the job. fingers crossed.
Some pics attached of the poor work that was done.
 

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hey guys, anyone know how to remove the centre section of the front headliner on an electric sunroof version? Mine feels like it's more than just glue?
 

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