K-Wagon Headliner fix. My attempt.

K-Wagon Headliner fix. My attempt.

Postby terencejiminy » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:15 pm

There have been quite a few suggestions on this common repair and I wanted to inject my attempt to fix this (ONLY) eyesore in my 88 K-Wagon.
Because I do not know for sure please bare with me on my steps to fix this if my headliner panel is NOT the same as in all the other (obviously shorter) cars.
The first step I took was to remove this 6+ft long by 4ft wide (piece of what looks like heat crushed/pressed fiberglass insulation) panel. That being done alone caused some cracks around its weakest parts, the coat hook holes and the area where the sun visors attach through.
I first set this up in my basement (its been under 20 degrees here in southeast Michigan for way too long) on a couple milk crates. I coated the back side with some fiberglass polyester 2 part to keep THAT side firm and from unraveling or fraying. The material soaked up the 1st coat so I brushed on a second. Just before I applied the second I cut some 3" wide X 6" long strips of fiberglass (smooth) matting as backup for the above mentioned weak areas. I installed them as the 1st coat set-up to hold them in place. 2 hours later I applied the second coat. The next day I viewed my progress quite satisfied, then attempted to turn it over so I could work on the interior, most important surface.
Well this light and agile, maybe total 3 lb panel, turned into an 8 to 10 lb BOARD. ARRRGGGG! :shock:
Hoping for the best outcome I pressed on. My headliner had been reglued in its past so when I pulled the flanell material off this BOARD a whole lot of the board and foam came with it. Double AARRRGGGG! :cry:
Last week I went to our local Parts Galore/Pick-A-Part and found 2 K series wagons. I checked for the best looking panel with the least amount of scrapes or injuries and bought one from an 83. I brought this one (see pic) home with shreds of its assembly line material flapping in the breeze. Note: On my walk back to the pay window the wind pretty much removed most of the remaining material from my new found treasure. $24.... :wink:
When I got home and brought IT down to my make shift trim shop I placed it on the milk crates and inspected it. The back side was pristene so I opted out of my new, not so well thought out, brainstorm of strengthening it with polyester. I did spray on a coat of 3M interior trim quick dry cement all over this porous surface just for the piece of mind, bonding it all together for the future. This works fine and it seems my new panel doesn't weigh any more now than when I started.
I added a thin wooden tongue depresser (Popsicle stick but twice as wide) to the backside area between the Coat Hook screw holes and the edge. The trim cement bonded these in place.
I flipped it over to see what my next step was and after using 3 cheap 3" paint brushes (the brushes will quickly load up with this old gue and debris) to carefully remove the remaining old headliner material foam and glue, the surface looks quite smooth with only 3 or 4 scars on the surface. I used a small spritz of the same trim cement to reattach the ripped layer.
The following day I checked the surface and was very satisfied. Looked great.
I did not have the $$'s for new fabric from Joann Fabrics here locally so I opted to just apply 2 coats of Dupli Color Interior Trim and Fabric spray in Burgandy (#110) to match the original shade of the cars trimset.
I knew that when I'm done this surface in no way would match (texture) the factory cloth surface, but it will closely match in color and hue.
Came out very nice, if I may say so myself. I know I can be confident that with our temperature extremes here in southeast Michigan I won't worry about having flannel seperating from ITS foam backing and rubbing my due in the future.
One more little perk: I got a chrome dome light assy from a no sun roof 85 Lancer, 2 or 3 cars down, with the Map light IN IT. Now My 88 sports the Aries map light/make up mirror light in the passenger's visor AND this added option too.
Cool! :D
My next upgrade is the matching burgandy cloth front buckets and console from THAT Lancer I copped the dome light from.
Thanks,
Terry
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Re: K-Wagon Headliner fix. My attempt.

Postby 89ARIES » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:00 pm

Well, my headliner completely fell down about two years ago in my 89 Aries. I went to a professional shop where they literally took out all the seats and some of the interior plastic trim. The interior plastic trim itseld was coming off as screws somehow vibrated themselves out. The guys did an excellent job. They did not scratch the car, the got all the seats out, which is very hard to do in a coupe, and they only broke one plastic panel along the top of the rear window. They glued it with superglue and it has held nicely. I made a big deal about them being careful with the brittle plastic. The guy apologized about the plastic and said they got stuck trying to remove it. Very hard to work on old car interiors. The headliner so far has held.
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Re: K-Wagon Headliner fix. My attempt.

Postby 1of10K » Fri Feb 06, 2009 12:29 pm

It seems every K has the same headliner problem. I finally did mine, had the seats out and it was alot easier. Found that a scrubbing with dry steel wool works great on getting all the old foam and glue residue off the headliner panel. Picked up some headliner spray glue from the auto parts store and actually slowed down enough to follow the instructions on waiting 5 minutes between each coat, letting it cure, etc. Got a great 1/2 price deal on some dark blue headliner fabric on sale at a big fabric store, put it on, left it to "cure" for 36 hours, and put it back in the car. Very surprised on how good it looked. If I had to do anything different, I would cut the long plastic strips that run down each side in 1/2 at the B pillar with a small hobby type coping saw. This would have made removal and reinstallation much easier and the piece I snapped wouldn't have! The little metal clips would let you push the 2 pieces together where a seam would look almost factory.
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Re: K-Wagon Headliner fix. My attempt.

Postby dodgeariesguy » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:04 pm

Mine has yet to need a headliner and after speaking to one previous owner and family of the original owner who passed I know it hasn't been done and to my surprise it doesn't need it I feel lucky. (If only for now.) Good luck to anyone who needs it and to anyone who's had it done good job!
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Re: K-Wagon Headliner fix. My attempt.

Postby 88 aries » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:27 am

i paid 85.00 for a replacement and im very happy with it, my reliants sun visiors had a vinyl edgeing on it now it has material on the out sides it looks very nice, my aries has had its headliner replaced but needs a little cleaning because it was a smokers cars at one time, any ideas on how to clean a dirty headliner
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