A question for the collective.

[grouch]

The surface area of any wire brush I've seen is quite small compared to the stiff bristle brushes. We had the whole thing cleaned off in less than an hour. Mine was older so maybe the foam was decayed more, but a couple of swipes and most of it just crumbled to dust. A few more swipes and it was all but gone. From there, cleaning out the nooks and crannies with the drill mounted wheel took very little time.

I've done headliners where the foam came right off. Maybe this was an exception. I'd scrub for a couple of hours, take a break and do something else, then scrub some more.

The Dakota is almost back to daily driver status. I need to get the front end aligned, and a few little details.

Here's what it looked like before prep and paint.



and after.



I also put a reflective strip along the bottom of the tail gate. It's been my experience people don't see trucks painted like this at night with the lights off. The Ram behind it got the same treatment although the paint on the Ram is a stock color and the Dakota is custom made as I couldn't get three quarts of any one color.

 

[89Suburban]

Wire brush worked fine for me.

 

[89Suburban]

Good old days...

 

[grouch]

Stopped by a trim shop today to see if they had any tips. Apparently older Chrysler headliners are just more labor intensive because of the fiberglass base. The cardboard GM uses is a breeze compared to them. Ford is sort of in the middle. Newer Chrysler products aren't as bad as they are less durable.

The manager looked at the one in my truck and said if I ever want a job, look him up. It seems as I've found out, people think it's easy until they get them out. Then they want to farm it out. Personally, I think removal and installation is the easy part.

 

[Mean_Green]

Mine is some kind of flexible fiberboard. Not sure what, but not cardboard.

 

[Grady_Wilson]

I have only done a couple headliner replacements on the fiberboard/cardboard panel and I used a large wire brush to remove the old foam.
I don't recall it being especially difficult but it did take some time.
The fabric I used already had the foam attached to it. I found it at Michael's Fabrics.