Custom Headliner

[CJ Rodarme]

I just purchased some of the materials I need for my rolls-royce style "starlight" headliner. However I am not sure how many cans of spray adhesive I need. I plan on using foam backed black suede and stripping the whole board using a nylon wire wheel. I live in Western WA so it doesn't get terribly hot but between heat and vibration from my sound system I am worried about having a sagging headliner, especially with how many hours I'll be putting into the lights. I don't want to end up with a sagging headliner a year after I do it or anything like that. So for those who have done headliners how many cans of 3M are recommend?

 

[CJ Rodarme]

After talking to one of my friends he suggested I don’t strip the OEM liner and just layer the suede over it. This way I don’t have to worry about sagging. However I don’t know how clean it’d be.

 

[mikeyss]

IMO, you never layer over headliner. If the OEM starts to come off, the expensive suede comes off with it. I know my 05 Tahoe the headliner is coming off around the front door area, so if I were to layer over that, it too would sag. Not only that, when you go to put the dome lights back in, the 2 layers of headliner would not let the lights sit flush. Do it right, remove and clean every square inch of the headliner, then install your suede.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

Okay thank you for your input. Do you think weather where you live had any effect on the sagging?

 

[EfiniMotorsport]

I work at an upholstery shop and do at least a few headliners a month. You HAVE to take off the old liner. Suede is much harder to work with than regular headliner material because it doesn't like to stretch. Make sure you have a wide enough piece after accounting for all the curves in the headliner. Covering mine was a pain in the ass. We use Stay-put contact cement. It comes in 5 gallon cans but I'm not sure if you can get it in aerosol or not. IF not I'd go with 3M Super 77 and you're going to need a lot of it. You need to make sure both surfaces are well covered before you stick them together. You also want to keep as much tension on the material before you stick it down. Cut an extra piece of the suede about 6"x12", coat the back with glue and fold it in half. Use that pad to brush the headliner down as you go. If you use your fingers you'll compress the foam on the back of the suede and leave noticeable lines in it.
Coincidentally I just did a black suede headliner and a fiber optic starlight ceiling in my BMW last weekend. It looks awesome but damn it took a long time and that was in a car with a headliner less than half the size of your truck. I used 197 points of light, 40 or so of which were in the sunroof slider. It took me 13 hours total including recovering the headliner. If you have any questions on it shoot me a pm.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

Would you recommend that I just take the headliner to a upholstery shop with it removed and stripped? I'm not sure how expensive it would be compared do doing it myself. I've heard I can save some money if I don't need it uninstalled/installed and have it prepped.

 

[Fosscore]

I work at an upholstery shop and do at least a few headliners a month. You HAVE to take off the old liner. Suede is much harder to work with than regular headliner material because it doesn't like to stretch. Make sure you have a wide enough piece after accounting for all the curves in the headliner. Covering mine was a pain in the ass. We use Stay-put contact cement. It comes in 5 gallon cans but I'm not sure if you can get it in aerosol or not. IF not I'd go with 3M Super 77 and you're going to need a lot of it. You need to make sure both surfaces are well covered before you stick them together. You also want to keep as much tension on the material before you stick it down. Cut an extra piece of the suede about 6"x12", coat the back with glue and fold it in half. Use that pad to brush the headliner down as you go. If you use your fingers you'll compress the foam on the back of the suede and leave noticeable lines in it.
Coincidentally I just did a black suede headliner and a fiber optic starlight ceiling in my BMW last weekend. It looks awesome but damn it took a long time and that was in a car with a headliner less than half the size of your truck. I used 197 points of light, 40 or so of which were in the sunroof slider. It took me 13 hours total including recovering the headliner. If you have any questions on it shoot me a pm.

Man I want to see pictures of that starlight suede BMW headliner!

 

[EfiniMotorsport]

I don't know about shops in your area but it's less than half the price if someone brings us a headliner already out of the car. The problem is trying to move something that size when it's not in the vehicle. There's no good place to put it. This is the only picture I have of it right now. I still need to figure out how to get the 40 or so strands in the sunroof slider to not bind up when I open it.
I called up a local planetarium and had them send me a star map of the sky on the day I was born where I was born. It took me a little while how to lay it out in a way that would look random but not too much of a pattern. The BMW headliner was close to square so it was easy to scale it. Because the truck headliners are so long it would take a little more work to get it laid out right. Just tell them how many "stars" you need based on your kit. Make sure the strands reach all the way too. You may need two kits and to mount the controller in the middle of the truck. Maybe in the B or C pillars.



A wire wheel in a drill works great to strip the old foam off the board. Just make sure that you only run the drill one way because the bristles will take a bend quickly and if reversed dig in. Also be careful around the edges and openings. You want the bristles to go away from the edge so they don't grab onto them.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

My kit is 800 stars... gonna be a fun couple weekends to say the least

 

[select127]

Would you recommend that I just take the headliner to a upholstery shop with it removed and stripped? I'm not sure how expensive it would be compared do doing it myself. I've heard I can save some money if I don't need it uninstalled/installed and have it prepped.

I had my headliner done in suede a couple years ago. Pulled it out and took it to a local shop. Only cost me $150. It was double that if they had to remove & install it.