Repairing a Separating Headliner

The driver side of my headliner has been separating for a while now and nothing I’ve to fix it has worked.

I’ve tried tape and the tape pretty much came off right away.


I’ve tried 3M spray adhesive and that didn’t really work either. Only stuck together for a couple months before coming apart. This is an extreme example before I glued it but you can get an idea.


The problem is the top is some sort of fabric and so is the bottom. But the center is some sort of crumbly foam that glue doesn’t really stick to.

As I’m typing this the only other method I can think of is just hand stitching around the two layers but not sure that’ll work.

Any interior experts that can recommended something they might do to fix it? Some special glue?

 

Did your ever find a solution for this? Got the same problem on my passenger side.

 

The headliner cloth material usually comes with a foam backing layer that is built together as one piece glued to a press carboard type board. When this starts to separate from the press board headliner hard part the foam part separates from the cloth sticking to the board part. Making a mess in older vehicles and looking shoddy. (Clear as mudd)
For a brand new look you have to take the whole headliner board piece out of truck. (big hassle). Buy new headliner material the size of your roof( purchase at upholstery fabric store or online). Pull off all the old cloth material from roof board. Clean the foam that stuck to the board.
Then once you have a clean top board piece the new cloth/foam material and board are sprayed with 3m glue and applied very gently together to not leave finger prints in glued foam. Then Cut and Trim interior light holes and edges reinstall board in truck. It's a lot of work.(but looks great when done right)
Once foam material starts separating from original application it's all down hill from there. I have tried little dabs of super glue and spray glues for fix but never really looks new again. Usually you have to do the whole thing for a new look.
Check out YouTube vids. Or pay like $200 to $400 at upholstery shop.

 

This is the current state of mine. Gettin worse since I've been trying to shove it back up in there. Now it pops out almost immediately. Got a couple ideas in mind to fix it. One being to sow it back up, but there's not a lot of material to grab onto on the edge and doubtful it'll work.

Other idea is to clamp the edges closed and use some sort of adhesive, possibly hot glue maybe(?) right on the edge and use door edge trim to cover it. I have some small edge trim already but don't think it's big enough. Will have to order some.

 

Yeah and they just get worse if you drive with the window down. I've dealt with a few, hence the detailed explanation. Best of luck

 

Welp, see how long this lasts. Fingers crossed it holds up. Think it will. The brush worked really well. Along with using clamps and something (a random glasses case) to help keep pressure on it while it dried. I brushed a good amount in between the layers and was afraid it would bleed through but it didn't. I think the trick is to use enough of the adhesive so it soaks into the foam as well. Using a spray adhesive probly doesn't apply enough with only a tiny layer, thus making it come undone again from the crumbly foam. Using a slight "glob" let's it soak into the foam and create a hardened layer.. Then I just let it dry in place with the clamps for an hour at least. Now only a tiny bit of the fabric is exposed. I plan to address this further as well (I explain below).





In this small spot (where it was just barely separating) I applied some glue also and since it was closer to the edge, it actually ended up working out better because it hardened and formed to the position it was held in from the clamp. So I will probly see if I can touch the very edge up again on the rest of that section and get it to compress and form at a slight upward angle just like this small spot did.



The edge trim I got was too small so I gotta order some a bit wider, then see how well it's gonna fit the edge of the headliner and test fit it. It may not actually be needed but I would like to see how it looks, and how it fits up in there, to maybe help hold that edge of the headliner into the weatherstripping that much more. Plus, I think it'll help protect it from further degradation. Time will tell I guess.

 

Little update on this..

1/4" trim was perfect. I haven't messed with touching the edge up with superglue yet to stiffen that edge up. But decided to test fit this first and see how it fit and looked. Not too bad. Still doesnt squish up into the weatherstripping as much as i was hoping it would but it seems like it'll stay... The headliner with superglue fix is still holding up too tho so thats good. The door trim has adhesive on both sides and I didn't take the tape off because again, I wanna touch that edge up more. Not sure the adhesive will even stick anyways. But I think this solution is working out well so far. If anyone goes this route, best way to get the trim on is to bend/filet it out like in the pics and it'll sandwich right over the headliner edge.

Edit: oh and

$10 VUAOHIY Rubber Edge Trim U Channel, Self-Adhesive Edge Trim Sheet Metal Edge Protector, EPDM Rubber Edge Guard for Car Doors, Metal Plate, Glass, Table Corners, Hatches, Fit 1/4" Edge, 10 Ft Length

here's the trim I bought.

 

Call it jank if you want (kind of was, let's be honest), but for a quick fix, I used these on my late G8 before I had the headliner redone. It had almost separated half from the backing material so anything was better than that.



EDIT: @NightProwler nice results!