1. Open the headliner
packaging and lay out the contents on a clean, dry surface. It’s
important that you open the package and let the headliner flatten out as
soon as you get it. The headliner shown in this article sat wrapped
in the box for almost 6 months, which is largely to blame for the less
than stellar fitment. The ABS headliner comes folded like a taco and
will take some time to flatten back out. (Figure 2) |
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2. Remove the rear sail panels (speaker covers) by unscrewing the coat hook
with your phillips screwdriver. (Figure 3) |
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3. Remove the roof panel that covers the back of the headliner
by unscrewing the 4 phillips screws. While you’re back here, remove the
upper screw in the B-pillar cover that’s right below the roof panel that
you just removed. You’ll need to have this screw out later on in
order to bend the plastic for the headliner removal. (Figure 4) |
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4. The next step is to remove your dome light or your overhead
console. First, pull the light cover off and remove the bulb.
This bulb can be hot, so to prevent burning yourself, remove with pliers
with a little bit of tape wrapped around the tips to prevent breaking the
bulb. (Figure 5)
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5. Once the dome light is removed, you can remove the
assembly. In cars with just a dome light, the assembly is held into
place with some metal clips mounted to a stud. These need to be
carefully removed with a screwdriver or pliers. If you break it, you
can buy replacements at an auto parts store. Be careful that you
don’t break the stud. On cars with the overhead console, there are
two screws in the dome light area (Figure 6). Remove those, then
slide the entire console forward while applying a small amount of upward
pressure. The front and middle of the console is held in place by
tabs that slide over special screws. You can see these tabs in
Figure 7. |
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6. Once the overhead console is down, you need to unplug the
wiring. Unplug carefully so that you don’t break the plug. On
these cars, the plastic can become very brittle over the years. (Figure 7) |
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7. Remove the trim pieces that are at the back of the window
opening. There is a phillips screw at the top and another at the
bottom. In the middle is a push-in clip that needs to be carefully
pried out. On many cars, this piece may be missing, having been
broken in the past. I generally reinstall this piece without the
clip if it’s still there in order to aid future removal. (Figure  |
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8. The windshield trim pieces are the next items to be
removed. This piece is held on with a screw at the top and two clips
on the t-top models. On hardtop cars, it’s held on by a number of
clips. On the t-top car, remove the screw. The two clips are
approximately 1/3 and 2/3 of the way down the pillar, but due to their
design, you don’t need to pry the piece out. The clips are loaded
into a slot on the trim piece, so pulling the piece up parallel to the
windshield post will remove it. I generally reinstall this piece
without using these clips to aid in future removal. For hardtop
cars, carefully pry the piece over the roof to release those clips, then
pull the piece in the same manner as instructed for the t-top cars.
You can see in figure 10 the location of the two clips. The lower
one is still installed in its hole 1/3 of the way up from the
bottom. The 2nd is 1/3 of the way down from the top, but has been
removed in this picture.
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9. The next step is to remove the sun visors. There are
three phillips screws holding it to the roof. (Figure 11) |
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10. Next you want to remove the trim pieces surrounding the
shoulder belt where it passes through the headliner. These are old
and brittle, and if you break the clips, it’ll never stay up where it
belongs. In Figures 12 and 13, you can see that there are two tabs
in the center on the front side of the piece, and two near the outer
portion in the rear. Using a slotted screwdriver, carefully pry
these areas while applying slight pressure with your other hand. You
want to release a couple of these clips without breaking them, otherwise
it will never stay put when you reinstall it. If you break these
clips, you’ll need to either glue it into place, or take your entire
seatbelt assembly apart to replace it. Don’t break these clips! |
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11. Getting back to the front of the headliner, there are three
tabs across the top of the headliner right near the windshield that hold
it into place. Carefully remove these tabs with a screwdriver or
pliers. These tabs are not firmly attached to the headliner, so if
you’re not careful they’ll pull out of the headliner backing. This
is not important if you intend to throw away the stock headliner, but if
you have any intention of perhaps recovering and/or reinstalling the OEM
headliner in the future, you’ll want to preserve it as best you can.
Once these clips are removed from the vehicle, allow the front of the
headliner to rest on the rearview mirror. (Figure 14)
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12. Now that the front of the headliner is free, you need to
free up the back of the headliner. The first step to this process is
to re-route the seatbelt above the headliner instead of through the
opening. Extend the seatbelt to give you some additional slack, and
pull it around the headliner through the slot. This will require
pulling the plastic B-pillar cover forward a bit. You can see how
the seatbelt should look in Figure 15. |
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13. Now it’s time to get the rear of the headliner free from
behind the B-pillar cover. Back in step 3 I had you remove the screw
at the top of the B-pillar cover. Removal of this screw gives the
plastic enough flexibility to allow you to bend it inward slightly so that
you can remove the headliner from behind it. I found that it’s
easiest to bend the plastic forward slightly and slide the headliner back
toward the hatch area until it’s free. On a hardtop car this may be
difficult and you may need to bend the headliner slightly to get it out
without sliding it back. Don’t bend the headliner too much or you’ll
break it. That may not be an issue if you don’t intend to reuse the
headliner. Once the headliner is free from the plastic, you can set
it down. (Figure 16) Once down, just pop your hatch and remove the
headliner through the hatch opening. |
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14. Now you need to transfer the sun visor mount to the new sun
visors. Remove the screw in the sun visor, and pull the shaft
out. Notice the the shaft is installed parallel to the top of the
visor. On the new visor, poke a hole in the fabric with your awl or
a razor blade, then slide the awl or a phillips screwdriver into the
position where the mount installs to familiarize yourself with this
position. You need to do this because the stock visor mount fits
VERY tighly into the new visor, so you want to become familiar with
exactly where it goes before you attempt to gorilla-fist it into
place. it will take a good bit of force to slide the mount in, so
using a screwdriver that’s just a tad smaller than the visor mount will
help open the hole a bit. Don’t force it. If it’s too snug,
try to find a screwdriver slightly thicker than the last one you used, and
use it to spread the hole slightly. Once you get the original visor mount
installed, take it back out. Don’t wait until after you reinstall the
shaft into the car to install the visor, because it takes a lot of force
to overcome the snug fit, and this is a procedure best done on your
workbench where you can fool around with it. (Figure 17) |
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15. The next step is to prep the new headliner for
installation. If you have any items such as the overhead console
that require cutting the new headliner, place your old headliner on top of
the new one and trace all of the holes to the new one. When you do
this, make sure that the old headliner is perfectly positioned over the
new one, and isn’t shifted to the side or front/back or you’ll transfer
the markings to the wrong spot on the new headliner. Cut these out
with your dremel cut-off tool. Make sure that you cut them a little
small incase you didn’t position the old headliner properly. You can
always cut more if you find that you didn’t cut enough the first time, but
there’s no way to put parts back once you cut them! Once you cut the
spot out, remove the plastic piece and cut the headliner fabric with the
razor blade knife. You may find that simply slicing the fabric down
the center is best, because if you did cut your hole too big, having the
fabric there will hide your mistake. |
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16. Figure 19 shows approximately what your cutout
should look like for the t-top cars with an overhead console. Don’t
forget to cut the headliner material around the seat belt opening, making
sure to cut along the cut in the ABS where you’ll need to slip the
seatbelt through. |
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17. Reinstalling the headliner is basically the
reverse of the removal. Get the headliner into the car through the
hatch area, and carefully get it behind the plastic B-pillar panels.
This headliner is more flexible than the OEM headliner, so it should be
easier to get it behind the b-pillars. Once it’s positioned
properly, check to see if your cutouts were big enough for the overhead
console mounting screws to fit through. If not, use your dremel tool
to carefully trim a little extra. You can see in Figure 20 that in
my case, it was necessary to cut a bit more. |
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18. The next step is to install the sun
visors. If you followed these directions properly, your sun visor
mount should not be installed into the visor. If it is, remove
it. This is the most frustrating part of the installation process,
and it’s 10x harder if you try to install the whole visor at once.
You may need to tug on the headliner a bit to get the cutout to line up
with the three screw holes in the pillar. I found it necessary to
use the Awl to align the right-most hole, and while holding it aligned,
use another one (or a small screwdriver) to align a second hole.
Once the second hole is aligned, carefully remove the 2nd awl and insert
the screw while not allowing anything to move. Leave the screw loose
and attempt to install a 2nd screw into the remaining open hole.
Once that’s started, without allowing anything to move, remove the awl
from the first hole and thread the last screw in. Once all three are
started, tighten them evenly until snug. Once tight, you can
reinstall the sun visor.
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19. Reinstall all of your plastic trim parts,
overhead console and all other parts that you removed except for the sail
panels. |
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20. For those who don’t want to recover their
stock pieces, jump to step 18. This step is for those of you who decide to
use the new sail panel covers. Clean the area slightly below the
speaker opening with the alcohol or other cleaner. Don’t use any
silicone-based cleaner because your adhesive won’t stick to it. Once
it’s dry, attach a couple pieces of the velcro strip to the clean
area. The suggested areas for velcro are shown in green in Figure
23. Leave the adhesive cover on the other piece for now.
Install the new sail panel cover by re-installing the coat hook. If
you can’t find the proper hole for the screw, try finding it with your awl
or the screw with the sail panel cover removed, and pay attention to the
angle, then try again with the sail panel in position. This can be
frustrating until you find the proper angle. Once the piece is
installed, reach behind the sail panel cover, remove the cover over the
adhesive strips, and push the sail panel into place. This velcro
will hold the bottom of the sail panel.
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21. If you look at Figure 24, you can see the
differences between the stock sail panel on the right and the replacement
on the left. While the replacement is a major improvement over your
worn out stock piece, I chose to recover my stock piece. In the pic
you can see that the corner of the angled part on the replacement piece is
too sharp, plus you can see the indentation of the perforated area that
allows the sound to pass from the speaker. |
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22. To recover your stock sail panel, start by
turning it over and carefully peeling the current material away from the
wood backing. Notice that this material isn’t foam-backed like
normal headliner material. When you pull it apart, pull it away from
the white foam material, and leave the white foam material in place.
When it’s separated, it should look like Figure 25.
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23. Once the stock material is fully removed from
the stock sail panel, use the stock material as a template to cut out new
material. I prefer to cut the new stuff with an extra inch all
around. Once it’s cut out, spray the sail panel and the back side of
the new material with your spray adhesive. Once it tacks up, attach
them, starting at the center and working your way to the edges. Once
that’s finished, turn the part over and re-spray the edges, and after that
tacks up, work your way around, pulling it around and attaching at the
back. I prefer to start at the corners, then slowly work my way down
the straight edges, slowly taking in the extra bulk that results from
doing the corners first. The result should provide a clean wrap with
no visible overlap or wrinkles from the front. Trim the excess
material off the back to make sure that the factory hooks and the factory
hole isn’t obscured. Poke a new screw hole in the right place with
your awl or carefully with the tip of your razor blade. |
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24. After you’re finished covering the stock sail
panels, you can reinstall them into the car. If you have trouble
getting the screw properly aligned in the hole, remove the panel and try
installing the screw or the awl tool into the hole and take note of the
position and angle, so that you can repeat that same position and angle
with the sail panel in position. The finished product should look
like Figure 26. |
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25. To install your t-top shades, set them into the
approximate position shown in Figure 27. Set your t-top into place
with the handle open. Make sure the handle goes under the t-top
shade so that the shade is sandwiched between the glass and the
handle. Get into the car with the t-top resting in position and
carefully position the shade so that it’s centered, and that there is no
glass showing around it. If it’s positioned properly, the little
metal tab on the shade will be snugly tucked between the glass top and the
plastic top trim. Latch the t-top, then get out of the car, squeeze
the two pieces together, and unlatch the t-top. If the pieces shift,
start over. Get the t-top out, and carefully peel the adhesive
backing off of one of the velcro pieces on the shade. Squeeze the
shade and the t-top together again. Re-install to verify that it
still fits. If so, peel the adhesive backing off of the other piece
of velcro and attach. You may also want to stick a piece of black
electrical tape over the metal clip so that it won’t scratch your t-top
glass. |
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26. Once everything is installed, you may be a bit
unhappy with the overall fit. Part of how well everything fits
depends on how much time you take aligning it during the installation
process, but part of the blame also lies with the flexible ABS material that
the headliner is constructed from. You may find that certain spots
sag, especially the spot right near the windshield on cars without the
overhead console. After all, the stock headliner not only was much
more rigid, but benefited from those clips to hold it into place.
Another potential area for sagging is right behind the t-top opening, as
seen in Figure 28. To help eliminate any of these sagging positions,
use more of your adhesive-backed velcro strips. Place them in the
areas that are sagging.
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