Cleaning/re-doing headliner ???'s

[-83MONTESS-]

I finally found a decent headliner in a local salvage yard. The cloth was sagging and the nasty foam was disintigrating so im gonna redo it. The wind got to it on the way home so now I have some fiberglass work to do before it gets cloth but my question is what did you guys that redid your's use to clean the backing? I have all the cloth and foam off of it now but its really sticky and some of the foam has smeared to the point of not coming off at all. These are hard to find around here so I dont want to ruin this one with water or a solvent if there is a better alternative. The adhesive and new cloth/foam is already taken care of I just need some help cleaning this nasty thing. Thanks in advance.

 

[L92 OLDS]

You may want to return that nasty headliner board back to the yard where you bought it. You can buy new aftermarket ABS headliner boards at a reasonable price. Mikes Montes is one supplier that I believe sells the headliner substrate only or with fabric installed. Here's a link

http://www.mikesmontes.com/Headliner-on ... _1013.html

 

[307 Regal]

I know I used a thin putty knife to scrape the stuff off. I might have used dish soap but I don't remember.. 😳 For any cracks in the board, I actually just backed them with duct tape. ...which, come to think of it, that tape might have been on top of some glue... (this was maybe 4 years ago.) Either way, it has held up fine since then. I wish I could remember a little better. I didn't have a camera or a build thread back then; otherwise I'd have posted it here...

 

[GhettoRacingKid]

I used wire brush to clean mine up and I took the foam off with my hands by just rolling it and working it off.

I too used duct tape on it. mostly in the corners where I had cracks and everything.

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Ok thanks for the replies. A new headliner is out of the question since I got this thing for $2 and im in the middle of an engine build and getting my dd back to road worthy. Any money I can save I will especially since I have the tools and materials needed to fix it.

 

[tc1959]

You may want to return that nasty headliner board back to the yard where you bought it. You can buy new aftermarket ABS headliner boards at a reasonable price. Mikes Montes is one supplier that I believe sells the headliner substrate only or with fabric installed. Here's a link

http://www.mikesmontes.com/Headliner-on ... _1013.html

I bought a ABS one for my El Camino I don't like it. The thing buckles and gets warped when the car is parked in the sun.

 

[86 Grand prix]

I always use a hand wire brush to get the dead foam off. It usually just crumbles if it is dry rotted enough. Never found any kind of sticky mess like you describe. My board cracked too, I glued a couple of layers of headliner material to the back side to hold it together.

 

[rangertom]

I used a green scrub pad and my shop vac... worked great !! and all the cracks I had I mended with foil tape from lowes.

 

[Longroof79]

I've also used the wire brush method to clean up the old foam, etc. on several headliner boards. Also repaired the corners and cracks using fiberglass matting and resin.
A rotary wire wheel on a drill works well, too.

 

[jacobdavis1979]

haha that brings back memories. when i got my malibu my headliner was held up with tacs and i left that way for about a year untill i went out one mornin wasnt payin attention and sat on a bunch that fell out lol bout a week later i payed i dont remember how much to have a custom one put in lol i was like no way am i sittin on tacs again

Im sorry that story doesnt help u but i wanted to share 🙂