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Headliner material

Cottontail

Cottontail

Three-De Off-Road
NAXJA Member
Location
Nashville, TN
I need to do a headliner and Joann’s has been out of fabric since about April, so I was looking outside the box. They had a neoprene material with fabric on both sides with the spongy section sandwiched in between. Essentially a divers wetsuit with fabric on it.

It appears to be a perfect match for the OEM fabric so I don’t have to redo the sunvisors. The actual replacement headliner they sell is a bit darker.

Any thoughts on if that neoprene would be a good alternative. My only concern really is if it is too heavy for the glue to adequately hold.
 
How thick is it? You might have an issue rolling it over the edge of the backer.
 
Man I hate Joanne's. Every time I've tried to buy headliner material from them its a circus. They treat you like dirt if you're not a little old lady in there for a sewing project.

Last time I did a headliner I ordered from here: https://www.grahamfabrics.com/

Price was right, shipped fast. I went with a grey suede and its a bit heavier but it held up well, just had to use a lot of glue.
 
I tried to do a headliner in vinyl once, and it was way too heavy.
The neoprene sandwich might be a bit heavy too.

The last two were corduroy. It's light weight and has a rough
texture to hide any imperfections. I glue it directly to the board,
with no foam in between.
 
I took out the headliner cleaned it off painted it and reinstalled it.
 
This is my for my daily driver and for a second Jeep that I bought to either flip or let my daughter have, so I want to be sure to replace it with OEM fabric. I'm not doing any mods and want to keep the OEM look on both Jeeps.

The biggest issue is finding the Agave colored fabric. The grey is always either to light or too dark and I don't want to have to redo the overhead console and the visors.

I'll check out that Graham Fabric. I also ordered some swatches from a place on Long Island called Moonlighter Auto Tops.

And FYI, the neoprene was too light...didn't match.
 
While you've got the headliner out, you might consider putting some insulation on the roof. There are lots of products out there for this. I used https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-6-46sqft-Proofing-Insulation-Deadener/dp/B01KAD1XES and it made a difference in sound and solved my problem of condensation above the headliner. The adhesive is really sticky and the material will tear before letting go of your fingers, so leave the backing on the edges until the very end
 
In my MJ, I used cheap medium grey wool felt from Walmart a can of 3M spray adhesive for the headliner. The material was about the thickness and feel of an army blanket and looks decent. It was just stretchy enough to mold into the corners.
 
neoprene sandwich would be great for sound dampening, but its an XJ. you'll just hear other "things" that need your attention.
 
I did mine a couple years ago with a kit from wlsheadliners.com, worked out fine (though I did end up having to pick up extra spray adhesive to finish the job (I may have under-estimated).
 
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