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Headliner restoration (paint, no fabric)

gba88

NAXJA Forum User
Location
PA
Hey Guys,
Just wanted to share my headliner restoration story with the group in case it helps anyone out in the future. It’s very lengthy, but I feel the more information, the better. Pictures at the end of various stages. They are from a camera phone so not the best quality.

My headliner has been sagging for quite a while now and the hot days had caused it to start sagging and hitting my head. After spending about a week researching options, I decided to remove the cloth and paint it. I didn’t care about cost, but I didn’t want to risk it falling again and figured that painting was the way to go. I had seen several guys use bed liner and different house paints on other websites. I decided to use “Kilz Over Armor” in the slate gray color. This is an acrylic paint that is meant for wooden decks, concrete and should stand up to foot traffic or weather. I thought from looking at images online it was going to be a dark gray, but it actually matched the original color almost perfectly! You can tell from the pics that the original cloth had more yellow in it, but that may just have been from the aging process (this is a 99 so it’s almost 20 years old!). So anyway, materials, thoughts and pictures are below. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Materials list

1. Kilz Over Armor slate gray textured paint ($30 Walmart). http://www.kilz.com/wood-care/kilz-over-armor-textured

2. Duck Aluminum Foil Tape ($7 walmart). https://www.walmart.com/ip/Duck-Bra...um-Foil-Tape-1-88-In-x-45-Yd-Silver/844397821

3. Reflectix Insulation ($15 lowes). https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reflectix-33-3-sq-ft-Reflective-Roll-Insulation-16-in-W-x-25-ft-L/1014123

4. Paint roller and sleeves, pan, etc: ($6 walmart)

Total cost was around $60, so not too bad.

Removing Trim and Painting

• Remove all trim around perimeter of headliner. This process can be found in detail in other threads and a few other sites as well. If doing it again I would start at the front and work back.

• Be very careful getting the headliner out. The biggest surprise to me was how FLIMSY this thing is! I thought at first I had the cardboard version, but it’s a VERY thin layer of fiberglass, then a thin layer of foam and then another very thin layer of fiberglass. There were a couple places on mine where it was already creased slightly, I could picture it breaking VERY easily. If you can get a helper for this part it probably make it easier.

• I used a regular old plastic/nylon bristle scrub brush to remove the foam. It took about a half hour. Interestingly, the areas behind where the visors fold up was still very much in tact. I had to use a WIRE brush to get the foam in those areas removed. I wore a dust mask for part of it but was outside, and didn’t really take any special precautions. I think as long as you’re not sanding the fiberglass or intentionally trying to get it on you, you’ll be ok.

• Before painting, vacuum or blow off the entire board to be sure most of the old foam dust is gone. I didn’t get real crazy here, there may have been a tiny amount of residue left here or there, but I figured 2 coats of paint would be more than enough insurance.

• After removing all foam, I put the first coat of paint on since dry time is 4-6 hours.

• Don’t even TRY to brush the paint on any other way than with a roller. The nap of the roller combined with the textured paint created a very nice professional looking effect. You may want to use a foam brush just to spread the paint into the corners behind the molded speaker areas, but I still tried to work the end of the roller in there to get the “texture” effect from the roller. This paint is THICK! Picture pudding with sand mixed into it.

Putting the Insulation on the Ceiling

• Be careful working with the foil tape if you haven’t before. It sticks to itself and can be a huge mess. Try to start on one end then peel the liner back as you press it onto the seam. Don’t try to peel the whole liner off first, you will be sorry. I tacked each piece up with a couple small pieces then did a long piece to hold it in place. For the strips that go across the width of the jeep (side to side), I found it easier to cut one long strip, then cut it in half and meet in the middle. The foil tape can get pretty unmanageable with longer strips. After I had the tape on, I pressed it smooth with a rag to be sure it was nice and tight.

• I was able to cover the entire ceiling area with about half the roll of the Reflectix insulation. I had to splice some lengths from front to back since my roll was only 16” wide. The middle section length is 26” and the front section is 22”. The back section worked great at the stock 16” that the roll came in. Make all of the widths 42” and that will leave you room for the width of the tape along the edges.

Reassembling

• When putting back together be sure to work from the front to the back, it will be much easier getting the interlocking metal trim pieces together that are above the rear windows to line up.

• I did not have a helper, so I had to prop up the back end from underneath until I had enough pieces in to hold it up. I used a big roll of foam to hold up the back while propped against the floor in the cargo area.

• If you have an overhead console, be sure to route the wires so that they are not causing the headliner to bulge. In my case, I forgot about this and had to take the passenger visor off again and try to cram the long harness back up in. It didn’t turn out perfect, and I could have done it better if I had taken the OC out, but at that point it was “good enough” and you can’t notice it anyway.

• WORST part was lining up the damn visor screws when putting those back in!

The results were MUCH BETTER than I expected! The thing honestly looks “factory”, and I won’t ever have to worry about the cloth hitting me in the head again.

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This is a fantastic idea, and it does look great.
Nice write-up, I am thinking this will be the route I take when mine starts to sag more than I'm comfortable with.
Well done.
 
Quick follow-up question, do you notice any difference with road noise with that insulation at all?
The more I look at this, the more I really like it... my XJ was an ex-fleet vehicle for a cable company so it has this annoying antenna installed on the top and I've put off removing it for the hole it will leave - this would enable me to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
 
Quick follow-up question, do you notice any difference with road noise with that insulation at all?
The more I look at this, the more I really like it... my XJ was an ex-fleet vehicle for a cable company so it has this annoying antenna installed on the top and I've put off removing it for the hole it will leave - this would enable me to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

Thanks for the reply! Canceling out some road noise was one of my goals when I decided to go with the insulation. I read about a guy on another forum using the standard r12 pink fiberglass insulation, but it sounded like a nightmare waiting to happen LOL I think he said they needed to squish it up in since it was so thick and also removed seats and had to clean it all out really well at the end due to all the fibers released during the install.

I was afraid at first of using the paint thinking the missing layer of fabric and foam would make it louder, but I swear it's a little quieter than it was and it's most likely due to the insulation. Also, that stuff works best if there is an air gap between it and the roof. I had originally thought of using rare earth magnets to hold up the sections, but since I used the foil tape, that will keep an air gap where it needs to be. I didn't measure with a decibel meter or anything, but it's definitely not any louder than it was. I think the textured paint helps with the acoustics, too. If it were smooth it would literally "reflect" more sound that is coming in from other parts of the vehicle.

On a side note, one of the other options I considered was a product called "peel and seal". It's kind of like a poor man's dynamat, but since it was on the roof and was asphalt based, It would likely fall eventually. If you search on youtube you'll see what I'm talking about. The only place I'd use that stuff would be the floor since people have reported it falling from ceilings and even off of doors from high outside temperatures. It's funny though, if you look at the product page at lowes and read the reviews, there are some guys raving about soundproofing their corvettes with it :) Oh and I ALMOST went with a paint made by Behr, called "deckover", but read way too many reviews on homedepot.com about it peeling off after a short time!
 
Nice -- my headliner has been out for a month, sitting on some saw horses waiting to be monstalined

I have the material, just don't have the time at the moment -- I plan to spray the monstaliner

I cleaned my headliner with the stiff brush, then I actually washed it with soap (dawn) and water -- took all the residue off

I too plan on the aluminum insulation up top
 
That looks super. I did mine last year using cordurory fabric, but the paint has advantages. I used paint on the backside of the fiberboard for strength, but didn't think of using it to replace the fabric....
 
That looks super. I did mine last year using cordurory fabric, but the paint has advantages. I used paint on the backside of the fiberboard for strength, but didn't think of using it to replace the fabric....

Thanks! I did a test on the way home from work today... ran the air only about half way and then just kept the windows up. The insulation is definitely having some kind of an effect on keeping the temperature under control. it's upwards of 80+ degrees today. Only problem so far is the smell of the paint hasnt' completely disappeared! it smells like a freshly painted house :)
 
Nice job!!

I wore a baseball cap for a couple of months when mine started to fall down. Couldn’t stand it rubbing against my head. Ten years later, it’s starting to fall again. For now just the back seat.
 
This is an excellent write up. I am getting to this stage myself. I have an '01 with an interior of the same color, and the headliner is just starting to drop. Not to the point where it is scraping my head, but it will be soon. Im in AZ, so I would think that not only the insulation you used, but also having the hard smooth surface instead of the fabric, would help to retain the cool air conditioned air! It gets so dusty here, especially on the trails, that the fabric gets so dirty from holding the dust. That smooth hard surface would not hold very much dirt at all, and whatever it did, would be easy to clean!
One question, how many coats did you put on? I know you said it went on very thick, but did you go over it a second time after the first coat dried? Im concerned about clips and things reaching far enough through the holes to latch properly.
Let us know how it holds up after a while, Im also wondering how it holds up in the extreme heat here. Thanks!
 
This is an excellent write up. I am getting to this stage myself. I have an '01 with an interior of the same color, and the headliner is just starting to drop. Not to the point where it is scraping my head, but it will be soon. Im in AZ, so I would think that not only the insulation you used, but also having the hard smooth surface instead of the fabric, would help to retain the cool air conditioned air! It gets so dusty here, especially on the trails, that the fabric gets so dirty from holding the dust. That smooth hard surface would not hold very much dirt at all, and whatever it did, would be easy to clean!
One question, how many coats did you put on? I know you said it went on very thick, but did you go over it a second time after the first coat dried? Im concerned about clips and things reaching far enough through the holes to latch properly.
Let us know how it holds up after a while, Im also wondering how it holds up in the extreme heat here. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! I put on 2 coats. Trust me, you will not have any issues with this method regarding thickness. I'm sure the thickness of the foam and fabric combined are more than the textured paint even with two coats. I wanted to be sure it was DURABLE, and didn't want to have it scratch easily or anything like that. It also toughened it up by putting 2 coats on for areas like the rear cargo light and the rear speaker clips. I didn't want it chipping or anything. My only problem getting it back together was not paying attention to the OC harness and having to drop the passenger side visor and door trim again to try to cram things up in so that the front wasn't drooping from that big harness. The smell is finally dissipating. When I got in this morning for work it was about 55 out and I didn't hardly notice it. After work though it was about 85 and it was definitely noticeable from the heat. I'm sure eventually it will fade, I'm not really worried about that aspect of it. Oh, and I used about half a gallon on it! I still have a good bit left for touchups if needed in the future. There is NO WAY you get the coverage they claim on the can due to the thickness of this stuff. I read that elsewhere as well. Some guy was painting a dock and only put about 2 or 3 gallons on before he realized it would cost an absurd amount of money to do the entire dock.

I'll definitely post back to the thread if any issues arise. The only thing I can possibly think of is if it would peel off or something. i doubt that that will be the case though as I did a bunch of research and guys have had great luck with this compared to the BEHR deckover stuff I mentioned. if you look up reviews on home depot about the behr product you will see tons of complaints about it peeling up! I already accidentally scratched/scraped it a few times without any damage. Once was with a screw driver when putting the back speakers in and the other time was just a hard smack against it when I reached for the visor while going through a turn....my fingernails/hand scraped it pretty hard when I grabbed for it and nothing at all happened. The stuff is meant for wood and concrete so I'd imagine it will likely hold well against the fiberboard. i let the first coat dry about 4.5 hours while I was putting the insulation up and doing some other projects, then put another coat on. About 4 hours after that I was putting it back up in but left the job about half done since it was getting so late. I just finished it up the next day, but it had 2 coats and was back in the jeep all in the same day.
 
That Kilz paint, a little off topic, would you suggest it to paint the floorboards should one decide to permanently pull out the carpet?
 
That Kilz paint, a little off topic, would you suggest it to paint the floorboards should one decide to permanently pull out the carpet?

I honestly have no idea, it's the first time I've used it. I can tell you it has held up on the concrete floor pretty well in the garage LOL! I'd say search the web, I'm sure someone has done it. The biggest gripe I found when researching is the coverage not being anywhere near what's on the can.

I'm not sure what colors they have, but the gray would definitely get dirty i would think. Not sure if they make black or not. It is intended for flooring and decks, so it would probably take the abuse. They make it clear though that it's for foot traffic and NOT driveways.
 
Did the smell go away?


I tried something similar using fiberglass gel to stiffen and then painted.
The smell never disappeared and was making my wife and I sick.
I cant see any pictures as well???
 
When I sprayed mine, I had to keep it in the garage, and it was pretty cold outside, therefore it took me a week almost, to get rid completely of the smell. Also I got a few new covers for the sits, made by a guy with a textile machine from one of the best textile machine manufacturers. The quality is very good, after this little work that I've done, my car looks like it got a second life. All my friends thought that I got a new car, I would like you to see their faces when I told them that this is actually my old car.
 
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