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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 01:44 PM
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Default coupe headliner repair

Has anyone had the material hang down? Does anyone have the correct repair for this? Years ago, you could just either inject or spray a glue, but want to know the correct way for the targa top.
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 02:18 PM
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On an 01 I once owned, I pulled out the old liner (carefully because if you pull loose any of the coating on the foam underneath it causes bumps in the new liner) and bought some black headliner material from an upholstery shop. It was only about 10 bucks for a yard and one will do it. I then went to a paint and body supply house and bought the spray on headliner glue used by the upholster. I think it was around $18. The hardest part was cutting it to fit, but make it a little bigger and tuck what you can under the edges after it dries and trim off the rest. It looked really good except for the little 'ripples' where I accidentally peeled off a thin layer of the film over the foam. It looks very original after completed.
If the liner is in otherwise good shape, and it's a small area, I think I'd try making a small opening to fit the spray glue tube through and repair the area without removing the old liner material.
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 04:56 PM
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My 99 coupe doesn't have a cloth headliner...just the smooth plastic all the way across the top. What year coupe are you doing this on?
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 05:19 PM
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Originally Posted by CharlestonTiger38
My 99 coupe doesn't have a cloth headliner...just the smooth plastic all the way across the top. What year coupe are you doing this on?
The painted targa tops had a hard foam ( like the kind that comes in a can to insulate around water pipes) material covered by a headliner cloth material. The tinted clear tops had only plastic. Maybe someone painted a clear top if yours matches the car color. Or maybe the stripped out the cloth and insulating foam and left it plastic.
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 05:22 PM
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Originally Posted by 65GGvert
The painted targa tops had a hard foam ( like the kind that comes in a can to insulate around water pipes) material covered by a headliner cloth material. The tinted clear tops had only plastic. Maybe someone painted a clear top if yours matches the car color. Or maybe the stripped out the cloth and insulating foam and left it plastic.
Ah! Didn't know you were talking about the painted targa...must have missed that. I thought you were talking about the section between the targa and back window...
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 05:30 PM
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Default Replacing headliner ?

On my C4 I removed the old black hanging down headliner and the board in was attached to. The board was held in place against the top with large 'Velcro' and I went to a fabric store and bought a 3'X2.5' of lite gray flannel, and I got a can of 3M upholstery adhesive, cut the fabric so it would wrap around all the edges and sprayed the board, installed the flannel and you have to start from the center and smooth it out as you work your way to all the edges, turn it over spray the edges of the opposite side. Once your done all you do is secure the little bit of material that warps around the edges and let dry. In the morning I reinstalled the headliner. Looked great !
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 05:39 PM
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Really should NOT be much of a deal to change. Simply remove the old, determine what you want to put in there, get some 3M adhesive and have some fun.

Good luck
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 05:50 PM
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The head liner on my 2000 Targa finally dropped down in one piece. I cleaned the glue off the roof and sprayed it with 3m adhesive and then the back of the headliner. Let them tack and then carefully pressed it back onto the roof panel. Lasted about 6 months here in Florida. Finally paid a shop $75 to redo the headliner with new material and glued to the roof panel. Been on almost 2 years now with no problems. Good luck.
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 06:19 PM
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Originally Posted by killain
On my C4 I removed the old black hanging down headliner and the board in was attached to. The board was held in place against the top with large 'Velcro' and I went to a fabric store and bought a 3'X2.5' of lite gray flannel, and I got a can of 3M upholstery adhesive, cut the fabric so it would wrap around all the edges and sprayed the board, installed the flannel and you have to start from the center and smooth it out as you work your way to all the edges, turn it over spray the edges of the opposite side. Once your done all you do is secure the little bit of material that warps around the edges and let dry. In the morning I reinstalled the headliner. Looked great !
The C5 backing is foam held to the plastic by glue, not velcro. You don't want to remove the foam, just the cloth. The foam insulates from heat and noise. It's hard formed foam and about 1/2 in thick and covered by a thin sheet of clear plastic, then the cloth headliner, all glued together
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 10:02 PM
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Originally Posted by dadsturn
Has anyone had the material hang down? Does anyone have the correct repair for this? Years ago, you could just either inject or spray a glue, but want to know the correct way for the targa top.
Okay this is actually an easy one...............

Parts, Foam, heavy duty 3M headliner spray, material, plastic body tool (can buy set from harbor freight), masking tape-1/4 to 1/2 wide.

1) The material is hanging down, because the foam is probably dissenter grating. Had it happen to me, noticed that fingerprints and indentations were not popping back out...........

2) So this is my fix, I originally brought some black headliner, on starting to work on it. I found out that the liner and foam are simply cut to fit, there is no taking apart anything, just carefully pull down the whole thing.

3) I brought a piece of 1/4 high density foam and while at the fabric shop saw a good piece of black quilted material, thought that would look cool.

4) Now the original is toast, so use it as a template, cut the foam to size, cut the material so that it will wrap around and tuck under a little under the the original that you pulled off ( a little bigger than the foam).

5) Put a larger blanket or other soft material on your garage floor, because you are going to place the top on it to work on it.......If you noticed, GM did not have glue around the immediate edges of the foam board, so therefor you can put the masking tape close to the frame and use newspaper or other paper protect the frame from the glue. (if you get glue on the frame, do not use goof off or other petroleum based remover, cause GM chose to use a cheap black paint and it will come off too)
As per instructions, spray the roof panel and the back of the foam. When ready pull up the masking tape and put down the foam, smoothing it out to the edges as you go. Don't worry about the non glue area. Now redo the masking tape and protection around the frame, spray the other side of the foam and the material that you are going to put down, after drying, carefully center it and start putting it down from the center out. As you get to the edges you are going to use the flat edge plastic tool to to push that extra 1/8 to 1/4 inch of material under the frame. Sorry I did not take pictures of the process.

That's all folks. Hope this helps.......................

Last edited by Jewjenk; Mar 12, 2012 at 10:04 PM.
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Old Mar 12, 2012 | 11:21 PM
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Good information. Thanks.
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