Headliner repair?
 

My daily driver is a '97 Jaguar that runs like a champ. On a road trip last weekend I noticed that the headliner is sagging above the rear passenger area. Anyone know of a good upholsterer? Otherwise I'll break out some spray adhesive and a tube from a can of WD40 and hope for the best...

Sounds like a solution, but to make it stick you need to hold the headliner against the roof with something, like a pillow. Use wax paper between the pillow and the headliner after you apply the adhesive. 3M makes a good one. Comes in yellow snot color or black. Use the yellow snot.
ARF

use extreme caution when it comes to using your thumbs on the headliner!!!!

Yeah I was trying to figure out how to make it smooth, since I'm sure there's been some stretching by now. The thickness of the fabric is like tissue paper.

Snot yellow...sounds perfect. And if that doesn't work, maybe I'll try pushpins!

Staples will interfere less with your helmet..... :lol::lol:

I'd check areound with any local car dealers you may know. A drooping headliner is a common probelm that they pay between 1-200 to fix and a new headliner for under 200 may be a tempting option. My experience has been that the only long term solution has been to replace it.

BTW, you've got guts using a 12 yr old Jag as a DD. ;)

She was at the Porsches and Bi-Wings event. 1997 was the only year that Jaguar did not issue a recall. I lucked out. :)

Don't get me wrong, I love Jags, well old english cars period, but you HAVE to do the maintenance and most people don't. Congrats and enjoy. Thay are beautiful cars and have a great ride/character about them.

If you go with the glue route -- which I would not recommend -- know that 3M makes several different versions of their spray contact adhesive, so get the strongest available ... the last cans I bought were 3M General Trim Adhesive 08088; also have used Wurth Hi-Temp Spray Adhesive with excellent results. I doubt your suggested temp fix will work because in my experience (I've replaced five or six headliners in Merkurs), the fabric is bonded to a thin sheet of foam, which is then glued to the cardboard-type headliner. The foam has disintegrated. if you just spray glue in there, you're likely to soak through the fabric.

What's needed is to remove the headliner (easy to do, just tedious), remove all the old headliner fabric, remove as much of the gunk that's left (foam, glue, etc.) and then buy enough headliner fabric (available at upholstery shops by the yard) to do the job. Buy at least two cans of the glue (~$20/each). Spray one coat of the glue on the headliner fabric's backside, one coat on the headliner cardboard-y thing, give the glue a few minutes to dry. Then very carefully reattach the fabric and trim to fit.

A sunroof makes this just a little bit more difficult but not impossible.

There used to be an excellent upholstery shop in Newington's industrial park, where I bought fabric and glue, but they're since gone out of business.

Should be plenty of information on local upholsterers through “search.” Including ones in Woodbridge and Alexandria. BTW some headliners are mounted to fiber board covered with foam. Particularly Ford Corp products. Glue won’t work on these.

Edit, I had one do that and simply removed the fabric, foam and glue residue. Board underneath was perforated and same color as original headliner. No one ever noticed the “mod.”