Not really a styling thing, but it should improve things ...

Over the winter my headlining finally lost all its bonding with the roof panel. I suspect that the foam has disintegrated after all these years. I can now look forward to a days work stripping all the panels out to get the roof panel down - a pain in the whatsit, but at least I have plenty of space inside to work in comfort / warmth / dry when I start.

I may take the opportunity to add some additional sound-deadening to the roof whilst it's all apart.

Ah yes, the job where in order to deliver a letter you first have to knock down the house

I baulked at doing the recovering myself so I sourced material and had a coach-trimmer do it properly. Dropped it off one day and was ready the next - you'll be well-pleased when it's done.

Thankfully the Coupe only goes out for ‘fun’, so I can take my time with the recovering. I have the specialist adhesive, so no problems with melting the foam by using the wrong stuff.

Instead of the beige lining that’s there now, I have gone for a light grey / beige mix. Should freshen up the interior.

So do you have a tan interior?

Interior is actually Black leather (originally cloth) - my last coupe was tan interior and if I can remember rightly, the headlining was also a beige colour!

For some reason, I still have the full set of cloth seats, all in mint condition and stored in my cellar. Actually it's probably because at the time no-one wanted clothe seats!

The headlining I bought is this -

I have finally got around to doing this and did look at the two 'How To' guides, plus the relevant pages in the workshop manual.

There is useful information in all, but also, it feels like there is also quite a bit that could be added! Would it help if I produced an updated / extended version, which includes my observations?

In fact, how does one add to the 'How To' section?

Paul

If you do a post here with all the details, then someone can take your post and put it into the 'How To' section

Ok, that's great - I may do it as a PDF once the car is all back together!

Well, It was a job that I wasn't really looking forward to doing, but in the end it was all quite straightforward.

It took me longer to get everything taken out (about 3 hrs, learning as I went), than it took to put back (just over 2hrs this evening)! Add an extra couple of hours for cleaning up the roof and then recovering it, being extra careful with this bit and I am very pleased with how it all went.

I did replace most of the foam pads as they were either flattened, or on their way to disintegrating, plus added a few extra pieces where there was potential for rattles.

I will take a few photos tomorrow in daylight and then write the whole thing up - there are some potential 'gotchas' and a definite best order to tackle things. I would guess quite a few owners out there will have to face the same problem sooner or later. The foam backing to the headlining had almost turned to dust with mine, which is why it was no longer attached!

Paul

Good job, look forward to seeing the pics

Dissembly/assembly time about right I would say!

OK, had a chance to get some pictures this morning and this one shows the finished job! Very happy with it and the choice of material, which I think is better than the original and although still a grey, has brightened the inside up. I was never a great fan of the velour material.

This is the material used -



And this is what you get (although the flash makes it seem brighter!)



Paul

Good job

Woo, looks fab. And unsaggy unlike mine .

OK, with the work all complete and being very happy with it, I have put together a 'How To' PDF which might be of use to others.

I know that we already have a couple of documents covering this and others covering some parts of it, like removing various panels, but thought that I would put it all together in one place together with some of my observations.

I hope it will be useful. Perhaps the link to it can be put in the How To section on the site?

Link to the How To Headlining PDF

That's terrific Paul, we'll get Kelv27 to do the honours.

With a sunshine roof model there is really little difference to your instructions; the centre clip simply needs removing before pulling off the beading around the aperture.

Link added to the How To section. Thank you for your contribution Paul.

Cheers Kelv

Great guide Paul. Thank you, on my to do list for the new year

Good luck with it - It's much worse thinking about it than actually doing the work! Hope you have plenty of space to store all the panels as they come off.

I could recommend a great place to get the material (they also supplied the glue), but it wouldn't help as they are in France!

Paul

John, have a read of this for a supplier...


Headlining material