Repairing Headlining

[Jamtarts]

My roof headlining has all come away at the back of the car and beginning to come away at the front too, I found the excellent guide here http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=228522.0

I posted in the thread but sorry for posting it in here as well, I was hopefully going to try and tackle this at the weekend,

I'm hoping to use the original material, I'm psyching myself up to take this on. 

If i take it out and it takes me longer than expected to complete it, is the car still driveable with this removed? (is it legal?) maybe a silly question, but just to check whether to put it off road until completed.

I assume I can just use the original material or is this likely to rip when removing it?

Is there anyway I could just spray glue in and flatten all down without removing it all and only removing the areas I need access to?

sorry for all the questions, I was just hoping to be better prepared before I started,

thanks in advance

[Steve_B]

Can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be legal to drive.

The problem with using the original material is that it's the foam lining that has degraded and come away from the board. So you would have to scrape away the foam from the material and scrape/sand it from the board to ensure you have a surface that will bond. Then you have no foam behind the material which would mean increased cabin noise and possibly affect the finish you get due to lumps of glue showing through or changing the colour of the material.

I wanted to use the original material as well but for these reasons opted for the acoustic carpet instead.

[Thom89]

Just follow the guide, it seems very comprehensive.
A couple of extra points though, take a trip to you local car trimmer/upholstery shop, you may be surprised how close they can match to the OE material, personally I wouldn't re use the old lining for reasons already mentioned
The base panel that the headlining fixes to, has a tendency to go brittle around the edges, especially at the front end around the interior light, save any broken bits, and use them to repair the base once removed, repairs should be made with fiberglass resin and coarse matting... any decent DIY shop should have this...

Thom

[X4MGS]

Just follow the guide, it seems very comprehensive.
A couple of extra points though, take a trip to you local car trimmer/upholstery shop, you may be surprised how close they can match to the OE material, personally I wouldn't re use the old lining for reasons already mentioned
The base panel that the headlining fixes to, has a tendency to go brittle around the edges, especially at the front end around the interior light, save any broken bits, and use them to repair the base once removed, repairs should be made with fiberglass resin and coarse matting... any decent DIY shop should have this...

Thom

Gaffa Tape worked on one I took out.... Once its back in place all was good!!

[Thom89]

Just follow the guide, it seems very comprehensive.
A couple of extra points though, take a trip to you local car trimmer/upholstery shop, you may be surprised how close they can match to the OE material, personally I wouldn't re use the old lining for reasons already mentioned
The base panel that the headlining fixes to, has a tendency to go brittle around the edges, especially at the front end around the interior light, save any broken bits, and use them to repair the base once removed, repairs should be made with fiberglass resin and coarse matting... any decent DIY shop should have this...

Thom

Gaffa Tape worked on one I took out.... Once its back in place all was good!!

Just me and overkill

Thom

[X4MGS]

Just follow the guide, it seems very comprehensive.
A couple of extra points though, take a trip to you local car trimmer/upholstery shop, you may be surprised how close they can match to the OE material, personally I wouldn't re use the old lining for reasons already mentioned
The base panel that the headlining fixes to, has a tendency to go brittle around the edges, especially at the front end around the interior light, save any broken bits, and use them to repair the base once removed, repairs should be made with fiberglass resin and coarse matting... any decent DIY shop should have this...

Thom

Gaffa Tape worked on one I took out.... Once its back in place all was good!!

Just me and overkill

Thom

If it was mine I would do as you say - but it wasn't so gaffa tape did...

Only thing I would say about the Fibreglass is don't put too much on or it might not re-fit properly...

[Jamtarts]

thanks guys,

weather permitting I'll have a go at this over the weekend, although I'm tempted just to do a temporary fix just now and have a proper go at it later.  It sounds like it'll take me a couple of days to do it if I have to buy new material etc.  It is Retro Car Day at Crail Raceway this Sunday and I quite fancy taking Wee Golfie for a day out

[scottishpedro]

Hi, before I wrote the guide I tried to stick mine back up with no success. The problem, as mentioned above, is the headlining material will have seperated from the foam backing.you could potentially stick it back after removing the headlining from the car (not too daunting a job if you have a helper) but it could be difficult to get a perfectly smooth finish with the vinyl after the foam has been scrapped off.  The acoustic carpet I used was good because it reinforced the fibreglass headlining and so any repairs will be better supported and perfectly secure.  Regarding legality of driving round without the headlining, I guess this wouldn't be a problem however you would need to refit the seatbelts, rear view mirror etc which would be a bit more work.

If you have the trim fix and new material (or if you're going to have a go at sticking up the old stuff) you could probably do the whole thing in an afternoon with a helper)

Pedro