Just noticed this today. Headliner is pulling away from the substrate. For just this small of an area, is there a way to get this to reattach without having to pull the whole headliner or re skinning it with new fabric?

Rufus

 

Not really Rufus. You can live with it until it becomes worse or dive in and have the entire headliner re done.

 

I'm currently living with it. No one sees it when they sit in the car so thats good enough for me.

 

I was given a quote of $525 by an auto upholstery shop to redo the headliner. I'll probably live with it for a while, but it sure does bug me.

 

Hi Rufus,

Our '04 has the same problem, so I'm planning to recover the headliner eventually. I did the job on our '93 and it wasn't as difficult as you might think, just a little time consuming.

Theoretically, you could use something like a hypodermic needle and syringe to inject adhesive behind the fabric and then press it back into place, but since it is the foam backing of the fabric that deteriorates and fails, there will be lots of crumbs of old foam back there that the glue won't adhere to, and there would be lots of opportunities to make a huge mess in your interior, so I don't think it's worth even attempting a make-do repair.

I don't know why our Jaguars are the only cars we've ever owned with headliner fabric that fails. I'm sure there must be other makes with the same problem, but I don't know which ones.

Cheers,

Don

 

Mine is doing the exact same thing (just under the visors), I asked the auto upholstery shop for a quote and if the life span was normal, the reply was 8 to 10 years on all makes w. this type of liner.

 

Toyota Camry from the mid nineties in Asia also have the same problem(first hand experience).

 

The problem is (almost) as old as the hills.

I remember replacing delaminating headliners, as far back as the late 70s, at the Oldsmobile dealer I worked at.

No manufacturer seems to be exempt. You can do some Googling and see that owners of virtually every make share our pain.

What really surprises me is that, after all these years, nobody has come up with a glue that lasts!

Cheers
DD

 

There probably is a glue that lasts, but for whatever reason, it's just not cost efficient in the manufacturing process to use it. I imagine the layup procedure is somewhat automated which may also reduce the reliability factor, as opposed to if they were layed up by hand. Just my guess...


[QUOTE=Doug;965309
What really surprises me is that, after all these years, nobody has come up with a glue that lasts!
[/QUOTE]

 

I don't believe it's so much the glue as it is the foam substrate. The sun is methodically working the headliner over from above. The foam degrades at a relatively accelerated rate, and down comes the fabric. I've got a '74 Datsun 260z with its original headliner in perfect condition. Black vinyl with a dense backing. Maybe it's less cushy, but it's still there looking good.

When I had our XJ's headliner done, I thought about doing it in a perforated grey smooth vinyl type material, but couldn't find what I wanted and the expense of having all the pillars done to match blew the idea up. Back in the day some Mercedes came with smooth perforated headliners and I always thought it looked much sharper than the squishy cloth that gets stained and balled up.

 

Just in the process of doing my 04 model

No matching fabric currently in Australia says to me its pretty common happened to my 95 XJR6 as well

I had to order a roll of matching fabric from the US cheaper than the UK go figure

Doing a deal with my trimmer giving him the rest of my roll for a discount on the job he told me its from breathing smoking baby,s sleeping basically life in general in the car it deteriorates the foam backing the fabric not brand specific either

 

My 04 X-Type the fabric separated from the front and rear window posts. The dealer said there was no warrantee on the liner and they don't do liners, rugs or seats. They said I needed to find an upholstery shop. Fabric glue does not work because the felt is too thin to hold the glue and would harden it. So I traded for an new XJ8.

 

Louis, shame on you. You're not my kind of Jaguar owner at all! On the other hand, the next owner of your X-Type probably got a great deal...he would be my kind of Jaguar owner!

I couldn't take photos of the entire process of removing and reinstalling the headliner board from our '93 XJ40 (my hands were quite full at the time), but I did take photos of the actual recovering process. The proper adhesive is high-strength high-temperature spray adhesive especially designed for headliners (3M, Permatex, Sprayaway, Forcefield/Shield, Performance Products and others offer similar suitable products. I used 3M because of ready availability locally). But as others have already noted, it's typically the foam, not the adhesive, that fails.

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Cheers,

Don