So now that i have the mechanicals pretty well sorted I am turning attentions towards a few minor electrical projects and then cosmetic ones. I want to do the carpet, and headliner first when i get started on the inside. Carpet seems pretty straight forward but this headliner makes my brain itch a little. Now im no expert at these things but any headliner i've ever worked on had a backer board of some kind that it glued to. Is that the case here? Because if it is that is where I need to start, as mine is gone. If there is a backer board of some kind thats suppose to be there can someone give me a link to where i might buy one in the US. I did some googling and I found a couple places that sell something like that but none that sell one that accommodates a sunroof. Also a thought i've been having - is this backer board that at this point I am assuming is missing, something that I could make myself perhaps from material found in a local hardware store? I found plenty of places where I can buy the foam backed headliner material so that parts easy. This backerboard though if there is one, is a mystery. I haven't spent much time looking at the roof yet but im not even sure how such a thing would attach. Any information would be helpful

 

If I read you correctly you don't have anything on the roof right now. Just metal.

Yes, there is a headliner board with fabric material attached to it. Yes, they all deteriorate over time and the material falls down.
The headliner board is made of some kind crap material that is prone to falling apart making things even harder.
No, you can't buy a replacement. (unless something has changed in the last several years) No one makes a replacement. At least in the US.

If you have a headliner board your best bet is to have a professional shop recover it with the material of your choice. If you don't have a headliner board you'll likely be on a search for one from a junk/abandoned car. They are fragile.

Someone might have a spare they are willing to part with.

 

On my 85 and 87 coupes, no sunroof, the backing is made of compressed fiberglass batting with some sort of stiffener material added to help it hold it's shape. Think of fiberglass batt insulation you roll out in your attic, compressed down, and held in place with heavy hold hairspray. It's as weak and horrible to work with as it sounds. Very easy to damage when removing or putting it back. I stiffened and repaired one with copious amounts of epoxy finishing resin. If I did it again I'd use polyester resin instead, much cheaper. The alternative is importing a new headliner with a true backing board from the UK. Here's a link on ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-headlin...-127635-2958-0

​​​​​​You have to ask them if they have one for your sunroof. I don't know if the sunroof coupes used the same sort of backing or not. If I replaced mine with one of their grp replacements, I'd put some sort of sound deadening above it as the original did that from its composition.

 

Thats pretty much the kind of backing I expected to find, and it sounds horrible to work with. What I find incredibly strange is that there are no remnants of it. There was plenty of headliner material and it was degraded and saggy just like you'd expect, but nothing behind it. It almost looks as if the material were simply stretched out and glued to the roof around the edges.

 

The original in my '92 appears to be made from many layers of paper glued together. It is a bit fragile, though I had no trouble removing it through the passenger door.. The original fabric had a thin layer of foam glued to it. Over time, the foam detaches itself from the fabric and sticks to the board. The drooping fabric can't be re-glued (well, it can but everyone will laugh at you). Here's me removing the old foam from the headliner board using a plastic-bristle brush that I'd bought to clean potatoes (now preferring rice):

It would be quite a challenge to make a suitable shape from scratch. I bought headliner fabric from a local fabric store and did mine but it's not quite the right colour and I didn't do the job well enough, so in the new year I'm going to buy three (2 X300, one XJS) from this company in the UK https://www.jagheadlinings.com/shop?page=2

They told me they could get two in one box to save on shipping. I'm going to ask them to try three. Heck, if anyone in the area needs one, get in touch (London, Ontario) and I'm a road trip fiend.

An XJ-S with a factory sunroof is a unicorn...could yours be aftermarket? If so you'll have to buy a non-sunroof headliner and customize it. Look up your local upholsterers, you're bound to find someone who does cars. After doing mine myself, I came to the conclusion that it would be worth a couple hundred dollars to have it done properly, cuz the cars are worth it.

Thought. If you decide to fabricate by perhaps glueing a layer of insulation to the roof then a sheet of headliner fabric to it (following the contour of the roof as they did in a Mk II for example), then your cant rails and A-pillars won't meet-up properly.

 

BTW this is as true as it is funny.

 

It is definitely possible, and I would go so far as to say probable that my sunroof is aftermarket. I don't know enough about them to say for sure. I think I posted about the sunroof before and was given some branding information to look for that I did not find. Which either means I didnt look in the right places or it is indeed aftermarket. And non functional at the moment, but also not leaking so im not complaining lol.

 

I purchased one from Myrtle Ltd in England last year. The shipping cost was more than the cost of the headliner. They shipped mine via DHL. Cost for headliner and shipping
US $630. They only came in 2 colors. Beige and Light grey. No one in the US has them.

85 XJS Headliner board

The headliner board come covered and they supply extra material for the sail panel and other trim pieces.

I am in the process of stripping a 1985 XJS to build another XJS that I have. I bought it for parts. The headliner is intact but needs recovering.
You can have it for free but you will have to come to Florida to pick it up. Shipping is not an option. I will not remove it from the car as I have no place to store it. You want it, I will help you remove it from the car.
This car is going to be junked in the next 2 weeks. By December 15th it will be gone.

 

I appreciate the offer, but I can't get away from work for a trip like that, wish that I could. I dont hold out much hope but I am going to check some local junk yards to see if they've got any of these cars. If i can find some i will take an afternoon to see what treasures i can find

 

Good Luck with the junkyards. I had been in contact with many JYs when I was looking for one. From Florida to New Jersey. One JY in Pennsylvania had one but they called me and told me it got destroyed when they tried to take it out of the car. Another got destroyed during shipping. That's when I decided to go NEW.

 

Factory sunroof cars had the headlining glued directly to the roof, which is maybe why you did not find any backing board. The best thing to do is to get some foam backed trim material and glue it up as the factory did, or get a trim shop to do it. With care it can be done and look fine. It is also true that some aftermarket places removed the factory liner and did the same!
I have a Myrtle roof liner on my coupe, excellent product, but, Sanchez, ensure you glue some 3/16ths or 1/4 inch thick foam sheet onto the steel roof before fitting, or the fibreglass backing will bong most annoyingly when you close the doors.

 

Greg. I installed the headliner over a year ago. I glued 1/4 inch foam to the metal roof before the headliner installation. The Myrtle headliner was and is as good as it gets. Perfect fit.

 

I just posted about the "door surround trim" problems I have and it looks like to me that the so-called "rails" on the ebay ad for the headliner and the items I am looking at cleaning up and fixing in place? (see my posting with the subject line as title here)
So what I called "door surround trim" is actually called "headliner rails"?
I posted a picture of mine as one piece but I see now, examining it more carefully, that it is two pieces glued together.
I had my headliner replaced 4 years ago, and it is fine, but the "headliner rails" are coming adrift. I bought mine from headliner world (as in the ebay ad).
And I am looking at hints/suggestions on clean up, reglueing, etc.
Bill