Headlining Trouble

[D87 SMW]

Just dropped the headlining in R514 RVJ, as it was drooping in the middle, not the material, but the actual panel itself. On dropping the panel, in order to place a double sided sticky pad behind it, I found this stuff, as well as a small hole in the backing which is dangerous for the material...

I am sure this foam stuff shouldn't be here, at least not in this form, shall I remove it...?

[Wonko_The_Sane]

Do you perchance have a sunroof fitted? That to me looks like the sunroof expanding foam strip...

[D87 SMW]

Originally posted by Wonko_The_Sane
Do you perchance have a sunroof fitted? That to me looks like the sunroof expanding foam strip...

No sunroof. It also has a foam strip running down the middle of the front of the roof. That one's intact.

Can I just remove all this crap foam and put the sticky pad up there, or do I need to have foam there?

[MGTurbo]

The foam is probably to stop the headlining rattling against the roof, as long as you replace it with something similar you wont have any problems.

Gareth

[talkingcars]

When I lowered the roof lining in my 2.0i I found a peice of the lining material and foam backing which was the same size as the sunroof appature, I thought hiding rubish in the car stopped in the 70s.

James

[John]

The foam degrades over time just like a carpet and eventully goes to dust. I think its only for sound proofing and to stop rattles, I stapled mine up, not pretty but cheap and effective

[SimonR]

In the past couple of days I have recovered the headlining of my blue mk. 1 VP. I'm peased to report that it was v. easy and cost:

3M of fabric: £22.91
Adhesive: £11.69
Total=34.60

Probably took about 5 hours in total to remove it, recover and refit. I also got some new-condition sun visors for about a fiver.

I'll get some pictures together later on if anyone's interested.

Originally posted by talkingcars
When I lowered the roof lining in my 2.0i I found a peice of the lining material and foam backing which was the same size as the sunroof appature

On an early car fitted with a sunroof, that bit of cloth was used to attach the lining to the sunroof tray, using velcro. These cars did not have the plugs that were fitted to the later cars. And yes, you simply cut it out, turn it over and stick it to the back of the biscuit.

[SimonR]

Here are the piccies I promised.

Here is the biscuit before I recovered it, this is the back of it and you can see where the patch was glued onto it.
http://pages.zoom.co.uk/wonkeydonkey/Images/LiningUncovered.jpg

This was just after I'd finished the initial covering and before I had glued the overhangs to the back of the biscuit.

http://pages.zoom.co.uk/wonkeydonkey/Images/LiningCovered.jpg

Note the extra at each corner so that it can be fed down each pillar, behind the pastic trim.

Here's the lining refitted to the car:

http://pages.zoom.co.uk/wonkeydonkey/Images/LiningInBack.jpg

And the front, viewed from the Driver's side:

http://pages.zoom.co.uk/wonkeydonkey/Images/LiningInFront.jpg

You can also see the recovered sunroof panel - very easy to remove and a doddle to recover, although you do need to remove the sunroof tray.

As an added bonus, the car has that nice 'new' smell about it now as well!

[Beaker]

Looks good. What fabric and adhesive did you use?

[SimonR]

I bought the materials from Woolies (http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk) in Market Deeping, near Peterborough.

The cloth was a specific headlining cloth called Empire Grey, the adhesive was like Thixofix but was better in that it is able to withstand high temperatures. 1L is about right for a Maestro.

[Jonathan]

Fantastic job you've done there, it's reassuring to know that in the future when new headlinings are no longer available from Rover we'll still have the means to restore saggy headlinings to a high standard. Those biscuits are ever so brittle though. We came across a big roll of Maestro/Montego grey headlining material at a BL Rally a few years back very cheaply, and I'm still annoyed at myself for not buying it.

[H536NOG]

I tried some spray on glue (same sort of thing carpet fitters use) & acheived terrible results when I attempted to repair the sagging headlining in my old Monty estate... perhaps I should have waited until it was almost dry before attempting to put it back together, it really did look awful with glue seeped through the fabric.
Needless to say, it got replaced as soon as I found a better one!

[H536NOG]

Sorry forgot to add,the results you obtained look superb.
I shall have to give the MG the same treatment, Deeping isnt too far from me either:)

[SimonR]

Originally posted by H536NOG
I tried some spray on glue (same sort of thing carpet fitters use) & acheived terrible results... glue seeped through the fabric.

Yeah - I thought I'd have the same problem but the glue that I used was snot-like in consistency and the art is to wait long enough for it to go tacky (about 4 - 8 mins) and then roll the lining fabric down onto it. If you start smoothing it down from the middle outwards then you'l get a professoinal-looking finish.

I think that there were several different types of biscuit used in Maestros - this one was from a 1983 car and was made out of pressed textile, therefore it was nice and solid. The original one that was in F153 was much thinner and made of finer stands. I've also seen headinings made out of polystyrene such as the stuff that prepacked meat in supermarkets is prepacked in.

The new replacement that I bought about 18 months ago for F153 was v. similar to the 1983 one except that it seemed to be thicker and had better sound insulating properties. Seems they went full-circle in the 20 years!

Thinking about it, it was probably easier to recover the old biscuit than it was to go to Rover, order a new lining, pay £113, wait for them to deliver it and then fit it. More satisfying too!

Today's Maestroing consisted mainly of hacking apart a complete 1.3 LHD wiring loom (just been to Ledders) to get the wiring I'm going to use to fit a better stereo/CD changer to A335. I've now got some cracking wires with fusebox connectors on the ends that I can use. They're even the right colours (Green and Purple)! The biggest problem is that the changer is too big to fit in the glove compartment of the mk. 1 dash. Looks like it'll have to go under the Driver's seat. Oh well looks like it was false economy to get a 6 disc unit thinking it'd fit. :( I'll prolly be fitting it all tomorrow, along with my modified door cards, home-made plastic moisture shields and better speaker wire. Oh how I love weekends!

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by F153JUE
I bought the materials from Woolies (http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk) in Market Deeping, near Peterborough.

The cloth was a specific headlining cloth called Empire Grey, the adhesive was like Thixofix but was better in that it is able to withstand high temperatures. 1L is about right for a Maestro.

This is the only one that would cost £22.91 for three metres with VAT - it looks like it is vinyl - is that what you used?

Nylon Headlining Foam Backed. 127cm (50") wide. As used on Jaguars, Rovers, Saabs etc 1950's and on.

Princess Grey (mid grey) ........................ £10.78 Per mtr
Empire Grey (very light grey) ............... only £6.50 Per mtr

[JonCooper]

this thread has inspired me to look at sorting out my Montego Estate headlining

after reading this through (thanks for a great step-by-step F153JUE) I have just one question, anyone got any thoughts on how to get all the big studs that hold the headlining up in a monty looking new/good ?

[SimonR]

Originally posted by matthewsemple
This is the only one that would cost £22.91 for three metres with VAT - it looks like it is vinyl - is that what you used?

Empire Grey (very light grey) ............... only £6.50 Per mtr

Hi Matt,

Nope, I used Empire grey. (6.50x3)x1.175=£22.91

Was tempted to use the more expensive cloths though. There are some really nice brown/beige ones available for cars with brownish interiors. Would suit a Mk.1 Oporto Red VP very nicely, for example.

[SimonR]

Originally posted by JonCooper
Anyone got any thoughts on how to get all the big studs that hold the headlining up in a monty looking new/good ?

Well, when I replaced F153's headlining with a new one a while back, all I did was get some fairy liquid and a toothbrush and gently scrub clean the original ones under a running tap.

You could always nip to a scrapper and get some clean(er) ones - it's very odd how they get caught on clothing and sort of end up in your pocket when you least expect them to....

[JonCooper]

thanks, for some reason I thought they were covered in fabric in some way; on checking, I see they arn't - shouldn't be too hard to find a few good ones.