Ok Guys, found this long thread full of bogan efforts long after i did my VR Caprice, so heres some words about my experience
Remove ALL trim, plastic, door rubber etc items that interfere in any way with the headliner board being able to literally fall down. No sliding, no nothing, you can get tools from Stoopid-Sheep that will help with clips etc. Generally tho, leave the door rubber/weathercords until last
For a highly kitted vehicle like a Caprice, expect to find extra screws and wiring up there. Take care and it will all undo without drama.
Remove the board thru the left front door, after laying front seats back, steering wheel lifted high, gear lever back to 1. The board turns and comes out front first, with left edge at the top rear corner of the door opening, fits easily. Station-Wagon ones come out thru the tailgate opening. Some of you may have damaged boards, with a corner broken off or torn, or other breaks, scour the Ladies Car Parks (wreckers) to find a good one if need be, use the same care at getting it out as your own old one. Carelessness causes breaks and tears, dont hurry.
I want to try making a new Wagon headliner board by shaping some dampened 3mm MDF, if anyone has ideas to try
Remove and discard old fabric, it shrinks with age and getting the cutouts to go back in the right position is an imposibility, and the correct new fabric has the foam already attached. My local auto upholsterer had proper fabric that has the velour fabric sandwiched to the new foam, and a thin nylon type fabric on the other face.
The yellow material is old foam that has perished, the fabric sags because of the perished foam failing and breaking apart, some stays on the velour cloth, some stays on the board. Clean the board with suitable brushes and leave it at that.
Glue and gluing- the regular yellow contact glue, sold for years for gluing down laminex benchtops etc is as good as any, but do what the factory did, spray it on, no brushing. I used one of those long-nozzled 'Degreaser Sprayguns' that you get with the cheap airtool starter kits that you get when you also buy a cheap lil compressor. You cannot dilute the glue in any way to put it thru a paint type spraygun, but the degreaser gun works fine, just keep the air feed up to it, spray an even coat of the glue onto the board, laying upside down on the lawn is fine, and the new headliner fabric also laid out flat on the lawn. Not a windy day job, and if you have some bulldog clips and tent pegs it can be kept flat and sort of 'stretched'
Let the glue go off for about 10 minutes, give or take depending on temps.
If you have a helper, its good, position the fabric over the board, centred, and then press down and rub the cloth down to stick to the board, start at centre if you can, and work outward toward each corner, stretching the fabric a little as you go, so it forms a nice, smoozzzzzzzzzzz new surface, no staples, ripples, or kinks. A soft squeegee type tool works best, and smoothing it down with hands.
Once the fabric is all rubbed down, and glued, check the contured areas, then trim the sides and ends to match what they once were, if the fabric folds over the edge, some glue brushed along the upper surface of the board and similarly allowed to go off and then make the joint works well. At some parts of the edges, the fabric is simply cut flush with the edge of the board.
Next, working from the top side of the board, cut X-cuts in any openings using a sharp Stanley type knife, and like the edges, a bit of the glue brushed around the edges of the holes allows those cut flaps to be glued to the top surfaces. It's not necessary to glue down the entire flap, trim some off if you want. The Caprice headliner has many openings...
I do not recommend heavy vinyls like upholstery vinyl, or any othe heavy fabrics, the glue will fail too soon trying to hold heavier materials in place, especially in hotter climates. The layer of foam has accoustic and insulating functions, so it IS needed,, therefore, if you want to use custom fabrics, you WILL need to install it, same procedure, spray the glue, install the foam, then spray more adhesive, and install the cloth you are using, but remember, the glue MUST be applied to both surfaces being joined. The embossed Holden logo can be achieved by cutting it out of cardboard similar to the original board stuff, and gluing it in place, PVA glue works fine, then when installing the foam and fabric, a tool with a screwdriver-like edge can help tuck the fabric into the edges to help define the shapes. Again, work from the centre out, stretching and smoothing the fabric as you work your way out to the corners.
AT ALL TIMES AVOID LEANING OR KNEELING ON THE NEWLY GLUED FABRICS, THE GLUE WILL HAVE SOAKED A LITTLE INTO THE FOAM AND WILL HOLD IT 'COMPRESSED' LEAVING HAND OR KNEE-SHAPED DENTS. It took almost 3 months for one to disappear from mine.
Reinstalling the headliner back into the car is more or less the reverse of removal, easier with 2 people, and tedious to do all the extra wires and screws in the luxury models, but well worth the effort.
MAKE SURE, all the little velcro-clips and sound deadener material pads are reinstalled. Pads can be glued (spray) to the top of the board, or the underside of the roof.
SenatorEstate, the strut bars you refer to are, I assume, the metal 'bows' that help hold the roof skin up, they are welded to the inside side rails, but are not attached to the roof, the 'stuff' thats in there is basically a pad of stuff that prevents the roof panel slapping against them when anything is on the roof, or falls there, its a bit gluey, but there is a gap of sorts between the bows and the turret top panel. They should NOT be glued to the turret top
A wagon I am working on has had 1 or 2 extra bows added at the rear to let the rearmost part of the headliner board be clipped to it in the same maner as further forward, right ahead of where it dips down to go under the tailgate hinge recess box.
