Most headliner fabrics are available in 60" width which is plenty. 54" might not make it. If you want a stock look, you'd want those little texture lines running in the right direction so just get 2 yards. It's not very expensive.
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How to: How To: Replace your Headliner
- Thread starter Tbars4
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Oh yeah...
On my year, the headliner board is made of many layers of incredibly thin fiberglass. When we tried to pull of the old material, the board would not cooperate at all. Instead of removing the foam, we just laminated the new material to the old stuff. My upholsterer said that this vintage of Ford trucks all have this issue and it's the only kind of headliner board he's ever had to use this technique on. It's a little puffy but it looks really nice. When you reinstall the dome light, just don't screw it down too tightly to avoid accentuating the extra puffiness from the second layer of foam.
Also, this flavor of board seemed to do OK with light creasing when removing and replacing the board. The creases popped back out and are in no way visible on the finished job.
I asked him if he ever had any complaints on this method. His answer was funny:
"Well, they never called and complained. Either it worked out really well for them or they thought I was such a hack that they never called back."
BTW, he's a stud upholsterer. He's been at it for 46 years and spends most of his time doing complete interior restorations on classics for 10-20K so I do trust him.
On my year, the headliner board is made of many layers of incredibly thin fiberglass. When we tried to pull of the old material, the board would not cooperate at all. Instead of removing the foam, we just laminated the new material to the old stuff. My upholsterer said that this vintage of Ford trucks all have this issue and it's the only kind of headliner board he's ever had to use this technique on. It's a little puffy but it looks really nice. When you reinstall the dome light, just don't screw it down too tightly to avoid accentuating the extra puffiness from the second layer of foam.
Also, this flavor of board seemed to do OK with light creasing when removing and replacing the board. The creases popped back out and are in no way visible on the finished job.
I asked him if he ever had any complaints on this method. His answer was funny:
"Well, they never called and complained. Either it worked out really well for them or they thought I was such a hack that they never called back."
BTW, he's a stud upholsterer. He's been at it for 46 years and spends most of his time doing complete interior restorations on classics for 10-20K so I do trust him.
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..barrys, I really thought you were going to do this yourself?
..How much did he charge you and why didn't you go thru his supplier?..Do you have any pics of the finished product?..And since it's not under your name, Where are you located and what year vehicle?
..How much did he charge you and why didn't you go thru his supplier?..Do you have any pics of the finished product?..And since it's not under your name, Where are you located and what year vehicle?
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...On the first page, post #15 and down, Koolaid81 recovered his X with no seams and no problem..
...On the first page, post #15 and down, Koolaid81 recovered his X with no seams and no problem..
Most of the headliner materials come in 54 and 60 inch widths and are sold by the linear yard. You want to measure the width of the headliner board in the car with a soft tape measure along the most complicated contour of the ceiling. You don't wrap it on the edges of the sides because they'll be covered with trim so you don't need to add extra width. If that measurement is less than 54" then you can use the narrower fabric.
There's a ton of good info on the wlsheadliners.com site to do it yourself. But, you might want to go to an upholstery shop to have them apply the new fabric since they have much better glue and glue applicators (a pneumatic spray rig) which might help the new headliner stay on longer.
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...Could you share the cost of having your extra cab Ranger headliner fabric installed with us so future readers might have a general idea of this option???
Well, I kinda befriended my upholsterer so he refused to accept money for the work since I'm doing some web work for him. But, I think I'd have paid about this:
2 yards of fabric delivered: 50.00 or less -- I did buy that.
1 can of 3m 76 glue: 20.00 -- bought that too and just use it for other stuff.
Labor:
1 hour R&I headliner board.
1/2 hour to apply new fabric over old.
Probably another hour to remove the cruddy foam residue if it's removable.
My upholsterer has a shop rate of about 80.00/hr. But, I live in an expensive part of the country. I'm on an upholstery forum where I hear of shop rates as low as half of that.
Applying the fabric and having it come out looking nice and all straight looks easy but it isn't with the highly contoured headliner boards we have.
A really good alternative is to get a new ABS headliner board with fabric which is about 250.00 delivered. That sounds rich but it will just go right in and you can bend it a bit without issue. It will last forever and would include 2 of the labor hours, the fabric, and the glue mentioned above. The only issue there is that I could not find my fabric from any ABS board provider.
One cool trick I saw him do was to use the butt end of a rounded screw driver handle to softly work the new material into the contours.
Also, I can't stress enough how careful one needs to be when pulling out the christmas tree retainers unless you can get a good color match on the ones you have. If you've got grey or black, you're stylin. If you've some other color, you're probably hosed.
2 yards of fabric delivered: 50.00 or less -- I did buy that.
1 can of 3m 76 glue: 20.00 -- bought that too and just use it for other stuff.
Labor:
1 hour R&I headliner board.
1/2 hour to apply new fabric over old.
Probably another hour to remove the cruddy foam residue if it's removable.
My upholsterer has a shop rate of about 80.00/hr. But, I live in an expensive part of the country. I'm on an upholstery forum where I hear of shop rates as low as half of that.
Applying the fabric and having it come out looking nice and all straight looks easy but it isn't with the highly contoured headliner boards we have.
A really good alternative is to get a new ABS headliner board with fabric which is about 250.00 delivered. That sounds rich but it will just go right in and you can bend it a bit without issue. It will last forever and would include 2 of the labor hours, the fabric, and the glue mentioned above. The only issue there is that I could not find my fabric from any ABS board provider.
One cool trick I saw him do was to use the butt end of a rounded screw driver handle to softly work the new material into the contours.
Also, I can't stress enough how careful one needs to be when pulling out the christmas tree retainers unless you can get a good color match on the ones you have. If you've got grey or black, you're stylin. If you've some other color, you're probably hosed.
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..Thanks for adding that very useful information...:biggthump
...As for the buttons and other plastic parts even if you were to have a grey interior, manufacturer's of these parts all have a different shade and most vehicles interior's have faded with time...I have found painting of these items easier than getting the stock items to match in color...
..You can now take the easier found black buttons and rattle can them the day before you install them...It works out great...Some info on the paint can be found here on one of my previous projects, post #27...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225103&page=2
...As for the buttons and other plastic parts even if you were to have a grey interior, manufacturer's of these parts all have a different shade and most vehicles interior's have faded with time...I have found painting of these items easier than getting the stock items to match in color...
..You can now take the easier found black buttons and rattle can them the day before you install them...It works out great...Some info on the paint can be found here on one of my previous projects, post #27...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225103&page=2
> ...As for the buttons and other plastic parts even if you were to have a grey interior, manufacturer's of these parts all have a different shade and most vehicles interior's have faded with time...I have found painting of these items easier than getting the stock items to match in color...
That's true, especially if you go to a third party. What I was thinking was that -- as per a dealer parts counter dude -- Ford always makes Rangers and other cars with black and grey interior. So, if you ordered new grey ones you'd have a good match with what's in the car. There is the sun fading issue but you'd be very close.
The paint does work but doesn't stay on there forever as I hear. And, sometimes you need to sand first which removes the texture from the plastic from the factory. I've never used it though so that's just word of mouth.
My interior is "Medium Mocha" which came and went over 10 years ago. Prarie Tan -- from Ford -- was close enough though. Also, Ford sells an "interior pin kit" for all cars which is a really good deal and even includes those funky black headliner retainers that go under the trim.
A great source for parts that I always use is "Tousley Ford Parts Depot." Just google them. They're way cool. OEM parts from a dealer for about 40% off list with a real parts tech to make sure you get the right items. They helped me track down "prarie tan" which I would have never guessed.
That's true, especially if you go to a third party. What I was thinking was that -- as per a dealer parts counter dude -- Ford always makes Rangers and other cars with black and grey interior. So, if you ordered new grey ones you'd have a good match with what's in the car. There is the sun fading issue but you'd be very close.
The paint does work but doesn't stay on there forever as I hear. And, sometimes you need to sand first which removes the texture from the plastic from the factory. I've never used it though so that's just word of mouth.
My interior is "Medium Mocha" which came and went over 10 years ago. Prarie Tan -- from Ford -- was close enough though. Also, Ford sells an "interior pin kit" for all cars which is a really good deal and even includes those funky black headliner retainers that go under the trim.
A great source for parts that I always use is "Tousley Ford Parts Depot." Just google them. They're way cool. OEM parts from a dealer for about 40% off list with a real parts tech to make sure you get the right items. They helped me track down "prarie tan" which I would have never guessed.
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...The correct specialty paint in the right color can easily be found for cheap and last a long time...
...I have been painting replacement interior parts for fords for decades and the quality of spray paint in cans in the last 15 years has made this an easy and long lasting fix for buttons and other detail interior parts you need to match to it's current existing color...
1)...Finding the buttons locally, getting the paint, painting the buttons, can all be done easily and cheaply in one day with little effort...
2)You can go to Ford and pay a lot for the same item if they have it in stock and the color matches...
3)You can order from someone, hope the color matches when it comes and their supplier's "run" is the same as what they showed you or you are S.O.L...
..I choose #1 when I can't find the pieces locally to match the color of my sample...
...I have been painting replacement interior parts for fords for decades and the quality of spray paint in cans in the last 15 years has made this an easy and long lasting fix for buttons and other detail interior parts you need to match to it's current existing color...
1)...Finding the buttons locally, getting the paint, painting the buttons, can all be done easily and cheaply in one day with little effort...
2)You can go to Ford and pay a lot for the same item if they have it in stock and the color matches...
3)You can order from someone, hope the color matches when it comes and their supplier's "run" is the same as what they showed you or you are S.O.L...
..I choose #1 when I can't find the pieces locally to match the color of my sample...
That's good to hear about the paint. Is there a particular brand you like or should I just look for "plastic and vinyl paint" in my auto parts store?
I've been thinking I need this for some other parts on the dash which will be absolutely impossible to replace.
For the pin kit from that online parts dealer, I paid 14.00 for the entire kit with over a dozen colored button retainers and a bunch of other fasteners which I used or probably will use someday. Less than a dollar a piece is not so bad to me.
After going through this, ordering from some third party is a non-starter for me unless I needed black. You typically need to buy at least 25 or 50 pins and then the ubiquitous 9.00 shipping charge always kinda bugs me.
But, if you've had luck with 2.00 worth of pins and a 5.00 can of good paint at the local parts store, then that sounds like a good way to go too.
I've been thinking I need this for some other parts on the dash which will be absolutely impossible to replace.
For the pin kit from that online parts dealer, I paid 14.00 for the entire kit with over a dozen colored button retainers and a bunch of other fasteners which I used or probably will use someday. Less than a dollar a piece is not so bad to me.
After going through this, ordering from some third party is a non-starter for me unless I needed black. You typically need to buy at least 25 or 50 pins and then the ubiquitous 9.00 shipping charge always kinda bugs me.
But, if you've had luck with 2.00 worth of pins and a 5.00 can of good paint at the local parts store, then that sounds like a good way to go too.
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...That spray paint is Dupli-color and can be found at most Auto parts stores and even at Wally World...and grey for instance, they must have 10-20 shades which comes in handy when trying to color match but you might have to go to different chain stores to find the correct one..
...Spray painting brand new parts is a whole lot easier than painting on aged dashes, kick and door panels, etc...
..If you search this Forum you will find several people who have spray painted and even changed the color of their whole interior...Their threads should hold some better information on doing that solely...
...Spray painting brand new parts is a whole lot easier than painting on aged dashes, kick and door panels, etc...
..If you search this Forum you will find several people who have spray painted and even changed the color of their whole interior...Their threads should hold some better information on doing that solely...
atxexplorer94
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So my ex has the fiber headliner and i just pulled the top layer of fiberglass and the material off,can i glue the new headliner material onto the fiberglass or will it not stick and hang?
atxexplorer94
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^No,it didnt really come off uniformly,kinda uneven,scratch that,really uneven!I said eff it though,I got all the material for 27.50 cuz I got the hook-up so I put it on,it looks alrite,im not sure if its bumpy because the surface was uneven or because it was my first time,probably a combination,Im happy though with the results aslong as it doesnt start to fall,Ill post some pics later.My advice for others is to just get it done professionally though if you got a FIRST GEN EX(but if your car gots one of those cardboard headliners like that ranger go for it!).If I had to pay full price for fabric it woulda been 50 bucks for two and a half yards and 30bucks for two cans of glue.
atxexplorer94
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I just remembered something,I read you could put some sort of sandable laquer on top of the fiberglass to harden and smooth out the fiberglass board,I kinda wish I woulda tried that out
Our headliner fabric should retail at about 11.00/yd plus shipping. Get the fabric number for your color and shop around. A good source I found after buying was wlsheadliners.com. There are others and any local fabric supplier can get it.
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GRNMACHINE
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barrys,
thanks for the link. they also have a writeup for 1995/1996 Ford Explorer on their site.
thanks for the link. they also have a writeup for 1995/1996 Ford Explorer on their site.
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