I decided to move on to the next maintenance project on my old car: the sagging headliner. This hardtop has been on the car since back in late 1994 or so.
In early 1994 we did some of the preliminary high speed testing of the upcoming accessory hardtop with a mockup that Dodge supplied us with. The unit they sent us was a very heavy, solid fiberglass version of what later became the factory optional unit. Sadly, I had to send the "heavy" top back after we used it for several months of racing. It really helped the aerodynamics of the car at the time and I was sad to see it go. That prototype hardtop was smooth underneath and had no headliner at all.
Eventually I was able to get a regular production hardtop from the guys at Dodge to replace it and had it painted to match the car. That's the top you see in these photos.
The headliner started sagging last year (or that's when I actually noticed it). I was wondering how the thing is actually attached since the later versions use some push pins around the perimeter. This one is simply glued into place around the edges and in the center and that's all that keeps it up there. It uses an ABS plastic form that is approximately 42"x25". The headliner is spray glued to it and wrapped underneath. With some gentle prying it came off very easily as the green adhesive holding it to the underside of the top was very brittle with age.
After ripping off the fabric, I spent around an hour removing the nasty foam residue. It was just powder and actually scrubbed off by hand leaving all that headliner adhesive remaining on the ABS. Then came the hard work. The best stuff to remove that adhesive is actually 3M Headliner Adhesive Cleaner/Remover #08987. Spray it on a small section at a time and let it soak, then scrub with a rough cloth. It rolls the residue up into little balls like rubber cement and then you can brush it away. This stuff seems to be the least aggressive type of solvent and works specificaly on headliner adhesive versus using something like lacquer thinner which is very aggressive and can damage the plastic material itself.
I have ordered a yard of automotive-grade, black headliner material which should be in this week sometime. (fingers crossed)
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