JZLAJeep Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 Taking a break from troubleshooting and after a quick search, didn't see a direct post on headliners. If I missed one, I'll gladly accept a cross-link. A couple months ago my 16 year-old refurbished the headliner in our '94 Cherokee with the ol' fleece blanket and can of 3M spray glue trick. It turned out really well (picture below - prior to reinstallation) and we want to do the same to the '89 Comanche. The headliner in the Cherokee wasn't glued in, but the Comanche headliner does appear to be glued to the ceiling. We have been hesitant to use too much force and haven't yet gotten it out. Do we just need to do it? Stick a plastic puddy knife between the headliner and ceiling sheet metal to separate the two perhaps? Once refurbished, does it need to be re-glued to the ceiling? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatslug87 Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 They are not glued in from the factory. There are two pieces of Velcro at the front and two at the rear and a metal bracket on each side (around the handle location). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaman09 Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 I'm interested to see how this turns out. Share a few pics of the material and process if you would. I replaced the material on the sunroof cover of my parents old BMW 740iL. The OEM foam backed fabric was mighty expensive at about $75 per yard. Are you suggesting that a fleece is a nice alternative material for a headliner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JZLAJeep Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 12 hours ago, pizzaman09 said: I'm interested to see how this turns out. Share a few pics of the material and process if you would. I replaced the material on the sunroof cover of my parents old BMW 740iL. The OEM foam backed fabric was mighty expensive at about $75 per yard. Are you suggesting that a fleece is a nice alternative material for a headliner? I'll be happy to share some photos of the process. The fleece worked great on the XJ and looks really good. I think it looks as good as the foam backed liner and will hopefully last longer. We had to go to a fabric store to buy a couple yards of fleece that was wide enough and that was more expensive than I would have liked ($35 or something), but much cheaper than foam backed fabric. Less concern about the width for a Comanche because the width of the fabric only needs to be the distance from the windshield to the back window rather than door to door like on the XJ. Our "new" family car is a Ford Expedition and it previously had a DVD player/TV screen in the ceiling that a previous owner had removed. So there is just a hole in the headliner. I'm thinking about giving it a similar treatment. Find a stiff piece of cardboard, cut it a little bigger than the hole, glue some tan fleece to it and glue or velcro the patch over the hole. I think that will work out OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaman09 Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 2 hours ago, JZLAJeep said: I'll be happy to share some photos of the process. The fleece worked great on the XJ and looks really good. I think it looks as good as the foam backed liner and will hopefully last longer. We had to go to a fabric store to buy a couple yards of fleece that was wide enough and that was more expensive than I would have liked ($35 or something), but much cheaper than foam backed fabric. Less concern about the width for a Comanche because the width of the fabric only needs to be the distance from the windshield to the back window rather than door to door like on the XJ. Our "new" family car is a Ford Expedition and it previously had a DVD player/TV screen in the ceiling that a previous owner had removed. So there is just a hole in the headliner. I'm thinking about giving it a similar treatment. Find a stiff piece of cardboard, cut it a little bigger than the hole, glue some tan fleece to it and glue or velcro the patch over the hole. I think that will work out OK. I could see the fleece sticking well to the adhesive and it would avoid the potential for foam delamination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JZLAJeep Posted December 30, 2022 Author Share Posted December 30, 2022 My 16 year old repaired the headliner the past couple days. Here's what he did with photos. He'd previously done the same thing to our '94 Cherokee. We had previously purchased gray fleece from a fabric store to recover the headliner. Got the headliner out and used a plastic brush and vacuum to get the old foam off. Sprayed Permatex headliner adhesive on the headliner and what would be the back of the headliner fabric. It's stingy glue. He sprayed the headliner one direction and the fabric the other. Two of us held the fabric above the headliner while my son adhered it to the middle and worked out to the edges. Trimmed off the excess, leaving a couple of inches overlap. Folded the overlap over the back and installed in the cab. The last photo shows half the headliner installed because I couldn't get the camera far enough away in the cab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaman09 Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 That's awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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