I know writing about it isnt as cool as the pictures but the rain has me trapped at the computer today and completed it the last sunday in April.
Followed this link:
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/092122.html as a guide to execute.
My tools:
Brand new razor blades.
But I will add my own stumbles and recoveries:
Everything was easy as described in the link however when i removed the front door trim for my first time it didnt not come out that easy as noted in the link.
- There are three attachments to the car from the trim, There is a 2 inch tab in the top rear, and two brittle peices that are down the window that if not slid down or up and out they will break.
- First you have to pull down and out at the rear top of the trim, this is the two inch tab that is held in place by two clips that squeeze the tab to hold it in place. if you use too much force you will break off the tab like I did. I super glued it back in place and expanded the clip a little with a screw driver to put it back on the install and that worked.
- Then you either slide down or up and away to get the rest of the trim unhooked. I didnt and they both broke. I was able to get it in and tight with only one half of a tab left so I am going with that - I couldnt find replacements on the store and if I pull it apart the glued tab will break.
As every where you read that headliner is brittle spongey fiber glass like wafers too it is layered and the thin spots and the corners came apart.
- I used gray padded fabric from Joanns and bought the adhesive from Joanns (dont -use anything but the 3M trim adhesive) it didnt work at all. I got lucky that it didnt the first time - then I went to advanced and bought a big can of the 3M trim that was execellent stuff. That being said - when they say take your time and dont stretch. follow it.
- I sprayed both the liner and the foam, let it sit 1-3 minutes and let it roll on to the trim slowly. it was raining outside and about 74 degrees. and that stuff locked in tight with minor pressure. I did about 1-2 feet at a time, I have a sun roof so i moved from front to rear not side to side on the headliner.
- My only mistake in the end was the last lay out I dropped the end before I rolled the rest and I got a little bit of a bunch up at the rear basically two 2 inch creases over the passengers head - hardly noticable but I see it of course.
Prepping the headliner - I bought a sponge sander from Advanced and hit the headliner with that and it prepped it really nice with only a light pressure - My old foam didnt come of so clean so I had a lot of pinching to get the rest off and then sanded the rest. I also used Duct tape to strengthen the cracked places and the weak areas per the link - that worked well (but the humidity started to let the tape go so i added 3M adhesive to the tape and that solved that.)
My take - It took me most of the day but I was reading and planning as I went and i did the fabric run in the middle of the day after the headliner was all prepped for fabric. 3.5 by 4 feet is plenty, There was a peice cut at Joanns aready - 4 by 3ft 9 in and I cut better then 6 inches all around as I trimmed it for glueing to the back side of the headliner.
- for the outside I rolled the trim about 1.5 inches over the top with the glue, and then I cut off the excess 6 inches.
- for the sunroof trim, I left 3+ inches and cut slits at the corners to allow for the fabric make the turns, I used a little rubber mallot to push the trim back in fo rthe sunroof. If I was redoing it, I would boil the trim to heat it up or use a heat gun and then dry and tap it in because my corners did not go in as good as I thought and from the bottom they didnt seat well in the corners. since i dont ahve a heat gun I will wait until summer and tap the rest of the way in when they are super hot from the sun.
I will get some pics of the finished project. on here soon.
