Full Size Jeep Network

I am on another forum, but it seems a little slow in the FSJ area so I thought I would join this site. It seems a bit busier. I thought I would start with my headliner replacement that I am working on. This is to replace a headliner that is shot and unusable. Moisture had got to this headliner while it sat for 8 years.

It seems that there is no source, within reason, for a new headliner. I know there were some ABS ones available at one time and a cardboard foam covered one that someone is making now. They seemed a bit spendy to me thought. I went down and bought two sheets of Coroplast from my local plastics dealer. Two sheets set me back $30.00. They were out of brown so I wound up with white. I do not know how close the brown would have been, but it would save on cost the paint if it was close.

I still had the original headliner so I was able to use it as a template. The passenger area panel is a bit longer than 4 feet so I had to graft two panels together. I used a tile divider moulding strip.

Once I got the panel cut out I then flipped over the panel to make the crease cut. I measured every 3" on the old and new panel and then measured the distance from the edge to the crease. I wrote down the distance on the new panel so I would not have to measure again for the other side.
Once I got both side measured out I then connected the dots and made the crease line.
Now I just cut along the crease line being careful not to cut all the way through to the other side. Now bend along the cut and I am ready for the test fit.

looks good, how thick is the coroplast?

The Coroplast is about 5/16" or 4mm.

Here is a couple more shots of the test fit. If you notice I have the cross members out. I had some flaky rust on the roof so I took a wire brush and brushed all the loose rust off. Then I coated the roof with POR 15.

that looks real nifty Are you going to leave it white? or cover it with
some kind of fabric?

Before I continued with the headliner I wanted to install a new heat barrier. The Jeep had a thin foam barrier at one time. I removed that a long time ago because it was falling apart and coming into the cab. For the new barrier I will be installing 1/2" Polyisocyanurate foam insulation panel. The Polyisocyanurate foam will withstand the heat better than extruded polystyrene foam insulation. 1/2" is a tight fit between the roof and the forward cross member so I moved the cross member back as far as I could so I would not have to try and install it with the foam in, plus it will help to hold the foam up in the front as I slid the foam forward.
Once I got the foam pushed all the way in I had to cut off about 6" to clear the rear panel. Then I reinstalled the other two cross members, using slight pressure to make sure I had a good tight fit on the foam to the roof. Now when I open and shut my doors I do not get a tin can effect and it sounds solid.

So since my interior is not white I decided to try and match the original color as close as I could. I found some Rustoleum textured paint that looked pretty close.
This is how the joint turned out.
My original panel joint was broke so I had to come up with another way to connect the rear panel to the forward panel. I used the original metal that runs over the top of the headliner. I then found some carpet trim that looked about right to me. It has holes predrilled into it so I used it as a template to drill holes into the original metal piece so I can connect the two together.

Once the paint dried I went ahead and fully installed the panel. I made a rear panel to but was disappointed because I did not allow for shrinkage of the original panel so it was a bit too narrow at the rear. So I will try again next weekend.

HowardT64 wrote:that looks real nifty Are you going to leave it white? or cover it with
some kind of fabric?

Sorry, I was updating the thread and did not see your question.

As you know now I did paint mine. You could probably put fabric on it just as well. I was worried about the Coroplast accept paint well. When I inquired about it at the plastic shop they told me that it is designed to accept paint. It is used mostly in the sign business and they paint it all the time. Should accept glue for fabric too.

that is ok:) Hey I saw that u used the poly iso board....those cross members come loose?!

If so that would make my job much easier cause I want to do the same thing. I
have some camo fabric I am going to use to cover the headliner. Perhaps this
weekend...

Thanks for your post:)

HowardT64 wrote:that is ok:) Hey I saw that u used the poly iso board....those cross members come loose?!

Yes they do, two bolts one each side hold them up. They are adjustable too. I moved the front cross member back to where the coat hooks mount so I would not have to fight to get the cross member back in past the headliner channel with the foam in place. Once the foam was in I was able to move the cross member forward most of the way by hand and a little with some tapping with a block of wood.

Thanks for the write up. Looks like it turned out good.

That looks fantastic. I never thought of using Coroplast. Brilliant idea and great execution. Thanks for posting this.

Well done.

HowardT64 wrote: I have some camo fabric I am going to use to cover the headliner. Perhaps this
weekend...

With the fabric you need the right glue... I used regular fabric, not the foam back fabric, and the glue seeped on the exposed side... luckily the fabric came from a fire sale, 50 feet for $10. Still using the OE headliner I stappled the fabric and bent the stapples on the other side.

Holy (insert funny expression here)! I need to go to the sign shop and check this out! I was going to buy the abs replacements from a vendor on the mothership but you, YOU my friend, have made one jobless coal miner a hopeful man!

VAGJunkie wrote:Holy (insert funny expression here)! I need to go to the sign shop and check this out! I was going to buy the abs replacements from a vendor on the mothership but you, YOU my friend, have made one jobless coal miner a hopeful man!

Hope it works out for you if you decide to give it a try.

Well as I had said above I ran into a bit of a problem with the rear panel. I had already adjusted for shrinkage of the original panel from front to back, but I had totally neglected to compensate from side to side. You can see the short comings in the pictures below.
The panel I made earlier fit pretty good except for being a total of 2 inches short at the rear. I decided to use it as the new template for the new panel. I placed it on the new sheet of Coroplast and marked up the front section for reference and then measured out 1 inch on each side of the rear portion.
Before I moved the template I went ahead and marked the rear edge for reference. Then I moved the panel over so that the sides lined up with the new mark I made above. Now I traced the outline for that side. Then I did the same on the other side. I now measured from the new edges for the crease cut on the back side. Once I got the crease cut done it was time for a test fit.

So, it fit pretty good.

Time for some paint.
And now for the final install. All bolted in and looking good. So now the durability test begins......