I am seeking information / sources for a new Headliner for a 2009 Vanden Plas Portfolio .

Are most owners getting their OEM headliner board recovered at an Upholstery shop?.... , or is there a USA source for aftermarket complete headliners ? I have no success on web searches other than generic fabric kits for refurbishment .




Forgive me if this subject has already been covered in another thread , if so I couldn't locate on site search Thanks, XJR Ronn

 

From what i myself have read, unless you are ready to take a lot of time as well as effort & frustration.
An upholstery shop that specializes in automobiles, & has experience doing Jaguars, with all their sensors.

 

You can find unfitted headliners occasionally on marketplaces like eBay or repair shop stock liquidation. Honestly though - don't bother. They will eventually suffer the same failure as the factory installed ones when the foam disintegrates and the fabric peels off. 8-10 years in a mildly hot environment seems to be an average lifespan.

Any good upholsterer will be able to recover the headliner board for about the same cost as a new factory one. It will cost you a bit more as you'll need to get the upper pillar trims and sun visors recovered as well (you'll never find an exact fabric match).

You can DIY them without too much hassle, although it will take about a day. The time consuming bit is removing the old fabric from the plastic pillar trims which is usually bonded on very well (the fabric with foam backing is bonded to a polypropylene padding layer which needs to be fully removed by hand). I redid both of my X350 XJs with foam backed milano suede. Total material cost per car, including the adhesives and consumables, was £320 each. Plus a day's labour each.

If you DIY note you cannot do it in situ - the liner board must be removed from the car, but is easy to do through the passenger rear door with rear seats and the passenger front seat removed. When bonding the new material around the roof console 'hump' just go straight over initially and then stretch down the sides to the bottom to spread the stretch over a larger area. Otherwise you may get wrinkles. The pillar trims are easy once prepped, but the sun visors will need a sewing machine and the right technique to get the covering stretched tightly. If you've not done one before it might be worth using an upholsterer unless you really enjoy that sort of work.

 

It did my recently and it was a difficult job 8. (scaled 1 to 10) The headliner has many wires glued to the back board. You required to unplug bunch of harnesses located behind all pillars from front windshield, side pillar,, back pillar, sun visors, rear mirror, sensor located in head liner, rear brake lights etc. Couple harnesses are for the air bag system.

Remove back seat. its okay to bend the head liner when you try to remove if from car.

 

Thanks for the replies.
I am not opposed to doing it myself. I have had to remove complex headliners before in other car lines in order to remove and replace defective power sun roofs etc, but not jaguar . In one particular late model SRT Chrysler 300 I had to remove rear glass to extract headliner as the board was too brittle and fragile to bend through the small doorways.
However, I though maybe best to delegate the relining of the backboard to someone with more upholstery experience than me. Or just buy new unit and bypass the relining process altogether.
XDAVE makes a good point. Even an expensive new complete headliner from Jaguar may have been sitting around aging on the parts shelf prior to purchase.
After reading replies I think I will trust myself for the removal and reinstall and find a good upholsterer for the actual fabric replacement.
Thanks again for the feedback. Ronn

 

A wise choice, getting the material installed to look right, is an art
The extra large rear door is a real asset to remove, & replace.