The headliner (ceiling inside) in my X300 is falling down over my head! I have been trying to glue it back up, with a special spray-glue, but it keeps falling down again. I think I might have to change it. Anyone who knows how to do that? How do I get it out of the car, and a new one in? Without breaking it, that is! Or is it possible to repair the existing headliner? The very thin liner (lining?) is loosing its contact with the thicker cardboard.

 

I recently took my headliner out. You can take the fabric off the board and put new fabric on you don't have to buy a whole new board. I didn't upholster it myself I had someone do it for me in suede. I don't believe applying new glue will work alone. You're going to have to remove the old stuff for it to adhere properly. The headliner is easy enough to get out. Even easier if you have a long wheel base to pull it out the rear door.

Some have taken I believe the passenger seat out. I managed by laying both front seats all the way down.

Remove the console between the sun visors as well as the sun visors and the clips that hold them.

Remove the rear sun shade clips if you have them that are screwed up to the roof through the headliner.

Remove the trim around the sunroof.

Remove all the grab handles.

Remove the A- pillars and pull the C-pillars far enough out to clear the headliner.

After that there are 4 metal tabs behind the pillars that hold the headliner up. You can bend them down or bend the headliner to clear them. After that the headliner should fall right down.

I have the long wheel base with the longer rear door so I folded the headliner like a taco and pulled it out the rear door. Not too sure about the regular wheel base cars. I believe they were the ones taking the front seat out to remove it through the front door.

As far as gluing a new one on someone may come by to explain. I paid someone to do it for me since I've never done it before and didn't want it messing up.

 

The sun visor and center console is a question from me . Looking to visit a foam shop to laminate a cotton fabric of my choice . The sky is falling

 

I've done both LWB and SWB by removing it from the left side rear door (LHD Cars)
I removed the driver's seat and the rear seat cushion. Not necessary, from what I've read, but easy enough to do and gives you more room to maneuver. From my perspective, there is no advantage to the LWB; yes the rear door is wider, but the headliner is larger, as well.

The headliner material is cloth bonded to a thin foam layer. The foam is glued to the headliner board. The foam disintegrates and the cloth sags. You'll find the adhesive hasn't failed, the foam has. You will still have foam glued to the board. You need to remove that with a stiff brush. Make sure you get the 1/16" or 3mm stuff, or you will jam up the sunroof if you use the seemingly more common 1/4" material. There are how-to's galore, do a search and you will find a wealth of info.

 

Thanks for sharing, it was very useful. It's worth gold, to learn from others what they have tried out. Now I dare trying it myself. Not the glueing part, I will try and find someone to help me with that part of the job, so I don't mess it up.

 

Hehe...I've got the gluing part down reasonably well...it's the cutting bit that tripped me up! (Leave a coupla inches all the way round the sunroof when you cut out for the opening - it has to fold over the lip and be held in place by the pinch-welt.)

Buy LOTS of single-edge razor blades! You'd be surprised at how little cutting it takes to make them too dull for headliner work. I think it took 4 or 5 to get through the ill-fated sunroof cut.

 

Any tips on cleaning the pinch - welt ? Is it simply mild soap and water as the A,B,C post trim / door openings looks to be the same setup as the sunroof ? I am hesitant to ruining it . I my just retain the original on the sunroof but then again it my be a simple mater of building up with new material .

 

Save yourself much trouble and heartache if the sunroof panel is not sagging, and otherwise in good shape and you can live with the slight mis-match in color that is bound to occur (the new stuff, even if cut from the same bolt as the original stuff, won't have been aged in the sun, albeit indirect, for 20 yrs) then leave it be.
I left one alone and recovered the one in the LWB - had to disassemble the sunroof assy on that one anyway due to a problem.
I had two more-or-less perfect pinch-welts, so didn't need to clean and thus didn't try. Best advice I can give you there is practice surgeon-style hand-washing and glove-wearing when handling it! We got a few smudges on the new cream headliner and that cleaned up nicely with some laundry spot-remover spray and a soft-bristle toothbrush.

 

Depending on how much of a perfectionist you wish to be (are you restoring the car for showing or just driving it), you may want to take the easy way out as I did. I love my Jag and it is in excellent condition, but I also daily drive it.

What I did was buy some bedskirt pins and tacked up the drooping headliner at the bump-up in the rear seat. I placed them strategically and measured out the locations perfectly so they would at least look good. You can't even see them from the front seats or most angles outside of the car, and you can barely tell there is a problem, as the location of the pins stretched out the headliner fabric tight enough (the fabric was still tucked in properly at all the edges). I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.

It is also loose at the sun visors, but when the visors are tucked home, you can't tell so I ignore it there.

 

Thanks , I tried the pin trick and not the safety pin and it helped somewhat and if I use more correct pins it should work . No pics necessary for me . At some point I need to remove the headliner anyway to get a good exposure to the sunroof side tracks to get the outer panel moving . At least the motor runs to some sort of stop in both direction as well as the manual large screwdriver drive . Outer panel still stuck with zero movement but a rear attach point inside does move forward until it hits the sidetrack . It is missing the inner pane and will have to find one in a pick and pull and install it with it's liner . I have seen many TSB and writeups on the rigging and not until I get my eyeballs on it will I be better able to wrap my head around a resolution . An the good side the previous owner had it sealed shut ( not fully closed ) with sealastic for years so there is no drainage rust in the rear wheel arches . So for now I resealed the outer panel and is a back burner . The interior is so clean , its the smudges I myself put on the pillars felt welt that sick out . That's how I roll . I want it to be the prettiest Jaguar on the whole block ( pun ) . It's my retirement present to myself .