Dear friends, once again I turn to you for advice! Has anybody re-covered the sun roof?
As you may recall, I am having some rust attended to and the rear screen is out. Ideal time to replace my poor sagging headlining! I have purchased a new headlining ready to fit and it is supplied with enough spare fabric to cover the sun roof. I am pondering the best way to cover the sliding panel. I would love to know if anybody has tackled this job by sticking the new fabric on in situ? Or is it adviseable to dismantle it and recover it on the bench? It seems like a big job to remove the mechanism!
Any advice will be very much appreciated.
Kind regards, Danny.

 

I did mine over 15 years ago by removing the inner roof panel, but I did it "by ear" and I cannot remember all the steps; It was not easy but not very difficult either.

what I did first was to remove the entire headliner fiberglass panel, removing the Edging or "welting" around the square opening first, to free the headliner panel;

with the headliner panel out of the car, it becomes somewhat evident that the sunroof's inner roof panel can be removed without affecting the rest of the assembly; it is bolted to the tracks if I remember correctly. I also recall the two Cables came out with the panel, so you need to disconnect them from the motor gear.

I pulled the old headling piece to use as a pattern, but I used a reinforcing upholstery material first, not just the headliner fabric, I can't remember the name of the material but it is a "netting" material used for upholstery support-reinforcement, onto which you will glue the headliner fabric. You can get this material at Walmart in the Fabrics Dept., or most any Fabrics store. (I do not know if there are fabric stores in the UK).

after you succesfully stretch (taut) this reinforcement netting over the steel panel, then it becomes easy to glue the headliner fabric to it.

the welting or Edging around the square opening is the last piece of the puzzle, it needs to be recovered too, use the old fabric as a pattern to cut a strip of headlining fabric.

 

Very many thanks Jose, I was hoping that once the headlining was out it would become clear that the inner panel could be removed without too much trouble.
Thank you also for the advice about using some re-inforcing material as a first step.
Kindest regards, Danny.

 

you're welcome Danny,

once you remove the panel and the panel's headlining fabric, you will see why using a backing / reinforcement material comes handy.

it really is not that difficult, just do it slowly, don't rush the job. Also, I would take pictures before disassembly, to help you remember what went where during reassembly.

 

Hi Jose, thanks for your further thoughts. I have been looking for this reinforcement fabric and found this on ebay. Is this the kind of material you meant?

Fiberglass S2-Glass Cloth Reinforcement 205g/sq m Glass Fabric Superior Strength | eBay

Cheers, Danny.

 

Danny,
fiberglass cloth is not what I used.

fiberglass cloth needs to be covered with resin in order to work, I don't recommend using that.

the material I used is found under the seat of upholstered furniture, it is an open weave material. I will try to find a picture of it or something similar.

the UK company below has something similar to what I used but it is not Kevlar, it is more like Yute.
(see picture)

Fabric and Reinforcement for Use in Advanced Composites - Easy Composites

 

Oh right Jose, I understand. I will look again. I appreciate your help.
Kindest regards, Danny.

 

Looks a lot like hessian. I am sure this is the stuff Jose.
Regards Danny.

 

DRH:
I just did this job in the spring. I simply glued the headliner material to the edges of the inner sunroof panel, copying the coverage of the previous material.
The following instructions (from another forum) were what I used. I found them exceedingly helpful, and it went pretty much the way they describe. Hope this helps.
JagFORUM Logon
Best,
Andrew.