Hi All, I am getting ready to replace the headliner in my XJS. I watched a few videos and it looks to be pretty straight forward. So the fabric comes off easily by pulling on it, leaving the foam behind which is like what I saw on the you tube video I watched. In one area what I think was the backing for the foam, a thin piece pulled away also. I'm not sure if I should try to glue the thin piece down where it came up, or just take it all off. The reason I question it is because in the video the guy used a wire brush to remove all the foam. ( Which I can do easy enough). But if I pull away the thin piece I won't need to bother scraping the foam off, because it will take all the foam up when I do. I am questioning if the thin piece is part of the headliner board or part of the foam/fabric.
Any thoughts?

This is a picture of the thin piece. on the left is the fabric, thin pc in the middle, and headliner board on the right

This pic shows the fabric pulled away, and the foam that is underneath with a patch of the foam scraped off. The thin layer is still attached to the headliner board in this pic.

 

The thin layer is attached to the headliner board. Use some spray adhesive and reattach the loose thin (white) layer back to the fiberglass (yellow)headliner board.
The new headliner fabric is glued to the thin layer.
Remove all the foam from the white layer then use a good adhesive to attach the new headliner fabric.

 

A wire brush sounds a bit too harsh for the backer board. I used a nylon-bristled brush like the type you'd use to scrub vegetables, and would recommend that.

 

Thanks for the input. So far any foam removed has just been with my fingers. It comes off rater easily. I do not want to damage the headliner that's for sure!

 

I would use a SOFT wire hand brush on the biscuit, but not aggressively.
The better you prepare the surface, the less likely you'll end up repeating the process.