The felt ceiling (? headliner) on my 2002 XKR Coupe must have come unglued and is now tenting down and hitting the top of my head. Has anyone else had this problem and who do I go to for repair? Thanks

 

This is common in the XJ series, but is the first I have heard of it in an XK. Remove it, re-glue it or replace it.

 

I had same issues with my XK8 coupe... cost me $300 to replace.

Lee

 

dstein,

I'm not an interior retrim expert, but I have recovered maybe a dozen headliners in XJ models. There are tricks I learned to make that job a reasonable one that yields excellent results. As for XK...

I just finished doing my first, an early 1997 coupe. I found it to be exquisite agony. By the way, there is no invisible method of reattaching the existing fabric that I am aware of. Headliner boards can be folded to extract them from the car, but bending a board that has been recovered leaves permanent creases in my experience.

The XK coupe board is far too large to get back in the car in a flawless state once it has been removed and recovered. The cars are built with the headliner installed before the winshield goes in the car. I chose to recover this board inside the car, after removing all seats and adjacent trim panels.

There is a post on JagLovers by a guy who paid a shop for this job: they first elected to remove the windshield, which they broke in the process. You can imagine how fast things went downhill from there.

The worst part about the particular car I recovered was that the headliner board was solidly glued into the uerethane adhesive at the top edge of the windshield. The glass looked original, so my guess is that this was a bit of an assembly ****-up when building the car. Regardless, the board could not be dropped down and tilted side to side for easy access to all the edges once the new fabric was glued on and ready to trim. That plan was scrapped for fear of damaging the leading edge of the board, as there is no trim to conceal it. There is also some sort of honking strong clip that secures the board in place at the rear, adjacent to the dome light: I didn't bother trying to detach the board to drop it down there, as I already found it wasn't going to be coming down at the front either.

I have some photos of the procedure I used, and it all took me forever. Best advice is to find an expert to do the job for you: I'd gladly have paid $300 to give someone else the privilege so long as the finished product was as good. That's about what I charged to do the headliner and A post trim panels, and I lost my *** on the job.

Glue, fabric and shipping will probably cost you $75.00 anyway. And I'm still doubtfull about companies who ship this fabric by folding it up to put it in a box: I buy this stuff on rolls, and often see creases in the fabric which look awfully permanent to me. I'm not going to install creased fabric and hope it disappears over time. I don't think it will heal.

If anybody reading this has additional tips or thoughts to share, I'm all ears. There are probably more secrets to doing this work properly than I have yet to discover. My guess is that alot of guys who do this work just shove the loose edges under the trim at the perimeter without removing it, and figure that will be good enough. If it is, I sure did it the hard way.

 

*hands up.

2003 model.

in the last year, the rear potion started to come unstuck... then slowing in the course of half a year, it spread to the front.

that's on top of the usual air suspension fault and the "ta" sound when releasing the accelerator. (probably something related to the rear diff )

 

You can find replacement headliners in original Oatmeal or Grey that are permanently affixed to a fiberglas backing on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-GRP-hea...QAAOxySoJTSnH4

Total cost including shipping from the UK to the US is about $288. Installation is a fairly east DIY job requiring removal of the passenger's seat & sun visors. A helper makes the job a lot easier, but is not absolutely necessary.

 

Useful information, but I think that the original poster either fixed it or gave up in the intervening 11 years!

 

New headliners £130 on ebay,I replaced mine 3years back but I did it during the replacement of my front windscreen due to a stress crack,it.just slip right in and then around 30mins to fit in place,perfect fit👍

 

I'm certain you're right. However, this is such a common problem I thought it worth noting this source.

 

Thx guys. I had a guy come out and redo the headliner years ago, I think it cost me $300. Still driving and enjoying my XKR.

 

FWIW, I have always felt that the sound of rain in the coupe was excessive, especially at rest. It feels like the metal roof acts like a drum, especially with big water drops. If it was me, I would look into adding some sound deadening material up there before installing a new headliner.

Other remark is that some have gone the extra mile and installed an alcantara headliner for that nice upgraded look. Never looked into it, but it looks like there are options out there.

 

Well! wouldn't you know it....The first time in several years someone has brought up the subject of Headliners and Thursday my beautiful Alcantra covered Headliner started it's plunge toward earth! I paid $500.00 (Bucks) to have it recovered in Alcantra about 4 years ago and here it is falling down all all round me....Now I don't know what to do other than order one of the ebay Headliners from England....They sound like maybe they may be a good deal and might stay as they appear to be Fiberglass with the cloth covering sprayed on rather than glued on.....Guess I will have a conversation with my Upholsterer Monday...Hard to drive with one hand holding the darn thing up! The Alcantra is really good looking but you can't see through it very well.....The Heat here in Houston will not allow nice things like Alcantra to stay or be useful.....I'll let you know what I come up with....

Billy Clyde in Houston

Ivory Alcantra Headliner in my 2005 XKR Coupe

 

Last time I had the headliner down I added DynaMat to the inside of the roof and it all but eliminated that oil can effect

I have got that same stuff under the package tray (careful not to cover up the GPS antenna) behind the door cards and even on the inside of the doors against the outer skin. I've done all this along the way when I have had the car apart for repairs or upgrades. It is noticeably quieter now and all the closures have a higher quality "thunk" without any of that reverberation.