Finally got tired of driving my e30 without a headliner. Made my car feel cheap. Tried buying one online but unknown to me at the time, the headliner is NLA. The only place that seems to have any is worldupholstery but at $300 i decided to make my own
Here's what i started with. Pulled this headliner from a junkyard car. I was going to install it since it was a bit better than my original one but couldn't get the stains out. Decided to use it as a template instead
Bought a sewing machine for about $120 off amazon. Super easy to set up and use. I was originally going to use some foam headliner material that i got from Joann's fabrics but the material sucks. It feels and looks cheap and it's hard to sew with. Ended up scrapping about $40 worth. Bought some decent quality vinyl that's similar to the material on the door card. Time will see how it will hold up
With my limited sewing skills i decided to cut the rod holding part of the headliner and glue it on my new headliner with permanent cloth glue. I only used one of the bars
Test fitting. By far one of the hardest parts since most of the headliner is held up with the window trim. Nothing a little duct tape and ruber mallet cant handle
Happy that the headliner was going to fit without too much sag, I pulled the rear window. I decided not to pull the front window. It seems unnecessary since that part of the headliner is held up by the sunroof section
Got everything nice at tight and then put the window back in
While at the junkyard i also got me a sun visor panel. Had to reglue the vinyl back to the front of the panel
Panel and oh-crap handles back in. Decided not to cut holes for the lights for now since the plastic brackets that hold the lights are broken. I have yet to do the sunroof part but its in the works
Overall im very happy with the way it came out. Spent about $200 and ended up with a sewing machine. Time wise it took me about 16 hrs total.
Here's what i started with. Pulled this headliner from a junkyard car. I was going to install it since it was a bit better than my original one but couldn't get the stains out. Decided to use it as a template instead
Bought a sewing machine for about $120 off amazon. Super easy to set up and use. I was originally going to use some foam headliner material that i got from Joann's fabrics but the material sucks. It feels and looks cheap and it's hard to sew with. Ended up scrapping about $40 worth. Bought some decent quality vinyl that's similar to the material on the door card. Time will see how it will hold up
With my limited sewing skills i decided to cut the rod holding part of the headliner and glue it on my new headliner with permanent cloth glue. I only used one of the bars
Test fitting. By far one of the hardest parts since most of the headliner is held up with the window trim. Nothing a little duct tape and ruber mallet cant handle
Happy that the headliner was going to fit without too much sag, I pulled the rear window. I decided not to pull the front window. It seems unnecessary since that part of the headliner is held up by the sunroof section
Got everything nice at tight and then put the window back in
While at the junkyard i also got me a sun visor panel. Had to reglue the vinyl back to the front of the panel
Panel and oh-crap handles back in. Decided not to cut holes for the lights for now since the plastic brackets that hold the lights are broken. I have yet to do the sunroof part but its in the works
Overall im very happy with the way it came out. Spent about $200 and ended up with a sewing machine. Time wise it took me about 16 hrs total.
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