alright this is kinda for my own benifit but you guys can tag along if your that interested in how my interior turns out. will kinda do it like a walkthrough so i dont get asked so many questions by piticular question asking people...you know the kind.

my goal is to change almost everything, i am leaving out the seats, the main dash (mabe do the radio area now) and the carpet, i am leavin those because they alone will cost as much or more than $150.

this $150 does not include stuff i already had in my stock pile of paints glues and other such items. HOW EVER this does include sales tax....which is $0.
all prices U.S. denomination for you foregin folks

alright so supplies so far purchaced:
4.5'x6' 12 inch sheet of foam rubber $25.00
slightly larger sheet of black felt $17.00
1 can grey vynil 'dye' $6.50
1 can laytex clear coat $4.00

supplies needed:
striaght edge
spray on glue (decent stuff)
scissors
straight cutting edge
electric turkey carver (mabe)
beer
soda (for in the morning)
fresh razor blades

as you can imagine for $150 you'd be using or going to junk yard for alot of parts, i am not looking for super magical looking i am just looking for better than it used to be, more functional and not freakin brown. all my cars have been brown in side and i cant stand it.

so, first off i started with the headliner. i dont have a picture of it before since i ripped it out within hours of buying the car. basicly the vynil over the backing had shrank and pulled away from the backing, the foam rubber that was in there after about 30 years had of course turned into funky dust **** that burned like hell when it got in your eyes.

NOW there is a plus to when headliners and foams do this, its easy as pie to take off, rip the vynil off, you may have to cut arround some rivits that sandwhich it in and with a brisslely vaccume attachment suck the was once foam rubber off, done. i did this while it was mounted in the car.

then a few weeks went by **** hit the fan, no job x-mas, current time.

so first off take your head liner out, ask how oor look it up some place else.

and i'll apologize now as some times this camera takes great pics and some times its like what the heck, lighting is key though and i dont have good.



so head liner is out, my backing is in good shape so its re usable (freakin YES)

so get your freakin foam, lay it over and mark aproximations where the edges are, make them wider than the head liner.



an inch or more on each side because you can shave it off, if you have to glue peices on to fix gaps you screwed up.



get a straight edge and cut off the excess, dont worry about the shape of the foam, cutting off the excess makes it MUCH more managable when you glue it on next just DONT CUT TOO MUCH OFF, just make a square, cut straight from your furthest marked points to ensure you dont get a peice too small...

now i went 1/2 inch thick, some people seem to think its over kill but go with your gut, i wanted sound absorbing plush but not like a pimp car so it fit what i want, i wouldnt go much thicker other wise you'll have a supplemental restraint for when you roll the car.



tiem to glue
spray both sides, bottom of the headliner foam and the board and they'll stick like magic, all the while when you lay it over press gently into the lines of the headliner to keep the indetations and such of the headliner and to make sure you get a good bond over all surfaces. DONT press too hard other wise you'll force the glue into the cells of the rubber and glue ti rubber to it self from the inside creating a flat spot.

dont worry about the ammount as long as it isnt pooling or forming droplets, be smart about it though



finished gluing, might want to keep pressing into the lines to make sore everythings there, run your hand over the entire surface to make sure its good and stuck and confroms to the backing.



trimmin time, this is where some people have told me a electric turkey carver cuts foam really well, since i didnt want to dig it out i used scissors. sligtly rough edges arent a problem but big chunks will show up in the end so keep it to a minimum. keep a little bit of hang over, the foam will strech over the edges when you put the cloth on it, not too much though.

go arround the edges checking how they glued down, peel back gently to see if its stuck.



no go reglue that! dont hose it you dont need a ton.



thats what we're lookin for.



after all the trimming and gluing this is about how much over hangi had, it streched down pretty well but i didnt strech it too far. i like how mine turned out.

let it dry for a while, over night, this is where a beer would be used but i was pooped.



before you begin with the cloth cut out the sections where large fixtures go through, dont worry about the screw holes you can find them and slit holes or poke through when theyre in the car. cut em in an X.

 

time for cloth time.



get the cloth and do like you did with the headliner, measure



i had about 2 inches slack in the front to strech arround



cut



i had alot more arround the edge but the cloth doesent matter, after you glue it and sctrch it back you can trim it or glue the slack down or leave it its up to you. i left it and glued it, might not be so good if it streches out in the future and i have to re strech it but oh well.



get to gluein, you dont want to use as much glue on the headliner and try and spray away from the surface thats going to be facing you in the car. as you can see theres alot of dust but dont worry about it it comes off the headliner or atleast doesent show up after it dries and you rub your hand over it.



when i was gluing i flopped the fabric over and glued one half strips at a time, flopped of other half over and repeated.



done bgluin the fabric.



time to strech the fabric over the side and glue it down, now the glue doesent set instantly so you have some time to re adjust to get a nice tucked edge, just dont screw with it too much.



when you do the corners fold it in such a way your not going to see it on the edge of the thing, see its folded here but...



you cant see it from your side. thats part of the x-mas tree there on the corner.

 

rember those x's you cut out?



cut the x in the fabric too, dont cut too far, if you miss a little dont worry depending on your fixtures they may cover it up.



then cut out a hole, if your x is big enough you can cut the foam out of the area and glue the tabs of fabric on the back, i didnt have that luxry here.

let it dry if you want or you can risk screwing it up and jam it in as is.

with extra foam you may have to squick and squeeze it into place, not as much foam i dont see much of a problem but your interior peices back, put the fixtures in, this can be kind of tricky to find the screw holes but dont worry you'll find em, if need be poke a hole or cut a slit so the screw doesent bunch the foam/fabric up.

with thick foam screw em in snug but not over tight otherwise you might crack the plastic.

ok heres what mine looks like in the car



i dont have sun visors in because they look like wrinkly old people skin



the mirror is crooked aswell because for one reason or another i only have 2 screws holding it in, some one lost the other one and i didnt want to crack it.

 

I did my interior for around $80, new seats too :]

Jo-Ann fabrics sells headliner material its like foam and cloth together.
real cheap stuff. Nice too.

nice work niku :]

btw, you notice how headliners sag in older cars sometimes...
Is that because the glue wears out?

 

yea the glue may wear out but i dont know for sure, if you think about it it heats up and cools down alot up there so somethings going to go funky over time.weither the liner shrinks or the glue gets old and crusty

i checked jo ann but i couldnt find any thing like that, so i ventured to my own thing, the fabric came from jo ann the foam came from a local store called black bird, was the only place with a peice of foam big enough for the head liner.

 

It's because the foam deteriorates. The glue holds on the surface of the foam that's attached to the backing board and the fabric/vinyl and the foam in between just disintegrates over time.

It's a very common problem in the upholstery world. Modern foams are far more resilient to disintegration than what was used in our cars 25 years ago.

Excellent write-up. You just got your first "sticky"!

 

Yes I agree, a really great writeup. Now all we need is somebody. To do a writeup for a T-top headliner. I would, but I suck at explaining things. lol Congrats on the sticky inaguration. Great job bro'.

 

didnt expect this, thanks guys.
i would imagine t-tops would be similar, just alot of cutting big chunks out for the windows of course.

edit:
alright now that i found my camera after bieng MIA for a long *** time i got the pics off it and took some more, havent had the energy lately to work on it much but i got a bit done.
lets start off with some before and after pics

rear pannels of car before:






and after:

 

i also did the rear pannel that goes arround the windows (on the side) both of them are like this, driver side missing the peice that goes arround the seat belt opening, can add later.





worried about how the paints going to wear arround the seatbelt opening but its an easy peice to get off

 

I did my t-top headliner and the procedure was basically the same as what Niku-Sama did, except that I used imitation leather instead of the fabric. I also replaced the map and dome lights with ones from a newer car which look much better than the stock units. I can get some pictures in a day or two when I get the car back from the windshield place.

 

i took the wheel covers off and sprayed the underside with rubberized sound dampening undercoating, theres a noricable difference when i thump on the oppisite side, wont hurt any thing either way.

i just didnt want to go and hose it all over the inside of the car it self, i may still spray some under the pads of the rear seat because i found some tiny rust spots (very minor) from most likely a leaky pop out window.



i sprayed the tops with the same grey as the other interior pannels, looks better, no pics of that i still have some modifying for those.

 

holy crap i found my camera!
it was in my pants pocket (cargo pants) and i about threw it in the washer when i herd a clunk. so i grabbed the pics and up loaded em.

ok so to date i have spent rougly in supplies i had to buy:

1 can of spray glue $8 (expencive crap made by 3m)
6 total square yards of black felt $24
2 72"x54" rolls of 1/2 inch foam rubber $44
4 cans Grey Duplicolor Vynil Coloring $24 (6 ea on average)
1 can Gunk undercoating $2 (clearence item)

total: $102

earlier i said i was not going to count things i currently had well thats the black vynil coloring another can of spray glue, other glues, some grey coloring, and odds and ends.

i am almost done with the stuff i can use the duplicolor on, dont know what i am gonna do with the doors, i am thinking some 300zx armrests and window switches.

 

Great job on the hatch inner panels. I need to do that to mine. Did you strip the old glue or just remove what was left of the foam?

 

pretty much, except for the pannel that goes over the spare tire, its made of something different. plastic backing formed peice.

be careful with the vents and the box on the antenna side is held on from the back by strange clips that sinch down on pegs that come through the peice, kinda pinching the pannel between the 2. dont lose the clips and you can pry them off GENTLY with a standard screw driver, just work from side to side and they'll eventually come off.

 

Just wanted to say fantastic work on the thread. I just did some work on one of my strut towers (interior is totally gutted right now) and it's looking great, going to do the rest of the interior with this method. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the headliner though and this is a great help.

I am curious if you did something radically different for the sparetire one though, any details?

 

Which glue did you use? pointer please

 

the only pointer i can add to which i was planning on is dont use the glue i used, it held for a few months but the instant it warmed up it went to **** and fell down again, although the fabric and the foam are still glued together the foam and the backing came apart.

i belive i used 3M spray adhesive #88 DONT USE IT!

i checked and checked and i was assured it would hold for a long time, no it doesent, now i am being told 3M #90 or some other brand.

heres the links i was pointed to at parts express...
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=340-096
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=340-278

i dont know what works because i only just pulled the headliner again about 30 minutes ago and then i cleaned the car. i dont know when i'll get to it and i dont know if i am going to have to start from scratch, theres a good chance the glue i used is eating away at the foam. we'll see

 

I was searching earlier, and I did ran in #88 (decent price). The stuff at parts express are expensive in comparison to #88 by 3M. Thanks. Inform us with your. When I get to mine, I'll post my result also. Thanks, greatly appreciated

 

I have done this to my Z but i removed the dash and replaced the carpet. not quite under 150 more like 600. I used a different cloth for the headliner. yours looks better and seams easier. mine didnt stretch much ill post pics once i finish should be by the end of the week

 

Dan Tack spray adhesive holds really well

 

i'll try and remember that, 3M #90 seems to have dissappeared off the face of the planet and i cant seem to find a suitable replacment. on the good side of things the other pannels are holding up pretty well, i can tell where its lifted in some spots but nothing biggie. i will probally respray those though

 

THANKS NIKU-SAMA!!

Haven't completed my project yet, but I test fitted freshly painted panels with my new carpet kit and it looked amazing!

Going to finish up painting and carpet today and probably tomorrow reupholster the head liner.

 

one thing i have noticed is some pannels take the color better than others, thankfully my test pannel i did is still ok, i figured i would try out the plastic molding arround the door fram on the back since it would get alot of traffic. no scratches except where i slipped with a screw driver trying to get a clip out.

i know its been a few months since i did this but i still dont have everything in my car still though. its been busy lately with people going in and out of the hospital and odd jobs here and there. everything is painted or upholstered from the doors back though and i havent broken $150 yet. i am still trying to figure out what to do with the door pannels

 

I am wondering about the door panels too... the carpet is gray and has very dark stains... looks horrible, wondering how the carpet paint will look, couldn't make it much worse...

 

for the stereo you can make your own head unit dash kit, look at my cardomain (link under)
i have mine as diamond plate, real simple to do. also doing everything else in diamond plate as well.
also did rear speaker pods and starting on the front ones soon.
nice looking cheap upgrade