Help,96 camry roof upholstery repair

[lparkin]

G'day to you all,
Can any body tell how to repair my camry's roof upholstery (DIY).The upholstery material (cloth) has fallen and is just hanging.Any suggestions would be gladly appreciated.
Thanks,Louis.

[slobones]

I'm curious as well because my headliner has done the same thing on my 92 Camry.

[matt1mzfe]

I had this problem on my 1999 camry (in Aus too) I removed all the plastic trim around the edges of the roof - it is held in by clips and comes off fairly easily if you are careful. Then remove the dome light and the ones near the rear view mirror - if present. There are also 2 press in stud things over the rear seat which I prised out with a screwdriver.

I ripped off the cloth because it is foam backed and the foam had perished so I could not just stick the cloth back on. The foam came off the liner easily with a bit of rubbing and then I bought some new black cloth and used flexible glue to stick it onto the liner frame / board.

You will have to be careful getting the liner out of the car - it was easier with the rear seat out. I didn't want to bend it too much in case it cracked...

That was almost a year ago, it is all good and I had never done that job before.

[matt1mzfe]

The easier but not so nice option is to jam heaps of pins into it to hold it up

[lparkin]

G'day Matt,
Thanks for that,i will give it a go.

[xpeed]

This is probably a good excuse to use Alcantara. =) Haha, too bad they're $45 per meter.

I'm planning on custom upholstering my interior soon. The headliner would be last. I wouldn't use 3M glue since they're not that great. For upholstery I would opt for a different brand that will hold the material longer and tighter. Research around and see what glue car shops use and how they do it by watching it on youtube. I'm sure there are tons of photos and videos on how to do it. It's fairly easy to do too. Make sure you have some excess material on the side so that you can staple them onto the headliner (stapling as in from the back, not the front) so it won't be visible and I'm talking about the industrial staples, not paper staplers.

[matt1mzfe]

Originally Posted by xpeed

Make sure you have some excess material on the side so that you can staple them onto the headliner (stapling as in from the back, not the front) so it won't be visible and I'm talking about the industrial staples, not paper staplers.

I cut the cloth about an inch larger on all sides than the liner board. This meant I could wrap the cloth over the edges and glue it on the back too. I did not staple - even if you staple from the back the staple would come through the visable side of the liner. I don't think it is needed either.

[xpeed]

^ I think it would depend on the type of material you're using. For cloth, glue is fine, but for leather, you need more than glue for some surfaces I believe.

Plus there are staples that are really short so that it won't poke through the other end but you're right. Staples are hardly used.