Questions About Replacing Headliner 1999 Corolla

[gerasco]

The headliner on my Corolla has been come loose to the point that it needs replacing. I bought replacement fabric from a company that specializes in making headliner fabric. Everything arrived in timely fashion, and the instructions for attaching the new fabric to the headliner board seem to be pretty clear. There's only one problem.

There aren't any instructions as to how I remove the headliner itself. Some of the things seem to be attached with screws, but things like the clips that hold the sun visor in place are secured by screw and plastic clip which I don't know how to remove.

Can anyone provide a step by step instruction to removing the headliner? I'd really appreciate it.

[fishexpo101]

There is a considerable amount of trim to remove to get at the headliner. You didn't mention if you had a factory moonroof or not, for this I'm assuming you do not have it. First off, disconnect the battery, you'll be disconnecting some electricals here - don't want to risk shorting something out in the process.

- Remove front pillar garnish trim (A pillars), pry out clips by hand, then pull upward to remove.

- Remove center pillar garnish trim (B pillars), remove front seat belt shoulder anchor, pry out clip by hand at top, then pull outward to remove. Seatbelt anchors = 30ft.lbs

- Remove side inner garnish trim (C pillar / sail area), use a trim tool or a flat blade screwdriver with tape on the blade, pry around until the trim comes loose.

- Remove dome lamp, pry cover off, remove screws.

- Remove sun visors and holder clips, pry off cover plate (covers screw heads) - two for visor, one for holder clip

- Remove assist grip handles, pry off cover plates (covers screw heads)

- Remove headliner - headliner should pull away from the front, three trim clips in the rear.

[gerasco]

Thank you! Hopefully I'll be able to do this without too much fuss. I'll report back when I've taken care of it.

[Milky]

i recovered mine a year or so ago. it felt like it took forever to get mine out and get it all reinstalled... but then again i did dye alot of panels black as well...

how about a few pics for the hell of it








color may appear off a bit due to the pics taken with my cell phone as usual... i need a camera.. the headliner is a semi dark red and is fake seude, i still have not done the rear deck or door panel cloth yet. just been working on other parts of the car

[fishexpo101]

^^^

Looks good! Is the fabric covering still sticking to the original headliner? You remember what adhesive you used to between the material cover and the headliner.

Haven't done this to the Corolla yet, but in the past - I've always had the headliner disintegrate over time. Even re-covering it doesn't hold up long, as the adhesive spray is fine, but the foam core starts to "powder" at the glue interface, peeling back the new fabric cover. Only way around this was to replace the foam headliner with a heavier fabric, rubber core, or paper one. Was also done on domestic muscle cars - but I can't believe that Toyota developed a quantum leap in improvements in the base materials to make a headliner.

Just curious.

[Milky]

it is still sticking, but i did have an air bubble that formed because i didnt let the glue dry long enough. over all it wasnt bad to do at all. i kinda rushed it and it was my first time reupholstering a headliner, so thanks for the comments. i like how it turned out, sans the afformentioned bubble.

the glue i used was a 3M spray adheasive i picked up at walmart. IIRC it was about 9 bucks for the can, but after searching the interwebs i found out there is an even stronger glue that is recommended for heavier fabrics for headliners and such.

heres what i used:
http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CGQQ8wIwBw#

heres what ill use if i ever redo it:
http://www.shop3m.com/3m-hi-strength...5qcbmhr92.html

the material i used i actually found in the crafts section of walmart... lol. its not bad, but i expect it to fade over time. eh oh well. but it will look bad ass for a while.

[gerasco]

I wasn't able to work on my headliner until this past week, but I wanted to report that thanks to the advice I was given for this post, I was able to install the new headliner in my Corolla.

It's not perfect... there are a few places where you can see wrinkles and there's on indentation in the center, but considering that it's my first time doing it, I'm pleased. Besides, it looks a lot better than the sagging mess that it had become.

The only bad thing is that the three trim clips that hold up the headliner in the back were so brittle that they snapped off at the heads. I'll have to buy some replacements for those and for a few clips on the side panels.

Thanks guys!