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Early w124 Headliner on Later w124??

3K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  apr34 
#1 ·
I recently attempted re gluing my headlining only to have it fall back down a couple months later. My question is whether I can install a headlining I found in a 1987 300D at a junkyard into my 1991 300E. I am not sure if the bows are compatible in the newer models with the bonded headliner.

Any help is much appreciated, Thanks
 
#3 ·
I took a look at an early headliner on a junkyard car a week or two ago. I took off the header panel (the part of the headliner forward of the sunroof) and could see a bit more of what's up. There was some vinyl not attached to the headliner bows at all, which was attached to the roof of the actual body of the car. Maybe that's something that someone did to keep the headliner up, but it looked like it belonged there. I figure that there probably isn't such a place for a fastener on a later car.

I'd be thrilled to find out I'm wrong. Seems like it's a lot easier to find decent early headliners than it is to find decent late ones - I've actually *never* seen a late headliner that wasn't sagging.
 
#5 ·
I've actually *never* seen a late headliner that wasn't sagging.
That's one of the reasons i'd like to install one of the earlier style stretched head liners because I don't really want to spend the 300 whatever dollars for a new one just to have it fall down again, plus I can get a headliner at the local pull a part for less than $15 but all of the bonded style ones are sagging (probably due to the southern heat)
 
#4 ·
Well I used some stuff I got at my local Orielly's that was supposed to be head liner glue but it didn't really hold up at all even after thoroughly cleaning all of the foam filler off.

Near some of the edges I used some rubber contact cement and it seems to have held up quite a bit better because after about 3 months it is still holding up most of the head liner from the edges.

I think if you were to buy one of those large cans of contact cement and brush it on both surfaces, allowing it to become tacky then carefully sticking the head liner to the backing it would probably hold up a lot better than the upholstery glue.

I successfully used some of the contact cement to glue the b-pillar upholstery back together, if I were to try re gluing the head liner again I would probably go the way of contact cement just from my personal experience.
 
#7 ·
UPDATE- Figured it out

I was finally able to pull a good early style head liner and all associated clips/fasteners off a junkyard car just to give it a try. I then proceeded to drop the bonded style headliner on my '95 and much to my surprise I found that all of the holes in the bodywork for the clips and roof bows were still there! The only issues I found were on the back window, the later models don't leave a space in the channel around the window to slide the headliner into so I just ended up gluing the very back edge with some contact cement. Also the rear dome light appears to be different on the later models.

But finally no more sagging headliner :) hopefully this one will last the life of the car.
 
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