740 estate Headlining

[BillSan330]

Hello can any recommended a trimmer that can put in a new head lining for my 740 estate....the cardboard backing is ok but the cloth has gone..I live in Ickenham Middlesex.
Would prefer if it can be done on my drive as the car is on sorn...any suggestions please

Thanks Bill

[bob12]

Your best bet is to get a good one from a 940 that is being scrapped like I did.

It is not difficult to remove the old backboard just time consuming removing all the trim around the edge and whacking the holding plastic strip across the windscreen forward to release the front. The most difficult part is what you would think is the the most simplest .... the removal of the cover over the rear view mirror - it's held on with two little plastic clips that are difficult to release.

As said, I put in one from a '94 940 Celebration. The only difference I found was the front two plastic turn clips in the roof were in a different position. I made up a couple of new brackets and superglued them to the metal of the roof before installing (that was a bit fiddly).

There are plenty of threads on here if you search or Goggle. (People will get fed up with seeing the attached pic!).

[Laird Scooby]

Have to say, i agree with Bob - get one from a later car, it's much easier!

Also until you actually remove the old one you won't know what state the "biscuit" is in :



That was mine when it came out and looks better in that pic than the 3-4 main large pieces it was actually in in that pic!

It disintegrated like a Digestive that's been dunked for 20 minutes!

Also it's probably cheaper to get a later one than the materials alone for retrimming your existing one so then it's a simple (ish) matter of dropping the old and clipping up the new.

[classicswede]

I have just pulled out a non sunroof late model roof liner in good shape.

It is looking for a new loving home

[BillSan330]

Not meant to a silly question but I will ask it anyway...Do I have to take the board out to re-trim....If I could find someone to re trim it do they take the board out.There seems to be nothing wrong from the board but all the cloth has gone....

What then is the correct procedure to re trim the headlining

Thanks

Bill

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by BillSan330

Not meant to a silly question but I will ask it anyway...Do I have to take the board out to re-trim....If I could find someone to re trim it do they take the board out.There seems to be nothing wrong from the board but all the cloth has gone....

What then is the correct procedure to re trim the headlining

Thanks

Bill

Well it's like this Bill - you see the remains of my headlining above? Mine looked intact apart from the material falling off because the foam liner had disintegrated. When it came out (carefully i may add, although i had the 960 headliner to fit, i did have plans to recover the original in a much lighter grey), i discovered just how bad it was.

I daresay a half-decent trimmer could do it in-situ but by the same argument, a half-decent trimmer will want to remove it to do it properly.

That's why i and others have suggested getting a headliner from a later model to start with, that way if the old one is more like a jigsaw puzzle than a board you can still have a better headliner fitted in its place.

Also it will save a lot on labour for the old one to be retrimmed. If i'd still been fit and able, it would only have taken me about 10-15 minutes to get the old one down, as it was it still only took about 20-25 minutes and a little longer to fit the replacement.
That made it about an hour of my time, a trimmer who is doing it day in, day out should be able to better that.

Something it has taken me a while to work out is the later seal. It has two lips, one to go on the original metal roof lining (the original headlining had an overlap that was glued onto the inside of this and the other lip to go onto the new headliner.

I couldn't work out why the new seal wouldn't reach the edge of the new headliner. Turns out the lip on the metal lining is angled upwards so needs "flattening" down. I am planning on using an adjustable spanner, moving jaw in the lower position, jaws just wide enough to fit over the lip then pull the handle down then slide it along and repeat until the lip is straight with the metal lining and the seal will go on square to the roof rather than at an angle.

I'll try to get some pics when i do that bit to mine to explain it a bit better. It should also give some extra clearance to remove the sunroof panel trim which will need trimming separately. Instructions (albeit not very good/clear) are in the Haynes Workshop Manual for removing that panel.

[bob12]

You will find a useful guide here on the IPD, USA website at : https://www.ipdusa.com/files/product/335/PI-240

A point that may not be clear is that the 700 Series headliners fail in this way (the Bedouin tent effect) due to the materials used in manufacture. This was remedied by Volvo with the 900 Series headliners.

[bob12]

Dave & Bill - when I was considering the replacement of my headliner I thought of having it re-trimmed. I got local quotes in the region of £400.

I also bought some fairly respectable headliner material and special glue. Eventually considering my options I bought a first class replacement from a 900 Series (estate without metal sliding roof) for £25!

I took the old board out and drove to the guy I was buying it from and removed the headliner from the 900 and loosely fixed the headliner in my car sufficient enough to drive home.

Dave - the problems with the seal you are talking about is, I assume, that for a car with a sliding roof? At least I didn't have that problem.

The material I bought is still available free to anyone who wants to collect it. It is a form of vinyl with cloth backing.

Bob

[BillSan330]

Hi Guys....well i got the headlining out it fell to bits......So what do I do now... people on hear say I should find a 940 estate and get the lining from that...can someone confirm that a 940 lining will fit onto my 740...its non sunroof....any one breaking a 940 ???? that can help me...Thanks.

[Laird Scooby]

Bill - all the answers to those questions are contained within this thread including the offer of a late model non-sunroof headliner in post #4.

How you get it from Anglesey to Uxbridge is another matter though.............