Headlining

[Finner]

This is the adhesive that i used to bond it in and 2 months later it still holds very well.
I did not add foam under the headliner material and yes, it does not have this soft feeling when you touch it but i like it anyways.

[Finner]

The wire brush looks like a good approach. How long did it take with that?

about 30-45 mins to do it thoroughly. That stuff gets everywhere though. be aware of that and don't do it in bedroom as I did, but i didn't have any choice at that moment and really wanted to do it asap. I also used a portable drill with wire brush attachments for the bends and corners, makes it much faster, but have to be very very delicate and careful as you can go through the cardboard in a few seconds!

[Nj]

ha! What a great mental picture! Wire brush on an electrical drill... 45 mins of total focus.. then you finish and sit back with the feeling of a job well done.. and look about.. to see the whole bedroom covered in tiny bits of orange cr4p!

[psiconauta911]

I did it in both my cars some years ago, first the CQ20V with Alcantara, that was a lot of work since the card board isn´t smooth and it´s very dificult to clean properly, then the Avant, much easier since the card board is completly flat so easier to clean, did this one with a similar material to the original with foam on the back, much easier to as the Alcantara is very rigid in comparasion.

Was advised by a trimmer to use contact glue for high temperatures instead of spray because the spray won´t hold for long in hot climates, maybe over there it´s fine, my cars needed doing much earlier than yours!

[Finner]

its not too much fun when you have to clean it out . I did not enjoy the parts where i had to take the headliner out and scrub the horrible orange stuff off, but once you are passed that, it starts to get fun. Also my car had the original black headliner and still has black trim on the pillars. Those pieces are very rear as I have been told. Is that right?

[Nj]

yeah black headliner and plastic are quite rare I think. I only saw them as optional extras in a couple of V6 coupes I broke years ago. I'm not sure how common they are on the S2 coupes. Most I've seen have been grey.

psiconauta911 - the high temp glue might be a good idea. My car needs to deal with +35 to -40 here, which might be why my headlining dropped the first year the car came to live in Finland

[psiconauta911]

Mines been fine for 10 years now but haven´t done any with the spray to compare and hope I don´t have to do another soon because is a pita of a job!

I have a 90 20VQ now and is begining to sag but I´m not realy in the mood to do another soon so I stapeled it to keep it there for a few more years, hehehe!

[veneto rs2]

its not too much fun when you have to clean it out . I did not enjoy the parts where i had to take the headliner out and scrub the horrible orange stuff off, but once you are passed that, it starts to get fun. Also my car had the original black headliner and still has black trim on the pillars. Those pieces are very rear as I have been told. Is that right?

The reason of all our sagging headlinings resides on the water based glue that was beginning to be used in the 90s, it was not up to the task in the long run, as we all know by now

The best way to get rid of the orange agent which's foam and water based glue it's.... water.

I deed washed my headlining (avant) with very good result, when the staff gets spraied with water it gets soft/jelly and easy to get off with a laundry brush you can also clean and wash the brush easily.

Of course the process as to be carry out wisely, get your headining standing against a wall and spray it with water with a garden water gun on the "rain" position then get on a flat surface brush it, repeat several times and it gets perfectly clean.

Door panels that are made completely in plastic it's even better you can wash and brush plenty!

[vonbeck]

is the base pattern a thick cardboard or is it hardboard? and how hard would it be to make a new one?

[eJaYr]

None of the above, something in between, I would recommend to handle it gently

[Finner]

None of the above, something in between, I would recommend to handle it gently

Definitely, especially removing it from the roof skin. I took a plank of wood, sharpened it and used it as a push tool to stick in between the headliner and the roof. Pushing it further and further while going side to side with this tool helped a lot by separating the glue and if it wasn't for this tool, i would have ripped the headliner.

[Nj]

I think I've used a big paint/tile scraper before. erm...
like this kind of thing. It was years ago though. There's a big black sticky pad that sticks the centre of the headliner board to the metal roof right? And if I'm not dreaming that... what are you using to stick it back up again?
It's kind of a thin, compressed fibre board if I remember right. A lot tougher than cardboard but still easy to snap if you were to grab it by one edge and try to pull the whole thing down.

[Nj]

how hard would it be to make a new one?

A friggin nightmare I think. Because it's moulded to a specific shape. It would be great if someone made plastic or fibreglass replicas.

[Finner]

I think I've used a big paint/tile scraper before. erm...
like this kind of thing. It was years ago though. There's a big black sticky pad that sticks the centre of the headliner board to the metal roof right? And if I'm not dreaming that... what are you using to stick it back up again?
It's kind of a thin, compressed fibre board if I remember right. A lot tougher than cardboard but still easy to snap if you were to grab it by one edge and try to pull the whole thing down.

Yes, essentially i made this sort of tool out of wood.
Yes, it is stuck with big square sticky pad.
I used expensive but very strong 3M double sided tape.

[psiconauta911]

Audi recomends windshield glue/sealent to reinstal the roof, that is what I used!