JDub 911

Anyone done this job? It doesn't look as easy as I thought it would be. My old one is in horrible shape. Any tips would be appreciated.

Jeremy

JackOlsen

It's not impossible, but it's not easy. Both the front and rear glass have to come out. Get those little snap clips from an office supplies store that hold a stack of paper together. There's a tutorial in Wayne Dempsey's '101 Projects for Your 911' book.

500

I had intended to replace my headliner on my own, as I have done everything else on my own with my other Porsche, but this time I elected to have paint work done at a shop, as I can no longer paint in the new house. For this reason, I had the shop do the headliner at the same time (since the glass was coming out anyway). Although I can’t offer a lot of detail advice, one area to watch for is at the most-rearward portion of the headliner. Some of the earlier cars have some sort of sheet metal tabs (pointed) that are used to anchor the material.

On my car (’85), there was a bar with eyelets stitched into the area. The headliner I had was not OEM and did not have this bar or any provision for adding it. We had an upholstery shop guy stitch the original bars into the new headliner. The result was worth the trouble, as it ended up with no wrinkling in the corner. I have seen pictures of other installs where is looks like the fabric was just pulled tight and glued in this area. Not bad looking, but not quite as “perfect” as stock to my eye.

My original headliner was white. It looked a little crappy when in the car, but when it came out, it looked positively horrible. It was replaced it with black, and we also re-did the pillars in black vinyl.

ron mcatee

The rear quarter windows need to be removed also.

1303RS

If you are going to do this yourself, here is what you need. Your going to need a great glue to hold the headliner in place. The best glue comes from an upholstery shop. If you have a shop near you, take a jar with lid, mayo size and ask to buy a bit of glue. you can brush the glue on or if you have a spray gun, you can use it. Paint the glue on the body of the car at the windows and where it will attach at the posts and between the rear window ad side glass. Paint the headliner at the edges where it will attach to the body. This is contact glue, let it set so that it is tacky to the touch, is ready to install. If you dont get enough glue in places to hold you can add it as you work. Start in the front center to hold up the headliner then move to the rear center and tack there. Once headliner is centered in the car, work center to sides, then center to front and back on the driver and pass sides. At the doors are the metal strips that held the headliner in place wrap the headliner around these, place glue on the inside of these also. Pull the headliner snug. When it is done if there are wrinkles you can use a heat gun or a hot hair dryer to heat the wrinkles out. If you use a heat gun be careful not to get the headliner too hot it will melt. IF you do not have an upholstery shop that will sell you glue, goto home depot or lowes and buy contact glue from them. DO NOT use 3M glue or the like out of a spray can. This glue WILL NOT work. Most shops will probable give you a bit. Just take your time and you will be fine. Let me know if you have other questions.

Scott Dunavant

I used 3MM black adhesive glue in the late 90's. One of my cars came back to me after sitting outside for 20 years. The glue worked perfect. I'm using that glue on the car again today.