Has anyone painted a headliner?

[oneblueyedog]

I'm thinking of painting mine the original cream color. Anyone paint one that light in tone? I saw black repaint on the 911 bbs, looked nice.

[3.2 CAB]

I have not done a 911 headliner, but the last headliner that I dyed, was a 12 passenger Ford-E-350. Most paint shops have the paint codes to mix up the interior dye to do everything from the dashboards, door panels, trim pieces, and the headliners. It is a special coating, that is used just for interior parts. They should have a code book that you can get them to mix up the exact color, or factory color to match almost exactly. Plus they also have different types of this interior dye, depending on if it is used for the hard plastics, flexible vinyls and PVC, and the headliner products. Most major paint shops should have this, and each of the different types on materials have different types of prep instructions and different solvents or thinners to be used in the prep-work. Good luck!! Tony.

[oneblueyedog]

Thanks Tony,
When I do it, I'll document it in pics then post it. If it turns out well.
Best, Lee

[TennSCMan]

Yes, I just dyed my cream original headliner on My 78' Silver 911SC. It only had some staining around the edges in back, so all I had to do was blend it in. If you didn't know it you would think it was a new headliner.

I use Color-Plus Surflex. They have the exact matching color for the headliner. I have also used their other colors for the black leather seats. They even have an exact color match for the textured gas tank. The product is water based and easy to use. You can apply it with a sponge brush and it looks great.

I also restored the original sunvisors with new foam and dyed them back to cream and black. I like the vintage look of the cream colored headliner.

http://www.colorplus.com

[oneblueyedog]

Dynamite TennSCMan! Love to see pic if you have them. All I have is edge staining too.

Thanks for the link!

[NY65912]

I've used vinyl paint on many a VW Beetle headliner and they really turned out well.

Sorry no pics. It is definitley worth a shot. I used white hich turned out to be off white when it dried.

[oneblueyedog]

Just ordered some Color+. Will take pictures of the before and after. Had to remove rear window, so I thought it was a good time to go after the headliner.

[oneblueyedog]

I've just finished the painting of the headliner. I'll post pictures soon. The process is simple and very cost effective if your headliner is intact, but just stained from the rubber, etc.

Since I had removed my window for a water leak. I had an easy time of getting to the back corners on my coupe. I think that the job would be much more difficult with the window in.

I removed the seats, visors, coat hooks, left the lights hanging out and back shelf and the 2 back screws to the side trim under the side windows to get all of the vinyl coated.

I wiped the headliner clean with diluted degreaser and then the recommended laquer
thinner before coating.

It takes a lot of hand painting. The Color+ paint is water based so if you hit a piece of rubber or upholstery it wipes off with water.

Being water based, it's like house painting. That is the technique I used. You cut in with a large artists brush and a shield (I used a bondo spreader) jammed between the rubber and headliner material all around the seals and weatherstripping.

Then you get a small fine finish foam roller (like you use for the Mopar roller painting method) and roll the big areas, one bay at a time, let dry then apply 2 more coats.

The Color+ dries pretty fast to touch, about an hour or less at 75 degrees. It is the right consistency for FF rolling as it did not load the holes of the material and clog them, except where Dieter applied too much glue at the factory around one of the vanity lights. I took a T pin to open the holes back up.

The outcome– Superb. The headliner is the nice linen color as it came from the factory. The match was spot on since it was spectrum matched.

When roller painting it, on the curves near the vanity lights, roll logically from top sill to roof. For the bay spans, roll from back window to front window one span at a time. Go slow and gently as not to spatter. Don't do it in one coat. If you see holes clogging, roll gently over them until you open them back up.

If you find a spatter somewhere it can be removed with water if wet, or laquer thinner if dry.

Now to the back window installation.

Here's Color+ again
Color-Plus : Interior Leather Care, Coloring, Repair and Restoration for the Auto Enthusiast.

[MrPerkles]

I used dylon shoe dye on mine and it came out like brand new

[oneblueyedog]

Here are the pics. 2 column read sequence.
Note the vinyl swatch match and stains. That's the swatch they used for the spectrometer.

And the seal shot, here's what you get when you don't get OEM. No way the trim is going to straighten out that corner. Pro install this week.
I'll post a final shot after the window install.

Special thanks to my son Graham for the cutting in shot.

[oneblueyedog]

Here are some after shots.