Defender headlining replacement

Shelley spent Friday recovering the headlining that was still attached to the cab when we picked it up.

We had watched a couple of videos but dealing with the contact adhesive and all the curves was harder than it looked. The finished result however looks very good.

We fitted it to Fender today.

The headlining, like the cab was in a poor way when we got it. We didn't expect to re-use it, the main roof piece had the centre of the fabric cut out and several of the other bits had bends and breaks. It was all a bit damp.

A wipe over with something to get rid of the mould and a few days in doors to dry and it looked a bit more acceptable.  I ordered some foam backed fabric and 20 black trim clips from Segal Motor Trimmings and some spray adhesive from Amazon. the whole lot to do the job cost less than £50. I ordered the fabric late on Tuesday afternoon and it arrived on Thursday.

The fabric is:
ID: HL 365
Desc: 63" Black Woven Nylon Foam Backed Headlining
2m was just enough.

I got the spray adhesive from Amazon. Shelley used just over one can.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E98FVTY/

To get the shape of the fabric, for the smaller bits where they still had a covering on, Shelley pulled the original fabric off and used that as a pattern for the new material.

It was fairly easy to refit in to the car. It did have to be done in the right order so that they overlapped correctly.

Finding the screw holes through the fabric for the sun visors was a bit tricky but a bradawl helped.

The metal retaining strip over the back window had been held on by self taping screws driven though to the outside of the cab. I filled those holes with sealant from the outside. There were some pre-existing holes that lined up with the holes in the metal strip so I assumed they were intended for holding that on. I found some more suitable screws for use with those holes that did not penetrate the outer frame.

Again the bradawl helped find the holes. Once the first screw was in the other holes lined up easily.

The mirror is a pain to get back in. The top clip is sprung, but it is very strong. I found that if I hooked in the top first then grabbed the stem tightly, pushed upwards, with quite a bit of effort the bottom snapped in.

The alarm sensor just clips in and the light is fairly easy to attach.

The end result is very nice.