I've heard of people reinforcing the stock headliners with fiberglass resin and possibly fiberglass sheets. I am new to any kind of fiberglassing so can anyone recommend a certain type of resin or type of fiberglass sheet I should be using?

Also, to smooth the resin before applying the headliner people use a die grinder to dress the bumps. What kind of wheel is used on the die grinder?

Any help is appreciated and I plan on making a thread on the recovery.

Thanks!

Matthew

Attached are pics of the headliner I found at the yard...

I used the Bondo brand fiberglass kit for mine. Got it at my local autozone. I just used the cloth and resin in the damaged areas only on both sides. No smoothing needed if you do a neat job with the resin. The headliner material has a foam backing that will hide minor imperfections.

I just used resin and glass fomr the local auto store.
Apply resin to board, lay on glass, work more resin into the glass?board. Let it set.
If you reinforce the side nearest the roof (outside), the inside will still be smooth.
If you do both sides or the inside, for any smoothing I just used a flap wheel on an angle grinder. 'Light' pressure is the watchword!

Get fabric from Jo-Ann's fabric shop. Use 'proper' 3m adhesive for the job. Anything less will let go as soon as the inside of the car gets hot.

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Anything I might say is probably worth what you paid for it, so treat it accordingly!

Dave

www.ltlfrari.com

I don't have any pictures but I reinforced the back side of the headliner with polyester resin and fiberglass. I reinforced the sides along the sun roof opening, around the sun roof latch and both sides of the light opening. I propped up the headliner so it was in the correct position. I painted the resin on the back side of the head liner. Cut strips of appropriate sizes of fiberglass mat/mesh. I soaked the mat in resin on pieces of wax paper and transferred them to the headliner (Using wooden sticks) and then applied more resin. I smoothed and worked the bubbles out. I let it set overnight then cleaned it up a little.

I got the fiberglass kit at Walmart.

For the headliner, I practiced applying the glue and headliner material on scrap hardboard until I determined what glue and how much to use. Too much glue and pressure and it will dimple the fabric. I used 3M Super 77. I bought Loctite Headliner and carpet adhesive but it was to heavy and dimpled the fabric each time I tried it. For the actual install I use two people. I am happy with the way it turned out.

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quote Originally posted by seajai: I used the Bondo brand fiberglass kit for mine. Got it at my local autozone. I just used the cloth and resin in the damaged areas only on both sides. No smoothing needed if you do a neat job with the resin. The headliner material has a foam backing that will hide minor imperfections.

I used the same stuff. Actually, I had to do my headliner twice, because the first one I did I assumed the headliner fabric would cover almost any kinds of imperfections. I was wrong. But actually that first one was a really rough board; I probably should have just tossed it.

Next one I did I was careful to sand the edges of my fiberglass patches and check everywhere for bumps and blobs. MUCH better!