In getting my Fiero ready for the show in Carlisle this weeekend, I did a badly needed headliner replacement job on my 87GT. As before, the job took five hours to do. A good job can be done by anyone with average automotive skills. You need a few torx head drivers to remove a few screws, but other than that, standard tools are all that are required. The headliner material is available at Pep Boys. Most local auto stores can order a small roll for you. It's about $25.00 for a roll. I used a medium gray color which matched the old Fiero headliner exactly.
You will also need two cans of 3M SUPER trim adhesive. Don't use the standard stuff as it won't hold up.
For those who want to do this job, a rough outline of the steps is as follows:
1 Remove both sunvisors
2. Remove the interior light assembly (gently pry out the lens with a small screwdriver to expose the four torx screws).
3. Remove the rear view mirror.
4. Remove the two coat hooks
5. Remove the center stop light cover and then the stop light itself.
6. Remove both seat belt bolts (#50 torx)
7. Remove the long phillips head screws on the door jamb that hold the interior side panels.
8 Pull the fronts of the interior side panels away. , The clip that holds the panel front is very hard to pry loose without breaking it. I usually break the clip and just use a bit of two sided tape where this on fastener is when I put it back] After removing this clip pull the sides away about 5 ".
9. Remove the rubber strip around the sun roof that holds the headliner to the shape of the glass panel. ( if you have this feature)
10. Remove the window trim panels. Be careful as to not break the mounting tabs at the top. You can usually pry the trim down and away using a screwdriver wrapped in tape. The trim over the window must come directly down. Now pull away the panel where it goes down by the dash and try to get a small screwdriver on the locking tabs of the two fasteners there. Depress the tabs and pull the trim piece away.
11 GENTLY remove the old headliner as it is brittle and may break. Be especially careful with those headliners used on cars with the sun roof.
Now the fun begins. Carefully pull away the old headliner material. It usually comes off leaving the foam backing behind. This foam backing must be TOTALLY removed before gluing on new headliner material. I remove it with a soft wire brush and a shop vac. You need lots of "elbow grease" here. When the headliner is clean I wipe it with a rag dampened with lacquer thinner (to remove all residual traces of the old adhesive) and let it dry for a few minutes.
The rest of the process involves spraying the glue on 1/2 the headliner and on 1/2 the headliner material, ( watch out where you are spraying or you can ruin the new fabric) then waiting about 5 minutes before laying down 1/2 of the headliner material and smoothing it out with the palm of your CLEANED hands. After this is done the other 1/2 is done in the same way and finally the material is cut at the corners and glued around the top edges. I usually glue about 3" all around the top of the headliner. Installation is the reverse of the above. Allow about 5-6 hours. If you can do it faster, you are skilled at getting the old rotten foam and crud off.
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87GT 3.4 Turbo Best 0-60 5.2 seconds
http://www.turbochargerpower.com/turbo.htm
