Re: [xj-s] Headliner sag

[MGMagnette@aol.com]

The only true known fix is to just rip the shit out. 
   Jaguar XJ-S have what has to be the WORST headliner ever designed, second
possibly to 80's GM cars.  It is basically yellow house insulation pressed
into a nice smooth shape with some fabric glued to it.  If you've ever put in
house insulation you know that if you try to hold it in place with duct tape
you are going to soon get  very cross... the fiberglass fibers quickly cover
the sticky part of the tape and the tape falls off.  This is the same thing
that is happening to your car.  The fiberglass is seperating, the glue is NOT
failing.  If  you attempted to re-glue the headliner on two things will
happen:
  1) upon removing the fiberglass headliner board you will snap it in two
making it un-usable and will quickly find out that you cannot get a
replacement ANYWHERE.
  2) And glue job you do will last about a week, no matter what 3-M says on
the spray can.

For $275, I went to Barnes and Dunbar, two ex-Rolls-Royce trimmers, who spent
a good long time making me a new headliner, and ditching the fiberglass
batting.  They encountered two real problems:
  1) there is a gap between the roof and the "cant rails" that run over the
windows.  They had to glue in cardboard and then sand the edges smooth.
  2) There is no way to install the dome light.  They were able to fabricate
something out of  wood and came out pretty good looking and ALOT sturdier than
the Jag version.
     They also I guess thought the arch of the rear window was a bit tricky
but they got it all done in one morning so it couldn't have been that hard.

   After the gap was bridged, they covered the whole thing with this thin
white sound deadening foam, sanded that so the glue will stick (roughed it up)
and then glued to that some sort of fabric/foam used under landau roofs, and
then on top of that they glued the actual headliner material.

   If you are anywhere near Manchester NH, I would 100% reccommend these two
guys, they know what they are doing, they aren't that expensive, and going to
see Derek Dunbar is worth the trip alone (he's black but has a British
accent... well I got a kick out it!)  Reminds me of another Brit I got in my
line at the grocery store.  He looked like Mr. Bean, sounded like Micheal
Caine... very strange.

John

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