Headliner - Removal/Install Notes

[Derek A.]

1. Its much easier to remove from the car if one of the front seats is removed.
2. The sunroof panel should be removed/installed with the vent option open. If you follow the instructions on the e34 headliner website deal - its much more difficult. Make sure to order a couple of the clips that go at the front end of the panel from BMW - chances are you are going to break them.
3. To remove the headliner at the rear (see pics) slide it one direction and it will drop out of the rear clips. When its time to remove the clips - use a set of wide mouth cutters - they will allow you to grab the whole thing at once and not snap the plastic. In retrospect I probably would have ordered clips for the rear as well in case something broke.
4. Its doable with one person - but having another set of hands makes a big difference.
5. Order some of the a pillar clips, sunroof clips and a couple of the oh-**** handle plastic cover's it will save you many trips to the dealer.
6. If you are doing a light colored interior - be prepared to wash your hand a lot. I did and got one smudge on the sunroof panel.
7. Its a bitch of a job.

[Kalevera]

Derek -- on the headliner smudges -- try a can of Cyclo's Max Clean. The stuff is excellent on anything covered in mouse fuzz; lifts the dirt right out, doesn't even need to be scrubbed to look like new.

The three black clips should be installed in the headliner board before sticking it in the car -- the pictures implicate that they were fitted to the board with them snapped to the roof, which I think would be impossible.

best, whit

[Derek A.]

When you remove the headliner they stay in the car - You have to pop them out, slide them in the headliner and them pop the whole thing back in. I agree I thinks its pretty impossible to leave them attached to the car and try and get them to re-slide into the headliner

[Ted K]

When you redid the sunroof pannel did you have the three seams redone or just make it one solid pice?

[Ted K]

Have any part numbers for the clips needed? Where did you get the linner material?

[Derek A.]

Its one solid piece. The sitching is attached to two vinyl pieces that are glued to the supports that span the whole piece.

[632 Regal]

good post Derek! Glad its finally *almost* done.

[mattyb]

bloody brilliant. my liners ok but the bastard is driving me mad with this rattling noise. i had it worked to the liner at the rear but wasnt flush enough to rip it up just yet to have a look. i bet its those clips that are loose, where else do they occur on the liner and do you reckon that can be replaced without removing the liner completely? does yours now fit in perfect without any noise when going over bumps etc? well done anyways.

[uscharalph]

1. Its much easier to remove from the car if one of the front seats is removed.
2. The sunroof panel should be removed/installed with the vent option open. If you follow the instructions on the e34 headliner website deal - its much more difficult. Make sure to order a couple of the clips that go at the front end of the panel from BMW - chances are you are going to break them.
3. To remove the headliner at the rear (see pics) slide it one direction and it will drop out of the rear clips. When its time to remove the clips - use a set of wide mouth cutters - they will allow you to grab the whole thing at once and not snap the plastic. In retrospect I probably would have ordered clips for the rear as well in case something broke.
4. Its doable with one person - but having another set of hands makes a big difference.
5. Order some of the a pillar clips, sunroof clips and a couple of the oh-**** handle plastic cover's it will save you many trips to the dealer.
6. If you are doing a light colored interior - be prepared to wash your hand a lot. I did and got one smudge on the sunroof panel.
7. Its a bitch of a job.

Nice thread! Right now I can live with the couple of small places where my headliner sags, but who knows down the road?

[Derek A.]

1. Those clips are only at the rear. When I pulled the headliner out - there were some foam strips postioned throughout the piece - probably to helo quiet down any movement. Those clips are real hard to do with the headliner in place. Its really not a super huge deal to drop it down. As a matter of fact it only took about 35-40 minutes to drop it. It was all the other stuff that took hours.

2. Once you have a small bubble - and the wind hits it - the glue pulls away. what is today a minor irriataion - tomorrow is a major sag.