Omg the beast of a job. Removing/installing a headliner

[RobTheModd]

I've got three words for you.
Oh My God. That is a beast
I will provide a write up for removing once I get done vacuming car. Bleh.

[RobTheModd]

Ok so I forgot I have college today... So I will be writing a write up on paper while we are going over some things I already know. Then posting a very detailed one once I arrive home, with hopefully LOTS~!!!! of photos! because we all know I love photos!

This will be for the entire headliner, I will be doing the sunroof slide possibly friday eveneeing.

[wheelsup]

Awesome!

[RobTheModd]

Alright!!! To remove the headliner!

First thing your going to need these tools.

A 10mm socket!
for the oh shit bars, and possibly battery, also the sun-visors.
A T-30 driver
for the rear view mirror
A T-12 I believe....
for the dome light
A SMALL flat head screw driver
to for dome light and all handles.
You should also get someone to help you remove the headliner once it is un attached.

Depending on how you go about you might need wire snippers.

Difficulty... Well I did it so yeah maybe novice but not beginner.
It took me about 3 hours running inside and coming back. with a small break. so
Time: 2 hours.

First you need to remove all trim required.
This includes the A pillars, the pillar with the seat-belt, and the roof trim above the rear doors.
There are no tools required to remove those, just your hands.
See photo set A

A pillar, and Center pillar.JPG (41.1 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Rear door upper trim.JPG (42.39 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Next would be the handles, or oh shit bars as they are commonly called.
To remove these you will need the 10mm socket, aswell as the tiny flat head. The rear two will have a light attached, so once you remove them they will have to be unplugged. Very simple.
In order to remove the handles, you may rock them back and forth or up and down, towards the roof and floor, while pulling until they pop out.
Near the handles are little plugs that I assume cover a temp sensor. Simply use your tiny flat head and pop them out just enough to pull out all the way.
See photo set B

Oh shit bars.JPG (43.41 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Plug.JPG (28.14 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Afterwards you may try your luck on the dome light, very simple to do. Use the small flat head to remove the light bulb lenses, under there you will see two small screws, take them off with your T12. and be sure not to loose them.
To remove it once that is done simply use the small flat head to pop it down. mind the clasps if you use your fingers for this as they will hurt when they pop down... trust me I know.
See photo set C for after removal. *I require a new one thanks to braking it*. Whoops
Now that you have the dome light off, use your T30 to remove the two screws holding your rear-view mirror on. They stay within the base so no need to worry about loosing them.

Red signifies Dome light screws,
Green signifies Mirror screws.

Dome light,mirror area.JPG (49.74 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Red signifies Dome light screws,
Green signifies Mirror screws.

Next would be the dreaded sunroof trim.
TAKE IT FROM MY EXPERIENCE ON HOW TO DO THIS WITHOUT BREAKING YOURS!
This is a VERY simple thing to do... Think of it as rolling the trim.
Grasps from the middle front and roll it upwards and towards the middle of the sunroof. There are clips located every id say 6 inches. Be gentle with it, because for the 850s... VOLVO DOES NOT CARRY THEM ANY LONGER, and for the S70 trims it is a $65 piece. not sure how much from a JY. maybe $10.
See photo set D

Sun Roof Trim.JPG (83.64 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Now its time for the sun-visors. These are a bit tricky, it depends on how you want to go about it. Mine I needed to change so I simply snipped the wires.
If you want to preserve your wires, your going to need to take your time. But it might just be simpler to snip your wires and re attach them once your ready.
Anyways, there are two 10 mm holding it on. Once you remove those it will fall down, caught by the holder on the opposite side. Simply pop that out, its easy to push towards the window while pulling down, you will see why when it comes out.

Sun visor.JPG (43.51 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

After all that is done your roof should be sagging a bit. Which is good.
or if your headliner is as bad as mine, the cloth should be falling like crazy and there should be lots of red dust.



Now the last bit to do would be the apparent EVIL clips at the back. These are actually VERY easy to remove. Simply turn them and your good to go. They come right out.

Rear Clip.JPG (113.06 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

Now that you have removed all the trimmings associated with the roof, your headliner should fall down in the front, but not the back because we never removed the rear pillar. Just pull it forwards about 3 inches and it slides out of that gap. so really no need to remove it.
Hopefully you have removed your seats for this. If not and you choose to do it my way... YOU will need two people.
One to put the car in the L position, and apply the break, you can try the e brake but that's a bit interesting of a maneuver to try and i would avoid it.

If you have no seats in your car now it should be a very easy twist and turn and out the front passenger door.
but if you left them in..
Move the seats as far back as possible, and as low as possible.
shift into low gear, and take your time to get it out the front pass door.
I recommend two people do this so that you have two sets of eyes, and two sets of hands. makes it ALOT easier.


This concludes how to remove the headliner. If you need anything clarified just ask.

I will be posting a how to install within this same thread.
I believe there is a how to for the wagon, and they went over how to attach the fabric to the board. I will try to attach it unless someone else can find it tonight.

Your roof should look something like this once you are done...
Mind yourself that I reinstalled some parts so that I could use it. Like the mirror, sun-visors, and the handles.

IMG_6017.JPG (117.44 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

IMG_6014.JPG (88.41 KiB) Viewed 28071 times

HAHA... Btw. yes I have CDs.. but I have no cd player. Sooo yeah.

[matthew1]

Wow, it's a monster. Thanks Rob.

Would you mind putting the headliner install post into a new topic?

[RobTheModd]

Yeah Id be happy to.

I'm actually about to do the cleaning on the old headliner board.
Not much of a write up there. I mean scape the old stuff off and your done. lol.

[polskamafia mjl]

With the headliner off, it's a good time to clean/replace the temp sensors behind the grab handles. A majority of malfunctioning ECC's is caused by that.

[RobTheModd]

Cool, looks like I'm going to be headliner less for a few moredays.
Florida is becoming mean. Excessive wind and possiblyle rain today is making it a bad idea for setting the new material onto the board.
So looks like I will be checking into my sensors and giving the interior a nice cleaning aswell as going over for anything needing fixed.
Anyone have any input on checking sensors?

[jblackburn]

Psh, rain...I miss rain...I just drove 30 miles in 5 inches of snow on the roads

But yes, it would be much better to set a headliner with slightly warmer, dry weather.

MOST of the time, the sensors are just fine and the little fans inside get clogged. You can either replace them with new (or used) ones for peace of mind, or just keep them in there, give them a good cleaning and reinstall your headliner. If you don't have flashing ECC lights, and you can actually see the little fans spinning inside with the car running, you're probably in good shape.

[RobTheModd]

Ive got the flashers of doom, they come and go.
Im sure my sensors work because the auto feature still switches between feet and upper depending on the temp of them.

ie if the top is warmer it goes to the top to cool it.

Haha this morning was windy, id say about 20 mph hard with higher gusts.
And now its been raining since about 1.