got a droopy headliner? Tips to fix it.

[Big-Bird]

The headliner in a 16+ year old vehicle probaly shows some age and may even been a bit droopy in places.

Taking a headliner out of the L400 can be a challenge as the hardboard liner itself is made of pressed wood and cotton thread fibers. Its shape is done with a water soluble glue so getting it wet will only make the glue/color stain your light colored liner. Use only cloths dampened with a cleaning agent like Spray 9 or Mr. Clean and Water as this will remove most of the dust/marks left behind from years of age/abuse. For any oily stains you can use brake-cleaner spray but use in a well ventilated area the fumes are quite toxic and will irritate eyes, nose, throat areas.

If you need to remove your liner it requires patience and a few special tools so damage is minimized. There are lots of screws, metal and plastic clips, rubber trim, seatbelt bolts and grommets that serve to secure your headliner into place. The more stuff in your ceiling the harder its gonna be to pull it out with out breaking it. Supporting the panel during the removal is the most important step and brooms are very helpful in this area.

Body Panel Plyers are your best friend to gently release the plastic bits with little to no damage, this will ensure most of the clips get reused but there will be some damage as time does cause some plastics to become brittle, even the ones that never see sunlight can get brittle from heat/cold exposure.

BP Plyers.jpg (12.98 KiB) Viewed 1193 times

The Delicas are loaded with this style of body pin, but the 'wings' are a little shorter. They are released by pushing the center plug in slightly which allows the 'wings' to collapse and the pin assembly to be pulled by hand. To reinstall the center plug needs to be pushed backwards to so it sticks out past the flange. Once inserted into the spot it belongs push the center pin so that its flush again. Expect a wing or 2 to break...brittle bits! Mitsu dealers charge $4-5 per unit but you can usally find these in Eagle Talons, Plymouth Lasers, Dodge Colts (rebadged Mitsu's!) at your local wreckers. These cars each have several dozen of this plug and they range from grey, black to tan and sometimes red.Mostof the Delica's body clips can be found in the Chyrsler/Dodge Mitsu clones.

mitsu body pins.jpg (4.04 KiB) Viewed 1193 times

Oil caps from the Mitsu 2.6L gas engine will fit both the 2.5 and 2.8 diesel engines. And I am reasonably sure the air filter box assembly from the Plymouth Voyager with the 2.6L can be adatped to fit the Delica...HELLO CHEAPER AIR FILTER!!!!

Parts of the L400's headliner relies on metal strips with metal clips and sometime the glue that hold the plate to the headliner will release. I have tried hot glue (didn't last a week), epoxy resins, silicones, PL400...all were either messy or took too long to dry. The Gorilla Brand glue in this bottle has been an awesome product and has even fixed some plastic parts on my dash which were impossible to replace.
Great product, tough as nails and easy to work with. Dries in under an hour, cleans up when wet with a little brake-clean and when dry, it can be sanded like bondo.

imagesCAZ339EJ.jpg (5.43 KiB) Viewed 1191 times

So what tricks have you got for interior maintenance and upkeep?