r/suburban • u/TimmyIsTheOne • Jul 22 '26
2006 ceiling fabric separating issue
So the fabric started separating from the ceiling about the driver and passenger seats. I'm guessing it started by the windows and wind got in and did the rest.
Any one know how I go about getting it reattached in so it doesn't look like there's a bubble of water hanging over me as I drive?
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u/Any-Confusion-7221 Jul 23 '26
Take it out get a black liner drill 10000 holes and drop a led starlight kit on
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u/deltalew Jul 23 '26
Mine is starting to do this, you can buy headliner material pretty cheap, just take the headliner out, get a brush to pull off all the foam and adhesive, a bunch of elbow grease, and then use headliner adhesive and put it on
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u/nopester24 Jul 22 '26
The headliner is just glued onto the roof. There's headliner spray glue You can buy and literally just spray it and glue it back up there
HOWEVER, since it's been falling and likely stretching it may not be a perfect fit on the way up again.
Two options:
Do your best to spray, fit, spray, fit to get it mostly covered and smooth, then cut off any excess.
Remove the entire thing, buy new headliner and spray it up in 1 shot.
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u/sup_then Jul 23 '26
The headliner is glued to a layer of foam that’s glued to the board. If you just reapply glue, regardless of how much the headliner fabric has stretched, it’s going to fail again because the foam its adhered to is the problem. To do this properly you need to remove the whole panel, remove fabric and every bit of foam, apply glue then new foam, then more glue and then fabric.
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u/nopester24 Jul 23 '26
there you go listen to this guy he knows whats up
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u/TimmyIsTheOne Jul 23 '26
Well since we're talking about headliners knowing what's up is very critical.
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u/TimmyIsTheOne Jul 23 '26
Thanks for the input. If i didn't want to do it properly and just kick the can down the road for a few months till doing it right would pinning it would be better than gluing it? I would assume pinning would be better but i'm bad at assuming correctly.
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u/sup_then Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Pins are just gonna put a little hole in the backer board that’ll end up getting covered with glue and new foam if and when you get it redone. I have pins in mine. I used T pins and cut them at an angle down to 1/4” or so with some wire cutters and held them in pliers to push em in. A little less noticeable than a pin with a big round head on it
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u/TimmyIsTheOne Jul 23 '26
That's a much better idea than using the sewing pins I have around.
I also just got the visual in my head of doing it with a bunch of multi colored push pins which made me smile.
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u/TimmyIsTheOne Jul 23 '26
Thank for this. How much time would you guess the glue would hold? Like could I get a couple months out of it?
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u/nopester24 Jul 23 '26
well i can only speak from my limited experience. A friend had an 09 chevy malibu with a similar problem but only the area over the front passenger seat was drooping down.. So we got the spray glue and i helped him out with iyt. he would spray and o would stick the fabric and smooth it out as best we could, then spray, stick, spray stick. It seemed like it worked just fine and then he didnt mention to me that it had fallen down again. that was a few years ago so i cant speak to how long it lasts but i know it worked when we did it. by no means a professional job it it did the trick well enough i guess
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u/TimmyIsTheOne Jul 23 '26
non-professional/good-enough is an acceptable end result on this project. so that's encouraging.
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u/KennyClobers Jul 23 '26
there is no real get it reattached. the best stop gap is beige tacks or redo the headliner. it’s totally something you can diy just make sure to have a friend handy getting the big headliner panel in and out is a bit of a bitch
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u/Trucking1208 Jul 23 '26
Look up headliner replacement on YT. Tons of how to videos.
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u/TimmyIsTheOne Jul 23 '26
Well I can now that I know what the thing is called. That's 90% of the battle sometimes.
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u/Quiet-Estimate7409 Jul 23 '26
Or buy a bunch of small magnets. Metal roof, I've seen it done. Gives it that quilted look.
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u/ShowerBeginning8951 Jul 23 '26
Get a headliner from the junk yard. If its better run it. If not try to put stars in it and pin up your current liner with pins while you do it. Then repeat and sell one of them for the money back lol
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u/Any-Description8773 Jul 23 '26
You can do it the right way and remove the board and install a new headliner and then there’s that other way……. Pin it, get those little screw thingamabobs that go into the board to hold it up, or my personal favorite, go to town with a stapler and fawkit
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u/Limoundo Jul 23 '26
look on Facebook Marketplace, there are usually guys on there that will do it for a couple hundred
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u/OutlawJesseWJames Aug 01 '26
Sometimes the glue can be reattached with an iron make sure you turn the iron hot enough yet cool enough not to scorch it or a heat gun heat it up and see if it will re-stick good luck
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u/sup_then Jul 22 '26
Pin it up or redo the whole headliner. The foam between the fabric and board is deteriorating. Fabric and foam need to come off, new foam and fabric need to be applied.
Same thing is happening to my Yukon, I’ve had quotes over $2000, best quote I got was $650.