replacing a headliner

[jharvey1025]

Hi, I am new to the forum, we just went and looked at a motorhome today which we are very excited about. It will be our 1st motorhome! it's a 1990 Fleetwood PaceArrow 32ft. the headliner in falling down in spots. Just wondering if there is any place to get the foam backed vinyl or if there is any other material that is a good substitue

[jonbushsr]

X3

I removed all of the sagging headliner in my rig by first removing some of the cabinets and by cutting around the ones that I could not remove and re-trimming with oak shoe moulding.

Having an older coach involves maintenance and reconstruction until completely upgraded. If you do the work yourself, there is minimal cost but many labor hours.

Jon
92 Ultrastar
5.9 Cummins, MC16-FD Oshkosh

olfarmer wrote:

Alphamonk wrote:
Don't let the negative attitudes sway you. You ask for opinions on repairing the headline - not the Rv on total. I did my headliner and I did remove all of the cabinets. Never again. Some of the screws came down from the ceiling junctions at the walls. I had to use a sawall to cut them off flush. I too believe you can trim the headliner right up close to the cabinets and install a new headliner. I bought mine at a auto interior trim shop. I think it cost about $9.00 per foot it was wider than the rv, so it was just a per linear foot cost. It was identical to the stuff I removed. That type of material is very prone to thermal damage.

I agree! I did our 87 Itasca, it had nothing to do with water leaks, it was the foam padding deteriorating. I did not take down the cabinets, I cut along the front of them with a box knife. the part in the cabinets was not falling down. I got a carpet type material from Winnebago that they used in about 2001. It was a light material about 1/4" thick and worked great. the worst part was scraping down the old glue etc. I used contact cement to put up the new material. It was still good when we traded off the MH.

[olfarmer]

Alphamonk wrote:
Don't let the negative attitudes sway you. You ask for opinions on repairing the headline - not the Rv on total. I did my headliner and I did remove all of the cabinets. Never again. Some of the screws came down from the ceiling junctions at the walls. I had to use a sawall to cut them off flush. I too believe you can trim the headliner right up close to the cabinets and install a new headliner. I bought mine at a auto interior trim shop. I think it cost about $9.00 per foot it was wider than the rv, so it was just a per linear foot cost. It was identical to the stuff I removed. That type of material is very prone to thermal damage.

I agree! I did our 87 Itasca, it had nothing to do with water leaks, it was the foam padding deteriorating. I did not take down the cabinets, I cut along the front of them with a box knife. the part in the cabinets was not falling down. I got a carpet type material from Winnebago that they used in about 2001. It was a light material about 1/4" thick and worked great. the worst part was scraping down the old glue etc. I used contact cement to put up the new material. It was still good when we traded off the MH.

[Alphamonk]

Don't let the negative attitudes sway you. You ask for opinions on repairing the headline - not the Rv on total. I did my headliner and I did remove all of the cabinets. Never again. Some of the screws came down from the ceiling junctions at the walls. I had to use a sawall to cut them off flush. I too believe you can trim the headliner right up close to the cabinets and install a new headliner. I bought mine at a auto interior trim shop. I think it cost about $9.00 per foot it was wider than the rv, so it was just a per linear foot cost. It was identical to the stuff I removed. That type of material is very prone to thermal damage.

[Deano56]

mine has the carpet type liner, has some loose spots, going to try slitting it and spraying 3M in there and pushing it back up, otherwise it's gettin tore out

[mike_brez]

This guy did one heck of a job with just a stapler. Looks like new.

[Jerseybigfoot]

reworked the headliner in my 1990 HR an it was a big job but did not have to take the cabinets down as they were attached to the walls well and with limited screws to the roof. The HR vinyl ceiling was glued to ridged foam panels and seamed every 4 or so feet. scrapped the old panels and made up new half panels with fabric and foam headliner material. I was able to insert the half panels from the center towards the cabinet and had an additional seam down the center of the coach.

[DSDP_Don]

I like the stuff "Mike Breeze" posted. If you're handy, you could do the repair. Since the headliner is installed before the cabinets are installed, you could carefully cut the old liner down with a razor, right along the edges of the cabinet. Clean the ceiling and then install the new carpet posted above. Install it just like carpet, start at the center of the ceiling and then work outward and trim edges with a razor to fit right up against the cabinets.

[mike_brez]

Headliner

[jharvey1025]

We did check for moisture and dampness under the headliner and it was completely dry. So I think it's just the glue from the headliner. Thank you for all the responses! We decdied to move forward with purchasing it!

[Fishbreath]

As an answer to your question, you can find quality headliner material at just about any upholstery shop. The will have swatches with different foam thicknesses and colored materials.
Replacement does require quite a bit of prep work, but it can be done. Be sure to use a high temperature spray adhesive like 3M -90, otherwise it will fail.

Good luck with your project
Bill

[Dachristianman]

The material in my 92 is/was a very heavy vinyl material with a foam backing, not the light material stuff used in automotive applications. Because it was so heavy, I couldn't get it to stick back up on the ceiling.

The OP is dealing with a 1990, so I'd guess the foam has just seen better days.

Tom

[mikegt4]

Before dismissing the coach completely check the headliner to determine the reason for the failure. If you see water stains then you have a water leak. If the foam in the headliner has become a crumbly powder them the headliner material has failed, not an uncommon event.

This is assuming that the headliner itself is similar to an automobile headliner. Most auto headliners consist of the exposed vinyl or woven fabric glued to a foam backing. The foam degrades over time which lets the liner material sag/hang down. In a car the headliner itself is glued to a molded cardboard piece that gives it it's shape. To replace the headliner you have to remove the molded cardboard piece and scrape of the old headliner and glue on new material. Headliner material usually comes off of a roll about 54" wide and is available at automotive upholstery supply shops and many sewing supply stores.

[Dachristianman]

I dealt with this on my 92 Winnebago. I tried taking down the material and stripping off the foam and gluing it back up, but that didn't work. The material is too heavy and once it begins curling and falling down, it doesn't like to go back to a factory-flat form, regardless of how much glue I used. I ended up just stripping the ceiling and using ceiling paint. It came out very nice....although the picture in the above pose looks pretty cool.

And regardless of the quality of material, that foam deteriorates with time and heat. It happens on cars and everything else. It's not always a defect or water intrusion that causes it to start falling down...just time. Good luck if you decide to go with it.

Tom

[Bumpyroad]

Tinstar wrote:
Let me try that again: .

not bad, perhaps a little "noisy"? but it would have to be awfully cheap and way below low wholesale to interest me. a terrible unit for a first RV owner.
bumpy