The headliner in my m3 is sagging, and I can’t drive the car anymore without getting covered in that orange foam stuff that BMW used back in the 90s. I’ve tried re upholstering headliners in past cars, and it’s never turned out well, so I started looking for other options and came across flocking. It looks like all I’d have to do is pull the headliner, scrape the rest of the adhesive foam off of it, seal it with paint or something, then apply the flocking fibers, and I’d have something that looks decent for $50
What do you guys think? I’ve seen it used on dashboards and other interior trim in the past, but I have no firsthand experience with the stuff. How does it hold up? Is there another alternative that I’m overlooking?
It’s going to be flocking hot in the summer, flocking noisy all the time, and your head is going to flocking hurt like hell if you ever roll it.
I think he means flocking the Styrofoam backer, not the steel roof.
I think the styrofoam backer is what deteriorates in the 90s BMW headliners.
the headliner backer on a 90's BMW is a piece of glassfibre with foam and fabric glued to it. If you wanted to flock it, you will have to not only strip the foam, but fill it and smooth it out as the glass was very loosely applied via a chopper gun and was never meant to be seen on it's own.
Yeah sorry, I guess I was unclear. I’d be doing this to the backer, not the actual metal roof of the car.
In my case, the backer is in great shape, but the foam and adhesive have completely deteriorated. My thought process was that a few layers of paint and adhesive on the backer would even out most of the ridges, and the texture of the flock fiber would take care of the rest.
It was just a thought, but I think you guys have convinced me to just pay for a professional to reupholster it
How bad would it really be to flock or do some coating on the metal roof? I feel like flocking would be tricky just due to gravity, but I'll likely be pulling the headliner on one of my project cars that will remain street legal. Might just make sure the metal roof has paint to match the interior or something.
Besides the prepwork I can't see why it would be an issue to flock the headliner backer. You can probably put some jute (or whatever it's modern equivalent is) behind it to knock down some noise while you're at it.
I've redone some foam backed headliners in the past as well. You're right, it never seems to turn out very well.
RX Reven' said:
It’s going to be flocking hot in the summer, flocking noisy all the time, and your head is going to flocking hurt like hell if you ever roll it.
I think this is mostly just supposed to be a joke - not necessarily saying it is a bad idea?
I can't see any reason not to do it, except that it might be easier to just re-uphoster the backer with thin foam and fabric of your choice yourself. The headliner is coming down in my xjr as well, and I think it'd be really cool to get some plaid or other patterned fabric and re-do it.
There's a lot of texture in flocking that would hold onto dust and dirt and be impossible to clean.
Have you considered sewing pleats into vinyl and mechanically fastening them to the backer? Essentially attach the front or rear and every 8-12" or so having a flap on the back of the vinyl that can be stapled or sewn on with fishing line and covered with the next panel as you work across. Finished it would look like a regular old school bow supported headliner but you could do all the work on the outside of the car instead of inside.
