E30 Zone

Hey guys,

My headlinging in my Touring is sagging epically and so i'm going to order some leather to retrim it... but before i order leather and dismantle... does anyone know the width of a headliner and the length once removed... i'd measure mine but with it currently fitted i'd rather take it out, fit the leather and refit same day as dont have the room to have a headliner lying around.

41+78,in inches!

I would order at 48 by 84 as a minimum.....

thank you very much good sir

very much appreciated.

Leather? Should look very plush! You sure it has enough stretch though?

If so, I'd almost consider redoing mine!

Quick hijack...


Whats underneath the lining? My touring also has sagged, although, the previous owner thought board pins should be the tick so I have lots of gold pins through my lining...


Might take it all off and reline it all... I'm guessing I can use spray adesive to get it to stick up, but whats under the lining to stick it to?

The liner is an inverted fibreboard tray,standard covering is a plastic type fabric with a foam backing.

What happens is that the foam degrades over time and crumbles,thus allowing the fabric to droop.

Only proper,long term fix is to remove the liner and completely clean it of all glue and foam debris and start again.

Short term 'fix' is either stapling or similar or attempting to squirt an aerosol trim glue between the fabric and the liner,first just does not look right and could just possibly cause injury and the second will not last very long.

Don't even bother with the short term fix option... I tried for so long to glue it back up, but without removing the foam residue there's no chance. Just created loads of glue patches which showed through the fabric.

Taking it off and relining it is not as hard a job as some make it seem (but I don't have a sunroof)... just make sure the material stretches and start from the centre. There's a really good thread where someone went through how they did theirs...

Well I might just tackle this one unguided and do a full refurb on it... I'm pretty good at diy, considering i'm self employed and previously ran my own property maintenance company, im sure I can redo the lining with ease.

Need to replace the engine first though!

Covering the headlining is pretty straight forward (I also have no sunroof), the worst part is cleaning off all the old sticky crap. Removing and replacing the headlining is a 2 man job.

Jim320i wrote:Well I might just tackle this one unguided and do a full refurb on it... I'm pretty good at diy, considering i'm self employed and previously ran my own property maintenance company, im sure I can redo the lining with ease.

Need to replace the engine first though!

I have a spare,tatty,liner in my garage that you can have to practice with...

Just needs collecting!

the way i usually do a headlining trim is as said, start front centre working way out but i use some heat too to give the leather a bit more stretch and glue dries tacky quicker... then once i have it all trimmed and stuck in place, i use super glue around the edges, soaking it over until it hardens and then holds the edges in place... with that extra bit of stretching you did with the bit of heat, it holds in place better and won't sag.

i've also decided to use a maroon/burgundy leather for the headliner and will also be doing all pillar plastics the same updates shortly

Plan on redoing mine due to the same problems. Luckily i have spare leatherette in my loft from when I used to sell interior retrim kits for the 300zx on ebay