For those of you who are without a Bentley Manual and need a step

by step on removing your interior trim,

Frank (D2Beetle) did a superior how to for you... CLICK HERE

Here's the headliner panel with old fabric removed and the foam stripped off. I used a scotch brite pot and pan pad to remove all of that groady foam. You'll find the purpose of the board (right) in a moment. And of course, this can't be done without contact cement. Oh yeah, the fabric you see in the bottom right corner is black tweed which I purchased at a local upholstery shop.

The amount of Tweed purchased was 1.5 yards. There was a little excess but better to have enough than to find out your short on fabric

 

Please go with black suede, it would look sick!

 

nah, Al has a whole tweed "thing" goin' on.

 

and, Al, tell me you are not staying up all night doing this like last Dave and Busters GTG...

Oh, and black headliners ROCK!!! I know someone with a black headliner...

 

and, Al, tell me you are not staying up all night doing this like last Dave and Busters GTG...

Oh, and black headliners ROCK!!! I know someone with a black headliner...

No my man the job is already done. I'll be sleeping good as soon as i'm through posting this.

And you're oh so right. I'm diggin the tweed And it's pretty sick too.

Now let us continue....

This next pic is the panel underneath that board from the previous pic, which was constructed into "Scarab's little helper"-patent pending:lol:. It's basically a glorified elongated sawhorse. The 3 mini clamps hold the excess fabric out of my way, so I can take my time and work the tweed into the contours.

 

Pic #1 is just me mocking the fabric up on the panel, less the glue of course. Just mapping out the way to apply the fabric. By the way, I started from the back of the panel and worked my way to the front.

Pic #2: the panel on top of a paper blotter. Val would kill me twice if I got goo and other stuff on the new carpet. The bear wanted to strike a pose, so there you are.

 

Pic #1: Here's the panel with a coat of contact cement. the panel was very porous, so a couple of coats were applied.

NOTE: I divided the applcation of fabric into 2 parts- rear to the middle section right about where the grab bar/eyeglass holder begins. When I started on the latter part, I applied more cement. Like I said, the panel was very porous. I applied the contact cement to the panel only.

ADDENDUM: In reference to the contact cement. Now usually you have to wait until the glue is close to dry before appying it to the desired surface. Allthough the glue is pretty much permanent, I wanted a sho nuff, sho nuff bond. I let the glue go to a semi-wet/tacky consistancy then applied the fabric. I wanted to be careful, so as not to allow the glue to seep through the tweed. It was about a 10 minute dry time.

Pic #2 is the tweed applied to the glued panel. Notice my special tools??? The spoons worked great for smoothing out any bumps and working the tweed around the contours. And yes, the bumps you see were smoothed out, so what you see is no longer there.

 

Dang mang! Don't leave me hanging! I love a good story with pics!

 

Pics 1 & 2 are the panel with the new fabric ready to be trimmed

Pic 3 is said panel, trimmed and ready to reinstall.

 

The final pics. This saga has come to an end. It was a pretty cool project- one which I enjoyed a great deal.

Big props to my man 'Gate/Rob for pursuading me to go with the black. Good call man. The jurys still out on if i'm gonna paint the grab handle/eyeglass holder. I'll ride in Cup for a bit and make a decision soon there after.

If you come up to the Dave & Busters meet tomorrow (8.26.06) you can see if for yourselves.

More to come on the interior. What will it be???? Stay tuned.

 

sweetness! looks awesome al!

 

That's really amazing job you did, I'm really loving the look! Are you thinking of painting pieces like handles, dome light surroundes, and visors black or just leave them like that?

What the heck is tweed anyway?

 

Beautiful job! :goodjob:I'm in awe :bowdown:
Tell me, was it hard to get that panel out? Did you have to remove other trim panels to get to it?
That's exactly what Ladybug wants, only in red leather :crazy:
Go figure...:dunno:

 

Dang mang, you done did a booliscuis job on that, you did.

You is de snizzle de izzle when it come to headliners, mang.

(In other words, fine job! Splendid! )

 

:jawdrop: WOW! Looks like that urange grank paid off!

 

very nice!
:thup:

 

I hope a mod moves this over to the How-To forums, since so many Beetls have or will have this issues. Ours included.

 

:jawdrop: Al, that looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!! You amaze me with your skill & creativity. Guess what new mod just went on my 'to do' list?

The Cup is wicked hot Al! :bowdown:

 

The pics don't do it justice! I saw it today. Looks awesome, Al.

 

It occurs to me that it wouldnt be all that hard to do a VW logo in the headliner. Just have a sign shop cut a vw logo out of 3/8" thick plastic, position it where you want, then work the headliner material in over it...

 

:jawdrop: Al, that looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!! You amaze me with your skill & creativity. Guess what new mod just went on my 'to do' list?

The Cup is wicked hot Al! :bowdown:

Hmmmmmm, I wonder??

sweetness! looks awesome al!

Thanks It was a fun project. I wish you could see it in person. Beefs baby!!

 

It occurs to me that it wouldnt be all that hard to do a VW logo in the headliner. Just have a sign shop cut a vw logo out of 3/8" thick plastic, position it where you want, then work the headliner material in over it...

Dude!!! I was so thinking of doing that. It was that or doing the nb icon. The show "trucks" on Spike did an awesome how-to on just that very thing. I said "hmm, I can do that". But after a little thought, I opted out. 'Sides I have another idea for the use of our beloved VW logo. I'll keep you posted.

 

Beautiful job! :goodjob:I'm in awe :bowdown:
Tell me, was it hard to get that panel out? Did you have to remove other trim panels to get to it?
That's exactly what Ladybug wants, only in red leather :crazy:
Go figure...:dunno:

Thanks for the love. Removing the panel wasn't hard at all. I used my Bentley Manual as a reference. Basically you're removing everything attached to the headliner along with pulling the rubber door seal off (just the top portion), the B-pillar trim at the top and the rear trim @ the back of the headliner. once that's done, just slowly coax the panel out via the rear hatch.

Of course keep in mind that you'll be disconnecting the dome lights, visor vanity lights as well. As for me, I'm Adrian Monk with keeping my parts together, so I used a baggie for each part removed and labeled it i.e. driver's side visor sunglass holder in one baggie with the accompaning screws.

But yes, all in all it was an easy removal. The re-install was just as easy.

Oh, I almost forgot.... The red leather would be sick. Now keep in mind, you're dealing with a few contours, so your leather will need to be very pliable and probaly thin so you can work it 'round the curves, dips and bumps. Naugahyde or some other imitation leather might be the more worker-friendly option. I'm sure you can get it done from an upholstery shop, but it might cost ya

 

That's really amazing job you did, I'm really loving the look! Are you thinking of painting pieces like handles, dome light surroundes, and visors black or just leave them like that?

What the heck is tweed anyway?

Thanks for the props:bigthumb:. It's sick, yeah? Ya know, i'm really leaning to painting at least the grab bar and the sunglass holder and leaving everything else as is. The jury's still out on that. What do you think?? There's another thing that i'm doing to Cup's interior (you'll soon find out) that will help me determine my decision. I think i'll wait until that is done.

And oh, yeah...The tweed thing. Well mi amigo, the fabric was first suggested from the upholstery shop (davis seat covers) that I purchased it from. My first purchase was for the armrest cards- ya know that area by the door pull handles where the pleather detached itself from the panel.

Anyhoo, the fabric dude told me that the tweed would mold around the contours better than using pleather again- So I went for it. After thinking about it, tweed is a retro throwback fabric from the 60's and 70's, so it's very fitting to do this project in tweed. I love the sound of the name too...TWEED. If you'ld like a sample, I have some left over and I'll be glad to send some your way.

 

I hope a mod moves this over to the How-To forums, since so many Beetls have or will have this issues. Ours included.

Shoot dang fire!!!! DAGNABBIT!!!! Ya see, I'm thinking when posting this thread, i'm doing it on the right location. After all it is a "styling mod"- a departure from the OEM replacement. However, you bring up an excellent point. This is a good how-to. DAGNABBIT!! C'mon mods, help a brother out and do what it is you do.