So far you have been the Mac Daddy of the DIY's.
Looking forward to this one.

 

Thanks, I like doing them and this one was easier than I thought; 3 hours and that is because I was taking pictures.

Once Cowboy is finished (by the July 4th weekend hopefully) I'll be finishing up the Blend Door DIY.

 

Step One: [VHL DIY 001 thru 003] Remove the drivers/passenger side front pillars. Pull the top corner down and out while sliding your hand down; this will take some effort, so be careful not to use to much force. It is not necessary to disconnect any wires, just let it lay across the dash.

 

Step Two: [VHL DIY 005 thru 013] Remove the Sun-visors and their associated lights. Be careful when prying any plastic as it will damage easily. You will make some prying marks, but you want to do what you can to minimize it.

The sun-visor lights have metal clips on each end, push the clip in with your screw driver 005-1, while prying down to get the light out; be careful not to get you screw driver under the headliner metal trim. This metal trim is visible in the pic; if you try to pry the light out with your screw driver under the metal trim you will break the headliner. For those that have rear seat dome lights 005-A, they are the same light and are removed in the same manner as the front lights.

Once you have the light out there are two little levers 006-1 (not visible in the pic) at the top of the connector; squeeze in on both and pull the connector to disconnect.

The sun-visors have a single screw, remove the cover plate 008-1 and remove the phillips head screw 009-1. Now to get the sun-visor out requires some tricky pulling as noted by the arrow in 010-1, you must pull down while the opposite end of the visor goes up, but there are two little prongs 010-2 on the end your pulling down, so be careful how much force you use to pull down or you will damage the headliner.

For '99 models and up the sun visor wiring has been changed; there is a metal clip [010A] attached the sun visor arm; I am uncertain as to what its use is, just be sure not to damage it.

To disconnect the mirror light pull the little tab 011-1 in the direction of the arrow.

Now the sun-visor clips were the most difficult to get because the plastic clips were the stiffest 012; once you pry the cover off there are only two phillips screws to remove 013-1 and 013-2.

 

Step Three: [VHL DIY 014 thru 017] Remove the mirror; '99 NB's and up have a temp/clock/mirror display. Places your fingers on the corner and pull down the cover as noted in pics 014 and 015A.

For all model years; to disconnect the mirror, place a screw driver as noted in pic 015 and with a push in and twist motion the mirror will pop free. Be careful and do not drop the mirror, you would not want to break it.

For '99 NB's and up there will be a wiring connector to disconnect [pic 15B]; squeeze in on the levers and pull the connector free. Also it is not necessary to remove the storage compartment, you only need to remove the two screws as noted in pic 016A. Be sure and do not loose these screws as they are an exact fit; DO NOT use longer screws or you will poke holes in your roof.

For '98 NB's only; the clock has a plastic clip at either end of the clock 016, be careful when prying or you will break a clip and I did dang IT! The connector for the '98 clock does not have any connector clips simply pull it out to disconnect 017.

 

Step Four: [VHL DIY 018 thru 023] Remove the rear cover trim 018. Removing this piece of trim was tough as this piece helps to hold the headliner up. Be careful as there are two really small plastic clips on the corners and if you break them the corners will sag. From the drivers side corner 019, pull down while sliding your hand to the left. The really little plastic clip (020-1) noted earlier is right behind my finger as noted by the green arrow. Now there are 5 large metal clips that make pulling this trim down tough. The metal clips may come out of the plastic trim instead of coming out of the roof brace 022. So you will need some needle nose pliers to pull the clips out of the roof brace and reinstall them in to the trim 023; they clips slide in to the clip bracket.

 

Step Five: [VHL DIY 025 thru 032] Remove the upper rear window and seat belt and column trim. It is possible to get the headliner out at this point but I do not recommend it as you have to bend the seat belt column trim to much, which damages it; I know I speak from experience. :banghead:

To get the upper rear window down remove the lone screw noted in pic 025; however you should wait until you get the seat belt trim disconnected or you will bend the plastic to far. To remove the hand strap, pop off the cover plate 026 and remove the one screw 027 and the three remaining screws noted in pic 028. Next flip up the seat belt cover plate and remove the seat belt bracket bolt noted in pic 032. Now remove the seat belt column trim and the upper window trim.

For model years '99 and up you have a sun glasses case on the drivers side [033 and 034] and a grab handle [035] on the passenger side; each is held on by two screws; do not loose the screws. Using the wrong longer screws will result in putting holes in your roof. To access the screws you must open the plastic cover/cap; place the tip of a small screw driver in the small hole [033] pry toward you and it will pop open.

 

Step Six: [VHL DIY 033 thru 034] Remove the head liner. It is not necessary to remove the door trim, unless you want to. You will need to open the trunk and let the rear seat down in order to get the headliner out. I recommend that you get someone to assist you in getting the head liner out; it is not heavy, just bulky.

From the drivers side front work your fingers into the door trim, which is rubber and pliable, pull down slightly, then with your other hand GENTLY pull down the front corner of the head liner. Work your hands GENTLY toward the rear of the car, while pulling down.

You Are Done!!!

Follow these instructions in reverse to reinstall.

 

Here is what the headliner looks like when you get it out.

 

(waits for the rest of it... )

Great DIY so far!

 

Frank your DIY's put the Haynes Manual to shame! Job well done. Waiting for the rest of the story

 

Waiting with bated breath!

 

Unfortunately it is raining :rant2: today so everyone will just have to wait for the sequel... as my sons '99 is doing the same thing.

 

Well I had an interesting quandary develop yesterday. I washed the replacement headliner fabric and noted how heavy it was wet; as its cleaning instructions are lay flat to dry.

So after the new headliner dried I weighed them both, old and new; the old one came in at five ounces and the new one at two pounds ten ounces. Now here is what I know...

1) The old foam weight is estimated to be about 5-8 ounces; estimated total weight of 10-13 ounces.
2) The amount of fabric that will be trimmed from the new one will probably be less than a pound.

... so will the thin fiberglass backing support 34 to 42 ounces?

For those of you who have changed your headliners out, was your new headliner heavier than the old one?

 

For those of you who have changed your headliners out, was your new headliner heavier than the old one?

I believe Cup's headliner was heavier, only because I was using upholstery-grade tweed vs. headliner fabric.

 

yay headliner!

 

Here are the pics during the old foam scrap off; [VHL DIY 035] shows the halfway point and it seems that the headliner was getting soft around the edges from the water, so be sure that you do not soak or submerse the headliner to get the old foam off. I placed cardboard under the headliner, that way I could spin/move it around without fear of damaging it. [VHL DIY 036] is a foam-less headliner.

Also I wanted to get an idea of what the new fabric will look like so I draped it over the headliner and I notice that my fabric has a grain, because from one angle it really looks yellow [VHL DIY 037] and from the other (opposite side) a pale yellow [VHL DIY 038]. So when I install it, I needs to be yellow from the front view and a pale yellow from the rear view.

 

Hmm. Interesting. I wouldn't have gone anywhere near the backing with water after seeing what it was made of.

We scraped the bulk of the foamy stuff off with putty knives.. 3" for the large areas, 1" for the smaller, curvier bits. (keep a few rags around to clean the knife off frequently!) Then we went over it with steel wool to get the rest of the adhesive residue off. worked amazingly well, wasn't too messy, and went really quick!


Love the velvet fabric, btw! I looked around for some too, but couldn't quite find the color I wanted. The stuff I ended up looks more suede-y.

 

I used very little water and only after the old foam had been scrapped off. I'm not certain what the material actually is; do you know?

Now that you mention it, it probably would not hurt to go over it with a 180 grit sanding sponge.

Thanks, it was rather funny how I picked it; the wife and I went to a fabric store and I queried one of the employees about fabric for my purpose and she said, while pointing, "... that fabric is at the far opposite end of the store". I turned and look down the long corridor and it was kinda hanging out from the shelf. I knew then I found what I wanted!

 

Yesterday I completed what surface prep I wanted to do and glued my new headliner fabric to the headliner.

Well I used the 180 grit sanding sponge and the only difference that I noticed is that the surface was smoother; not sure if that is benefit or not.

Well I got the glue sprayed on and per the instructions you are supposed to use 2-3 overlapping coats, going vertical, then horizontal, back to vertical, etc... Well I even went diagonally, as I wanted to be sure I had an even coat. I was able to get two coats out of the one can. Pic 042 shows the first coat and the pic 043 show the second coat.

Now I was concerned about the "grain" of the fabric, as I wanted the darker yellow to show from the front and the lighter yellow to show from the back; which meant that it was going to be a tight fit, as I barley had enough fabric to do it that way. Had I choose a left/right grain there would have been fabric to spare all around.

So pic 044 shows the rear view and pic 045 shows the front view, with pic 046 showing you just how close I was on the fabric; aside from this anomaly all went well.

HERE IS HOW I DID IT: First I sprayed the entire headliner insert; two coats. The glue instructions said to let each coat get tacky; that means waiting five minutes between each coat and the last coat. Then with the help of my son, starting from the rear I clipped the head liner fabric on the three rear tabs. My son held the fabric up as I worked my way slowly toward the front, going side to side and the only tool that I used was the "spoon". Because I went real slow, I did have to add some more glue to the front edged when I finally got there.

I let dry over night as the glue instructions say that it fully cures in 24 hours.

So it is time to trim the excess fabric and reinstall, more pics to follow...

 

Got it all trimmed and re-inastlled! :banana: :guitar:

And here are the pics...

[VHL DIY 047] Trimming tools.
[VHL DIY 048 and 049] What it looked like after I trimmed it.
[VHL DIY 050] getting it back in the car.
[VHL DIY 051 thru 054] What it looks like re-installed!

I did have some trouble with the drivers side trim, it finally fell down completely, so I used carpet tape to hold it up for picture taking, now I'm on my way to Autozone to get some automotive trim glue so I can glue it back up!

Well now that it is up, its like... "Cool! Not really what I expected, but I like it!"

 

Wow wow wow wow whoooooo!!!

Friggin sweet job you've done sir Frank:bigthumb: That yellow is a sweet contrast to the tan. Job well done my man. Grab you a cold drink and relish the grand achievement!

BTW, VHL DIY 046 is a sweet pic. It looks like Valdez is swimming in a yellow ocean:bigthumb:

 

Celebrating... took it for a spin and wow, it is brighter inside now, OMG, I'm gonna need window tint now!

Time for grilled burgers, dogs, chips and Saint Pauly's Girl beer!

 

Celebrating... took it for a spin and wow, it is brighter inside now, OMG, I gonna need window tint now!

Time for grilled burgers, dogs, chips and Saint Pauly's Girl beer!

That sounds like a good celebration Frank! Well deserved my friend!

I'm not really much of a drinker anymore- very special occasions I will. But today i have a taste for a big juicy steak or a nice big burger and a good robust beer to wash it down. Guess for now until that very special moment, a root beer will have to do- unless a certain person named Frank invites me up for some burgers and such.

And yes!!! Tint is definitely needed- always a great compliment for a yellow beetle!

 

this is INCREDIBLE...... I really need to work up the courage to do this.......... I'm REALLY nervous.

 

Thanks, it actually is not a difficult as you think.

I'll be doing my sons headliner when ever the heat index drops below a 100 for a few days.

 

:bowdown: :goodjob: :bowdown:

 

I am looking for blue and green tie die so that we can do mine when it gets cooler.. I am not going to do it until I find the fabric I fall head over heals in love with.. Lol..

 

Any ideas where I can get blue and green tie die fabric at? lol

 

I just googled "blue green tie dye fabric" and browsed through the shopping results.. brought up some interesting stuff... but most of the patterns I liked were all 44" wide and probably craft-fabric weight, which isn't wide enough, or heavy enough. hehe. me being me, I'd probably find some plain white fabric and make my own. :lol:

 

Nice job, I am getting ready to do my 1999. Now imhave a great guide to use. Very nice job!